In another strange turn of 2024 events, former Republican Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz threw their support behind current Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. This peculiar coalition created a host of reactions, including a questionable tweet from Meghan McCain.
Cheney’s curious endorsement of Harris arrived with a somewhat ironic warning about former President Trump, given his noted challenges with ethics and morality: “In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump. He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”
Finding any progressives’ positive response to this unprecedented endorsement comical, Meghan McCain, daughter of the late Senator John McCain, wanted to throw some ice water on their campfire. “Seeing all of these extreme progressives suddenly become Dick Cheney fans is objectively hilarious,” she tweeted, which she believed pointed toward some hypocrisy among left-leaning folks. However, the glib tweet didn’t quite bang through like it did in her mind, as users from across the political spectrum called out the flaws in her logic.
One particularly poignant response came from a parody X/Twitter account of a fictional GOP congressman: “I agree, it’s kind of like watching people who watch a candidate trash their family repeatedly and continuously and then buddy up to him in the hopes of salvaging some kind of political future.” The barb is a paper-thinly veiled reference to McCain’s own problematic relationship with Trump, who has repeatedly insulted her late father.
Most others were not in it for the troll. Many quickly pointed out that appreciating Cheney’s stance against Trump does not equate to becoming a “fan” of the former vice president. As one user put it, “It’s not about being a fan of Dick Cheney @MeghanMcCain, it’s about being a fan of Democracy and appreciating those who make that a priority.”
Bill Kristol, a longtime conservative turned never-Trumper, offered an informative take that deserves some brief reflection: “Seeing Dick Cheney endorse a Democrat against Trump, and seeing progressives express appreciation for Dick Cheney…is the way forward. Country first.”
Others were harsher:
This unusual alliance between establishment Republicans like Cheney or Kristol and the Democratic Party highlights an interesting, if temporary, trending point. As Trump’s politics continue pushing the Republican Party further to the far right, more traditional (and still wildly problematic) Reagan-style conservatives are choosing to align themselves with centrist Democrats like Harris, particularly on issues related to stable and rational democratic norms and institutions.
However, this realignment is not without its detractors. Some progressives on X view the embrace of figures like Cheney with a heap of skepticism, given his (at best) controversial legacy, particularly regarding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and “enhanced interrogation techniques.” But it has to be remembered that Harris isn’t courting endorsements from the likes of Cheney or Kristol, which means these figures see her as a rocky pathway into wrenching the formerly mainline version of Conservatism from the clutches of Trumpism. This said, it could suggest that the Democratic Party has already moved far enough to the right to provide a safe overlap for center-right conservatives, to the chagrin of progressives.
The endorsement of Harris—by a figure as violently polarizing as Dick Cheney—details the unusual alliances forming in opposition to Trump. While Meghan McCain’s nonsense attempt to call out perceived hypocrisy may have backfired, her tweet inadvertently highlighted the complex and often contradictory nature of these strange political bedfellows.
Published: Sep 10, 2024 01:05 pm