“We’re going to a retreat!” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy victoriously exclaimed as he rallied representatives to support Liz Cheney against group of pesky conservatives three months ago.  Two-thirds of Republican representatives dutifully followed the Leader.  I didn’t, having just returned from Wyoming where the Washington Post declared my Pro-Trump rally to be a “voter rebellion” against the Congresswoman, drawing nearly a thousand America First patriots.

I’m not much for retreats.

It often feels like the Republican Party in Congress is in a constant state of retreat. I prefer advances, like those urgently needed on immigration and Big Tech monopoly busting.

Those who attended the retreat last week saw the continuation of a vaudeville routine between McCarthy and Cheney that has grown tiresome. Liz trashes Trump, repeating the talking points of Nancy Pelosi. Kevin sheepishly shrugs and sighs. Republicans slip farther from a real chance to grasp a majority, an electoral strategy, a vision, or a message.

Now, a vast majority of my Republican Congressional colleagues have arrived at the conclusion obvious to me as I stood on the steps of the state capitol in Cheyanne: Liz Cheney is not a leader in the modern Republican Party.

She doesn’t speak for the Republican Conference, nor her own state.

She opposed Trump’s America First foreign policy, instead championing globalist, America Last interventionism and regime change wars without end.

After rightly calling the Ukraine impeachment debacle an attempted “coup” she regressed to the Establishment Mean and became the most quoted Member of Congress during the January 2021 impeachment-by-reflex, which she foolishly supported.

President Trump asked his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically” have their voices heard. He never sought violence. Most all attendees at the January 6th rally weren’t violent against anyone. Yet Cheney now calls for January 6th truth commissions more suited for the genocide-ravaged Third World than the United States of America. She thinks that poorly of us, and we hardly need her admonishments.

Of course Liz Cheney chose the Washington Post to argue that democracy itself demands a rejection of Trump and his supporters. It is the most Washington of newspapers. She is the most Washington of Congress members.

And when she’s not lecturing the rest of us on the virtue of democracy, she’s filling her campaign coffers with the corrupt money of political action committees (PACs).

In fact, in 2020 Liz Cheney raised more money from PACs than from actual human beings. She does their bidding, not the bidding of the Wyomingers, who likely read the Casper Star-Tribune far more than the Washington Post.

But Wyoming isn’t Cheney’s audience, nor her concern. She has ignored them like she has ignored the wishes of the Republican Conference.  Both now seek a replacement.

Cheney is the darling of the Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Mitt Romney wing of the Republican Party.  They are the leaders who never led us to bold wins.  Her approval rating is sky-high on lobbyist-packed “K Street.”  Defense contractors who cheer forever wars will one day build statues to the Cheneys.

–Cheney has rejected Trump and his supporters throughout Congress and America because so many of them see her insincerity clearly. For the establishment it is all about power and control. They lost much of it during Trump’s tenure, and they view the Biden era as the perfect opportunity to reconstitute their influence at the expense of policy which could improve our lives.

We must inspire Americans to again rally to the America First principles President Trump so movingly brought to our politics. And we must do better than Liz Cheney.