Rep. Liz Cheney – the daughter of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, of the President George W. Bush era – had publicly positioned herself as chief co-prosecutor of former President Donald Trump in the congressional hearings into the events around the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. But that isn’t why she lost this week’s Republican primary in the state of Wyoming and the chance to run for re-election.
The Western mainstream media is portraying Cheney’s loss of her congressional seat this week as the result of her firm stance against Trump and his behavior in egging on his supporters as they sought to interrupt the process by which the 2020 election would be certified by US lawmakers.
But Cheney didn’t lose just because she’s a prominent Trump critic. She lost because she routinely defends and proudly represents a broken establishment that voters in America’s heartland are increasingly rejecting.
Just ahead of Cheney’s highly anticipated loss, Meghan McCain – the daughter of neoconservative war hawk and late Senator John McCain – Tweeted: “Liz Cheney has guts, is an original and goes against the grain and MAGA kool aid drinking group think that’s a cancer in GOP leadership.” Reducing Cheney’s 66% to 29% defeat by Harriet Hageman – a lifelong Wyoming local and lawyer who has represented ranchers and the energy industry – to the mere fact that Trump had endorsed her opponent, is an insult to Wyoming’s voters. McCain’s framing also conveniently allows for both the Washington and Republican establishments – of which the McCains and the Cheney’s are essentially royalty – to avoid addressing the inconvenient, underlying reasons for the loss.