Letters to the Editor: Liz and Dick Cheney make other Republicans look like cowards
![Former Rep. Liz Cheney, seen in 2022, has announced she and her father will vote for Kamala Harris for president.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/dd2614f/2147483647/strip/true/crop/7736x5157+0+0/resize/1200x800!/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fe4%2F41%2F3444fb9444cab9c9418ed657b91b%2Fbooks-liz-cheney-47041.jpg)
To the editor: So, former Vice President Dick Cheney and his daughter former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) have announced that they will vote for Kamala Harris for president.
This action by the Cheneys makes all the Condoleezza Rices, Mitt Romneys and John Boltons of the Republican Party look so pathetic in their cowardice for not endorsing Vice President Harris. Perhaps the Cheneys will help build a backbone in these people.
Also, former President Trump admitted last week that President Biden defeated him “by a whisker” in the 2020 election. You know, just a whisker of more than 7 million popular votes and 74 electoral votes — nearly the same electoral vote margin by which he won in 2016, something he called a “landslide” victory.
Is it possible that this admission might finally begin to pierce the MAGA blockade of willful ignorance, and force Trump’s base to experience the righteous outrage for the terrible consequences the GOP has suffered as a result of believing this falsehood?
Stopping Trump is certainly job one. But the whole Republican Party needs to experience cataclysmic change before we can truly return to some state of normalcy in our political life.
Tom Moore, Ventura
..
To the editor: If not so serious as this election is, it would be a belly laugh to watch Dick Cheney announcing he will be voting for the Democrat for president. That party used to hate no one more than him.
And, as the architect, I believe, of two absurd wars while being responsible for untold deaths and dismemberments in those conflicts, who could take him seriously about anything?
Joe Regan, San Marino
..
To the editor: A frequently asked question is, Why do nearly all Republicans continue to support Trump, despite his lies, conspiracy theories, egregious acts and felony convictions?
Political analyst Matthew Dowd, a former Republican strategist, offers a plausible explanation with which I agree: He compared what’s happening with the Republican acquiescence to Trump with someone in an abusive relationship who continues to allow themselves to be mistreated because they don’t see an alternative.
If that analogy is apropos, and I think it is, then stalwart conservative Liz Cheney’s declaration that she will not only oppose Trump but plans to vote for Harris, followed by Dick Cheney’s statement that he too will vote for Harris, might give Republicans a safe place to go.
Following the Cheneys’ example would afford Republicans an opportunity to reclaim themselves, their identity and their party.
Richard Cherwitz, Austin, Texas