Perhaps what Cheney and Biden do not fully appreciate is that today’s GOP does not believe in much of anything. Its members do not want to have a policy debate or solve problems. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/06/biden-cheney-share-common-dilemma/?tid=ss_tw
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) does not spend his time devising forward-looking free-market policies; he spends his time railing at Major League Baseball. The latter is what gets him on TV
Rs s treat politics like performance art, with the objective being to infuriate a dwindling base to keep themselves in power and on TV. Democracy is optional, or even a hindrance. They would rather have a fake culture issue to whine about on talk radio than do their day jobs
In other words, Cheney’s argument that Republicans miss out on important policy debates while they grovel before the disgraced former president will fall on deaf ears. Policy and lawmaking are not their thing.
Cheney, I fear, will be no more successful than Biden in weaning Rs away from lies and authoritarianism in favor of substance. Both are of a political era in which democracy was unquestioned and policy mattered. Outside the one functional party, that ideal seems quaint now.
We do not have a GOP that either Biden or Cheney can quite comprehend — or that pro-democracy Americans can tolerate.