Swamp Creature Liz Cheney personifies Congress' failure to represent We the People

By Carolyn Yeager

LIZ CHENEY IS BEHAVING as a “domestic terrorist” against the Republican voters in her state as she insists to the people she is supposed to represent that it is 'her way or the highway' on the subject of Donald Trump's Senate political impeachment 'trial'. She claims her first responsibility is to vote her own conscience. This brings up the question “what is the job of a congressional representative – to represent the views of the voters who sent him/her to Washington to represent them, or to represent herself and her fellow 'Never Trumpers'?

A recent poll conducted by Trump pollster John McLaughlin found that 73 percent of Republicans in red Wyoming view her unfavorably—while 62 percent of all voters in the state similarly view her unfavorably. Only 10 percent of GOP voters, and 13 percent of all voters, say they would vote to reelect her, and she trails by more than 30 points—54 percent to 21 percent—against state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, who has announced a campaign against her since her impeachment vote. 

In spite of this, swamp creature Cheney said today on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace:

"Look I think people all across Wyoming understand and recognize that our most important duty is to the Constitution. And as I've explained and will continue to explain to supporters all across the state, voters all across the state, the oath that I took to the Constitution compelled me to vote for impeachment, and it doesn't bend to partisanship, it doesn't bend to political pressure, it's the most important oath that we take." 

She might have said “[my oath to the Constitution] doesn't bend to the will of the people I'm here to represent.” Are the people simply to be thought of as “political partisans” functioning on a lower level than her own exalted self – who, let's remember, is only there in Washington because of them? She's there to be their voice.

Is it true that the oath to the Constitution she took - in the halls of Congress after she was duly elected to represent the people back home - is the sole guide to her speech and to how she votes?

And Chip Roy too 

This is a very important question that came to my attention last month when my congressional rep, Republican Chip Roy (right, meeting voters at Buzzie's Barbeque in Kerrville, Texas), held a “telephone town hall.” These telephone town halls are pretty much a PR gimmick in that they are totally controlled by the politicians hosting them. It seems that every identified Republican voter in the designated area is called and invited to join an ongoing question/answer session which lasts about an hour or an hour and a half. You're told to click 'star' and a number if you want to ask a question (which I did, along with hundreds of others). Eventually a staffer clicks in and asks for your question, then says you are “in the queue” and you will be connected to ask your question when your turn comes up. In the meantime, you are only on 'listen.'

Naturally, since my question was one Chip Roy didn't want to address, the “town hall” ended without me having an opportunity to engage with him. [Engage is the wrong word. The constituent is heard asking their question, but that is the last we hear from them. The congressman is then free to speak as long as he wants without any further response from the questioner.] But even so, I was pleased that all the questions I heard were in line with my own concerns in some way; they were complaints aimed at Roy's statements condemning President Trump's actions on and around the January 6 protest at the Capitol and wanting to know what he was going to do about it. In defending himself, Roy relied on the same words that fellow conservative House member Liz Cheney is using. “My job is to defend the Constitution. That is my job,” he repeated several times. I immediately thought, No, your job is to represent us, your constituents, after finding out what we think – and that has never been more clear to me than it was then. He spoke to us like a church preacher affirming the words of the Bible which we daren't dispute. Yes, it felt just like that. He was an expert on the Constitution (we weren't), and he is just that egotistical! The questions from the voters were short; Roy's answers were quite lengthy. A couple times he even apologized for the length of his answers since it limited the number of constituents that could participate. 

Roy had said after the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol that Trump "deserves universal condemnation for what was clearly impeachable conduct." How do you walk back from that? Well, he hasn't tried; instead he has tried to defend that remark in the face of angry voters.

Chip Roy is one of the most Christian Zionist and Israel-supporting of the 'Christian Constitutional Conservatives' in the House. He and our Senator Ted Cruz are good friends. Cruz' endorsement helped Roy win the Republican Primary in 2018 from a large field, and Roy is now beginning his second two-year term. I voted for him both times, though with little enthusiasm. This “telephone town hall” experience brought me to the determination he should be 'primaried' in 2022 for a better candidate. Because of his strong Christian-identity, he favors Pence over Trump and kept commending VP Pence's behavior as “following the constitution” and condemned the so-called Jan. 6 “rioters” for shouting “Hang the VP!” His outrage at that was very noticeable. Being a preacher at heart, as are so many politicians, he insisted on his right to "disagree” when his constituents expressed their anger at him for his original vote against Trump. He wasn't willing to acknowledge their point of view at all.

So the question can be asked: Is the first duty of a member of the House of Representatives to defend the U.S. Constitution or to represent the views of their constituents? For me, this is a no brainer – it is the latter. I believe it's the the job of the Federal Courts, including the Supreme Court, to defend (and interpret) the Constitution. It is also the job of the U.S. President, but not his primary job. It is least of all the job of the legislative branch, who are “the people's representatives” in the federal government. When a lowly representative like Chip Roy abandons the wishes of the majority of his constituency in order to follow his 'personal principles' because he places them higher than his duty to represent his voters back home; who thinks he “knows better” than they do, he does need to be replaced at the soonest possible date. The same goes for Liz Cheney, and I will be working toward that end.