Hello and happy Saturday. The January 6 committee conducted yet another revealing hearing on Thursday night, and Liz Cheney made an important comment in her closing statement that put voice to something I’ve been thinking about a lot in recent weeks, especially after Cassidy Hutchinson testified. 

 “[Hutchinson] knew all along that she would be attacked by President Trump, and by the 50-, 60- and 70-year-old men who hide themselves behind executive privilege. But like our witnesses today, she has courage, and she did it anyway. Cassidy, Sarah [Matthews], and our other witnesses including Officer Caroline Edwards, Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman, are an inspiration to American women, and to American girls.”

I don’t know the political beliefs of Edwards, Moss or Freeman, and as they are private citizens, it isn’t really our business. But Hutchinson and Sarah Matthews had previous experience in Republican politics before taking jobs in the Trump White House, and Cheney’s own conservative bona fides are beyond reproach. And these women have been the standouts of the January 6 hearings. I think it’s worth a deeper discussion.

My experience has taught me that liberals don’t always take kindly to conservative women. One time when I lived in Seattle, a few female co-workers were talking politics when a colleague from another department wandered by. He was incredulous. “You can’t be Republicans! You’re women.” I’ve also been told over the years that I’m self-loathing, that I internalized misogyny somewhere down the line, and that conservative women are akin to a “domestic violence victim who keeps coming back for more.” There’s a certain failure of imagination at play here. I’ve had more conversations than I can count with acquaintances and friends of friends and (yes, I should know better) online trolls who simply cannot comprehend why women aren’t down with the liberal agenda.