Liz Cheney Defeated in Wyoming, Ukraine Fights On

Rep. Liz Cheney lost her re-election bid to her Trump-backed primary challenger in the Wyoming ...

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Rep. Liz Cheney lost her re-election bid to her Trump-backed primary challenger in the Wyoming Republican primary on Tuesday. Sarah, Steve, Jonah, and David discuss the result, and share their thoughts as the primary season wraps up. Plus: What’s the latest from Ukraine? Our hosts discuss the state of the conflict.

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    C C Writer

    About Banana Republic (the store): Way back in the1970s, before they even opened a store (which is as far back as the Wikipedia history goes), it was a quirky little catalog startup featuring army surplus and safari clothing. I still have, and still wear, a classic wool fisherman sweater that I bought from them. The label has their original logo, but right now it's packed away for the summer so I can't describe it to you. But if I recall correctly it features bananas.

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  2. Shane Groen

    Husky or not, we watched our first dispatch live a while back and my wife said Steve looks and sounds like George Clooney -so you have that going for you ; )

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    Jordan Caruso

    Thank you guys for the update on Ukraine! Great info and conversation.

    One word on the Forward Party. Disclosure: I am not affiliated or compensated whatsoever for any advocacy lol (I’m a nobody). Jonah’s criticism is well taken. I contend, though, that the Forward Parties “heart” is the issue of bipartisanship, including such things as election law, political incentives, and our democratic process that yields the regime we have today. It’s may not be as morally provocative or motivating as slavery, but it is a strong issue nonetheless. Like you said, Jonah, election lawyers and their clients--the parties--drop all their differences to keep third-parties out and remain in power. The parties have strongly insulated themselves from competition and work together towards that end.

    I think that a large population of the American people on both right and left care about this topic and will rally behind changing it, so long as a leader, in this case Yang, can bring enough influence and resources to the table. The American people are more intelligent than the politicians and pundits give them credit for. They are so tired of the messaging, the political games, the incompetence of Congress. They are angry that in our supposedly enlightened democracy that they feel like they don’t have a voice, are not heard, and can do nothing to hold their leaders accountable. Obama came promising the change they deeply wanted, even though he at the time seems politically aligned to one side. He was no different, failed at bringing his biggest promises, and maintained (even exacerbated) the political status quo that the American people hated. They tried something new, a non-politician business persona, Trump. They hoped to unleashed a gladiator uncorrupted by the politicians. Many realized that it was a false hope, and that the heart of the problem was much deeper and more pervasive; many others doubled-down, based in a strong distrust of their government. These ones chalked it up to the fact that the politicians are so corrupt and so strong, that not even their gladiator could beat them, but they chose to hold on to the hope that even Trump is better than listening to these politicians and might still have a chance.

    The American people feel powerless. They want reform. They want representatives that listen to them and actually represent them (God-forbid! Lol).

    I think Jonah’s view underestimates the issue and how much average Americans care about it. The system has created apathy in the commoner over the years, because, again, they feel powerless. If a third-party is successful enough to give these Americans hope that it can improve the issue and break through the duopoly, then I think a great number of Americans will show up and rally behind it.

    So the main point is that the plight of the third-party is the very issue. Adopting hot topic or culture-war positions on issues would take away from this, would weaken the the parties influence and therefore it’s ability to create hope for change.

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    1. Avatar photo
      C C Writer

      I had the same reaction to the statement that an issue is lacking. I agree that there is something like an issue and it's important. I don't think I would frame it as bipartisanship so much as the importance of elected politicians staying in their lanes and doing their jobs instead of being ignorant and spending all their time acting nuts on social media and TV. And the constitution, too. As in doing what it says they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to do it. But serious bipartisan legislation and stuff like that would be the result, if they would just honestly hash out policy--because that is exactly what the job of every one of them is, no matter where each one of them stands on particular policies.
      People running on that ticket could be given a simple pledge to take along those lines. These are things that the electorate has already noticed and cares about and wants somebody to champion, which makes the third party more like the first Republicans. The party the Grand New Party replaced, the Whigs, pretty much stood for nothing. Now you have many politicians, both R and D, who jump on board with whatever they think their tribe is worked up about this minute and will contradict themselves tomorrow because it turns out that none of it made much sense. Are they very different from the Whigs in that regard?

      Instead of Forward, how about if they rename it the Get Seriious Party?

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        Jordan Caruso

        This was a great response.

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    Young Riprock

    Meijer did not endorse Gibbs

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    WKDawson

    I complained about a recent one, but this was back on your feet as usual.

    On Rep Cheney, yes, I am a liberal, and there are a lot of things I'm deeply apprehensive about with seeing Rep Cheney as president. One of her strong points that resonates with me is that we will probably have to stick out Ukraine for the long haul. Putin is probably going to play us out on our resolve, because that is clearly where the US public has consistently appeared the weakest (historically at least). So Putin will try to run out the clock.

    So the first problem is Trump. If he takes office, it's pretty sure where this will go. When Ukraine begins to falter, another certain hot spot in the world is sure to seize the opportunity for a land grab of its own. I'm sure there will be some rationalization, but I don't see anything good there at all.

    In that respect, Cheney has shown that she is decisive and unyielding. I fear we are in for some hard times, and, unlike a lot of the nonsense we have rationalized as our foreign policy for the last 50 years, this really would be a time that it matters. Whereas I see lots of performative grandstanding, I haven't seen any of these congress men and women showing any grit like that. To my view, this is a time where we need a ton of grit. In many ways, we pissed our time away for the last 30 years quarreling about petty stuff and doing performative politics and not keeping our eye on the ball, so now we are here.

    That would be why I would probably vote for her, whatever party she took up.

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  6. Chris Barkley

    I quizzed my wife and college age daughter, and neither knew what “banana republic” meant (beyond the store). I guess it’s not as commonly understood as I thought.

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  7. GregS

    David said that by not voting in the primary Republican voters had surrendered their party.
    True.
    But by voting for the MAGA-loon/openly fascist/civil-war-promoting Trumpy R candidates in the general, they will have not just surrendered their party, they will be complicit in what it becomes.
    Gerrymandering is a danger as much as it is a boon. If you gerrymander a 50-50 statewide population into a 70-30 R-D congressional map, you are presumably at the mercy of a small subset of R voters who, if they decide to vote D in the general, could trigger landslide losses (and vice versa for states gerrymandered by democrats).
    The people who hold the key to getting us out of this mess are the minority of sane R and D voters who can control the center if they are willing to vote D or R (respectively) for perhaps the first time in their lives.

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    The History Nerd

    I hate to be that guy but this wasn't the last GOP primary or even the last potentially competitive one. New Hampshire has their primary on September 13.

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    Dr. Livesey

    How to pronounce raison d'etre (in both French, which we can all just ignore, and in our very own English language):

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szDQWJTop3M

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  10. A E

    Is there potential for the Forward party to be animated by an issue like election reform and be less ideologically firm about some of the more traditionally animating issues? That’s probably not a path to victory but it seems to be something Yang focuses on.

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