Kamala Harris is holding a campaign event in Wisconsin with Liz Cheney to emphasize the moral imperative of those Republicans who still value democracy to support the one pro-democracy candidate running for president. This message is surprisingly controversial. One point of consensus between the right and the far left that has developed during the Trump era is that Republicans who refuse to vote for Donald Trump are the scum of the earth.
It is completely intuitive that Trump devotees like Mollie Hemingway would recoil at the defections from the “politically toxic and hate-filled Cheney family” or other formerly loyal Republicans. It may seem slightly surprising that their sense of betrayal has been matched or even exceeded from corners of the left.
The steady trickle of grumbling on the left that has greeted Republican defectors since 2016 has been met with a roar of indignation when no less a reactionary than Dick Cheney, the Prince of Darkness, announced his intention to vote for Harris. “It’s embarrassing to put out a statement lauding Dick Cheney’s endorsement,” complained Matt Stoller. American Prospect editor David Dayen declared Cheney’s endorsement would sway “zero” people. “I can’t help but think that if (heaven forbid) Harris loses in November, it will be because she leaned too hard into the Liz Cheneys and ignored the voters most put off by the Cheney family and by US policy in the Middle East,” predicts Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch.
I would stipulate that Republicans have views on public policy I disagree with, and many of them, especially Cheney, have made the world a worse place, and that endorsing Harris will not be nearly enough to account for the harm he caused. However, I still would rather have Cheney endorse Harris than have him endorse Trump. And I think Harris is shrewd to tout that endorsement.
At the risk of belaboring the obvious, which........