Welcome to Thunderdome. Liz Cheney is campaigning with Kamala Harris today in Wisconsin at Ripon, known as the birthplace of the Republican Party at the Little White Schoolhouse. It was there in 1854 at a church meeting that Whig and Free Soil party members gathered to form a “great irresistible Northern party, organized on the single issue of the non-extension of slavery.” This was even then pretty aggressive language for the Episcopalian who called the meeting, but not for Horace Greeley, who publicized it to the nation. Whatever Liz Cheney says today about how important it is to elect Kamala Harris will no doubt equal the historical significance of that moment, at least according to Rachel Maddow. But I’m here to tell you that this is actually important and matters a great deal in understanding 2024 – just not for the reasons the media will tell you it does.
One of the most consistent polling truths of the 2024 cycle has been a steady decline in the salience of Democratic warnings, leaned into so heavily by Joe Biden, that the re-election of Donald Trump is a threat to democracy. In fact, the “democracy is on the ballot” language has now reached a point where both parties, along with independents, share fears about the future of the republic for very different reasons.
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