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conservative that she continues to oppose legalized
same-sex marriage a good six years after the U.S. Su-
preme Court settled the matter and nearly a decade
after her own sister married her wife. It is solely
that she accepted the presidential election results
and blamed Trump for inciting the January 6 riots
that turned her, temporarily, into the conservative
respected by Democrats.
“I think it’s notable that someone like Liz Cheney
is becoming the voice of reason,” says political sci-
entist Melissa Deckman, an expert in gender and
politics and author of Tea Party Women: Mamma
Grizzlies, Grassroots Leaders and the Changing Face
of the American Right. “That doesn’t bode well for
compromise on policy.”
Also discouraging for potential cross-aisle biparti-
sanship: In recent weeks, the state GOPs in Arizona,Wyoming, Nebraska and Illinois have censured
prominent Republicans, male and female alike, who
voted for the second impeachment or publicly refut-
ed Trump’s election-fraud claims. That telegraphs a
clear message to the new GOP women in Congress
that it behooves them not to cross party lines—or
Trump, even out of office. Says Deckman, “All of
these women, regardless of their personal views, rec-
ognize how much hold Trump still has on the party.”
Whitman, who voted for Democrats over Trump
in both 2016 and 2020, but remains a registered Re-
publican “for now,” agrees: “There’s no longer a co-
hesive Republican Party. To say ‘Republican,’ you’re
talking about Trump. It’s my way or the highway.
That’s the message that’s been given to so many.”
Conway, the VIEW PAC executive director, dis-
misses such claims, insisting several of the newlyLEANING RIGHT
Pro-life activists, here
demonstrating in front
of the Supreme Court
last year, were pleased
with the choice of judge
Amy Coney Barrett, a
conservative and devout
Catholic, to replace
the late Ruth Bader
Ginsberg on the high
court. Coney Barrett once
wrote in a law school
article that abortion
is “always immoral.”MI
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