Liz Cheney on the Wrong Side of History. Or "Another Day ending in 'Y'"

Scowling Sith Kid Liz, Daughter of Dick, is not doing especially well in her primary race against incumbent WY Sen. Mike Enzi, and she isn't exactly endearing herself with her sister and sister-in-law, either.

Here is La Liz:

Wyoming Senate candidate Liz Cheney (R) on Sunday defended her opposition to same-sex marriage, saying that she disagrees with her sister, who is married to a woman and has criticized the Senate contender's views on gay marriage. 

"I love Mary very much, I love her family very much. This is just an issue on which we disagree," Cheney said on "Fox News Sunday." 

Cheney's sister Mary Cheney said in August that Liz Cheney is "dead wrong" on the issue of gay marriage.

And here is Heather Poe, her sister-in-law, who took to Facebook to disagree:

I was watching my sister-in-law on Fox News Sunday (yes Liz, in fifteen states and the District of Columbia you are my sister-in-law) and was very disappointed to hear her say "I do believe in the traditional definition of marriage." 

Liz has been a guest in our home, has spent time and shared holidays with our children, and when Mary and I got married in 2012 - she didn't hesitate to tell us how happy she was for us. 
To have her now say she doesn't support our right to marry is offensive to say the least. 

I can't help but wonder how Liz would feel if as she moved from state to state, she discovered that her family was protected in one but not the other.  

I always thought freedom meant freedom for EVERYONE.

Mary Cheney added, quite correctly,  "Liz - this isn't just an issue on which we disagree - you're just wrong - and on the wrong side of history." 

And I don't think that there's any question that times are changing.  We've come a long way from 2004, when the GOP party platform seriously discussed a constitutional ban on same-sex marriages, and when the mere mention of Mary Cheney's existence as an out lesbian prompted Lynne Cheney to pronounce the Democratic candidate, John Kerry as "not a good man".  Not because he was lying about her in anyway. Because he merely mentioned the truth. 

On our side of the aisle, it looked like a rational recognition at the time that LGBT individuals and families are a part of our great American family and shouldn't be excluded from our considerations or discounted because of some religious minorities' concerns. From the conservative side, however--this was a threat, because they needed those bigoted religious minorities! How dare he try to alienate their affections!

Superficially, it struck me that 1) Lynne Cheney had an unread PFLAG brochure in a drawer somewhere, and 2) was awfully behind the times if she thought the only way to defend her daughter was to rigorously not mention her. And both things seemed very sad, to me. But Liz Cheney is the next generation, and she really can't use being out of touch as an excuse. It really doesn't help her to throw her sister's family under the bus, and I can only guess at the kind of pain it actually brings to a family for politics to enter into the consideration of whether you consider your actual family--to be "real" and "family".

Far be it for me to try and tell Liz Cheney how to turn this thing around, because as it happens, I have less than zero investment in her success in becoming a US Senator. But I do think there is political advantage to be made in not kissing fundamentalist ass, and being a genuine human being. If she wanted to raise her likability even a little, she could start with not being so willing to throw her sister's family over for so-called "family values" conservatives' favor. Her sister's family is hers and a family, damn it! She should show the damn guts to admit it--or she lacks the character for any office. In fact, she should turn it around and ask why she's being attacked with ads on this issue: hasn't she always been a conservative and a sister? On what real, non-social policy issue does she fail to represent?

If she showed a little courage and decency here, I think it would count for a lot. I'm not counting on her doing that. But I think it isn't worth it for her not to try, because you can lose elections, okay? But family lasts. 

And seriously, I myself am obviously not okay with how this is the one thing so far that has been used in ads against La Liz. Of all family associations, it is her defense of her father's defense of torture that is truly appalling.