Leave it to Madison, in the fifth paragraph of Federalist No. 57, to anticipate the current matter of whether Liz Cheney is to remain the third-ranking Republican member in the House of Representatives, as chair of the House GOP conference, or be replaced by Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Madison pointed out that membership in the House of Representatives is not to be a matter of  wealth, class, or society status.  He wrote that the rich no more than the poor will be members, and then, after stating "not the learned more than the ignorant," added: "not the haughty heirs of distinguished names, more than the humble sons of obscure and unpropitious fortune."  In current context, it is, arguably, fair to infer that Madison would say that Liz Cheney, as a daughter of a vice president, has no more right to chair of the House Republican conference than, say, Elise Stefanik, whose name 'til now could not have been considered a household word.  Indeed, it is fair to ask: would Liz have reached the House of Representatives, much less the third rank, if her name were Haney instead of Cheney?

Madison, in stating that officials are to be drawn from the general population and, in office, were to stay on the same plane as the common citizen, was making the case for the federal government to be based on populist principles.  This is what Trumpism is all about, with the added proviso that it is an aggressive form of populism.  Trump populists will not shrink from engaging with the totalitarian-minded Democrats and NeverTrumps.  Trumpists will embrace what Lisa Lerer called his "pugilistic style" in a "hit Trump" piece, The New York Times, May 8, 2021, "Trump Keeps an Iron Grip on the G.O.P."

Ms. Lerer took note of Trumpian populism in this slanted comment: "[Rep. Elise] Stefanik and many other Republican leaders are betting that the path to keeping the electoral gains of the Trump era lies in stoking their base with the populist politics that are central to the president's brand, even if they repel swing voters." Trumpian populism, properly conveyed to the voters by the GOP, is what the spirit of America is all about.  It is what Lincoln declared when he stated at Gettysburg that ours is a government of, by, and for the people.

It is not the swing voter who should be repelled by populism, but those who demand that government should be of, by, and for the insiders.

Madison would have used the term "aggrandizers," as he acknowledged in the first line of Federalist No. 57 that we have a "class of citizens which will have least sympathy with the mass of the people, and be most likely to aim at an ambitious sacrifice of the many to the aggrandizement of the few."  Madison went on, in No. 57, to suggest that such sacrifice will not be demanded of the people if their officials remain in close sympathy with them.   This is what Trumpism is all about, with the added proviso that Trumpian populists will not absorb, passively, the vicious attacks from mean-spirited political foes from a mean-spirited media.

Lisa Lerer promotes that dishonest Deep State lie that "Trumpism" includes "courting white grievance with racist statements, and Republican-led legislatures across the country are pushing through restrictions that would curtail voting access in ways that disproportionately impact voters of color."  That is nothing but a damnable lie, a desperate attempt to discredit a public interest effort to insure fair and honest and open elections.

The demonization of Donald J. Trump, at its essence, is a flailing attempt by the Deep State to hold on to power by any means necessary to further its anti-democracy ambitions.

And Liz Cheney must be removed as third-ranking House Republican member because she is very much, by family lineage, a Deep Stater, sorely opposed to the concept of populism outlined by Madison in Federalist No. 57 and brilliantly summed up by Lincoln in November 1863.   Democratic government, after all, is a nullity where "the humble sons of obscure and unpropitious fortune" do not stand on the same level with "the haughty heirs of distinguished names."  Democratic government is a nullity where the insiders lord it over the people, binding them into helplessness with decrees, edicts, regulations, and executive orders.  Democratic government is a nullity where Bidenism holds sway.

Image: Fox News via YouTube.

To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.