Books & Audiobooks
I hadn’t followed Liz Cheney’s political career, until I saw Oath and Honor on our new release shelves. I found the book to be incredibly inspiring, and think it is an important read for all of us. It is an understatement to say that we are living in polarized times. It can feel at times as though it is no longer enough to wait and learn a topic, then think critically about it, before forming opinions. There is the speed of light, and the speed of the internet, and the world tends to spin at the pace of the latter. What a person stands for, and the reason behind their “why” are a GPS. It is what makes Liz Cheney’s book so interesting and worth reading.
She writes largely about the January 6th, 2021 insurrection in the United States, though readers meet a cast of characters preceding it, and beyond it. It reads like an unfortunate thriller in the same vein as Tom Clancy and James Rollins. Fast paced, and sadly harrowing in her description of being evacuated amidst gunfire as the Capitol came under siege by pro-Trump protestors. My political reading is not typified by Republican writers, though I still highly praise this book.
My reason for recommending it, particularly relevant to libraries, is the fact of Cheney’s dedication to upholding an oath higher than her political party and personal beliefs in service to the people she served in office. I was reminded of what it means to stand for something more. I understand the urgency of the release of political memoirs detailing that time of the insurrection, as there is much at stake in the upcoming election. Being removed as we are from the constitutional democracy of the United States, given the parliamentary democracy we observe in Canada, my inspiration ran deeper than the immediacy of polls opening and closing.
It is a story of not so much a whistleblower as someone dissenting from an unjust majority. One powerful example is where she is told that she was bad for the political party’s “brand” at which point she countered that the Constitution is the only brand in politics. The book is a reminder that anyone in a position of public service has power to act effectively on behalf of the public they serve, no matter what the role. When it comes to doing the right thing, for the right reason, we are all more empowered than we may realize. Furthermore, it reminds us to consider our own “why” in the things we do, in the places we spend the bulk of our time.
Liz Cheney invites readers to reflect upon the questions she no doubt asked herself as she faced bullying from the then-President himself, was vilified in media, and had her leadership diminished by sexist remarks from fellow Congressmen. What would you do if you lost a position of power because you simply disagreed with a political majority, as is your right to do? Would you continue to stand up for what you believed in even if you were faced with daily pressure to change your mind that ran the gamut from threats to insults? When those with tremendous power wield it in a way that threatens your safety, what would you do? Where opinions differ on what the right things to do are, where do we find common ground? Cheney answers these questions and more.
With Oath and Honor, Liz Cheney invites us to consider the values and principles we hold higher than those which separate us, as with political parties. Why does democracy matter in a world where some leaders work to ensure that it doesn’t have to? She writes in a way that gave me a renewed faith in political leaders, the spirit of nonpartisanship in service to communities, and that every small act of courage counts. Nancy Pelosi’s recent memoir began with emphasis on understanding our “why” where it becomes our purpose when things get difficult. We can lose a sense of this in the banality of the everyday, but Cheney highlights how that kind of guiding light is what builds bridges and brings people together. In an era of extreme divisions, we need politicians like her, speaking about it more than ever. As far as political memoirs go, Liz Cheney covers standard ground. Her book’s resonance, however, exceeds the genre and portends a hopeful political landscape to come when led by those like her.