Welcome back to Life and Books and Everything.

I'm Kevin DeYoung.

Today I'm reading from my piece on the world opinions page entitled A Lesson from Liz Cheney's

loss.

People know when their leaders no longer like them.

This is not going to be a deep dive into electoral politics.

That's not my lane.

But I do want to reflect on one lesson from Liz

Cheney's 37-point defeat in Wyoming's Republican primary. I don't say the lesson because

there are many, but a lesson. Because I believe this is one cautionary tale that many of us in

leadership would do well to consider. Here's the lesson I have in mind. Don't expect to be a

leader among people you no longer consider your people. Perhaps Cheney, as a Trump critic, was bound to

lose in Wyoming, a state that voted 70% for Trump in the 2020 election, but by 37 points, been Sass, the Republican Senator from

Nebraska, isn't up for re-election this cycle. Maybe his impeachment vote would have done him in

as well. Sass has long been outspoken in his criticism of Trump, and yet he won easily in 2020

in a deep red state, even outperforming Trump himself.

Whatever you think of his politics, I think it's fair to say that Sass has managed to still

give every impression that he is a down-to-earth, Nebraska, that he's eager to talk about all

sorts of things that concern conservative Nebraskaans, and that he respects and appreciates

Nebraskaans, even when they disagree with some of his political convictions.

In politics as well as in life, there was a fine line between speaking with courage,

hoping to lead the people you love, and speaking with contempt, holding in derision the people

...