Misinformation, or ‘lies’ have been spread by rightwing media for so long, that many REpublicans accept them as truth.

 Now, now to be successful in local or national elections, politicians are forced to repeat The Big Lie, if they want to win among the hardcore base.

Allegiance to a lie has become a test of loyalty to Donald Trump and a means of self-preservation for Republicans.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan condemned the centrality of Trump to the party on NBC News' "Meet the Press": "It just bothers me that you have to swear fealty to 'Dear Leader' or you get kicked out of the party." He called the fight to replace Cheney "sort of a circular firing squad where we're just attacking our own party."

Trump's discredited allegations about a stolen election did nothing to save his presidency when courtrooms high and low, state governments and ultimately Congress — meeting in the chaos of an insurrection powered by his grievances — affirmed the legitimacy of his defeat and the honesty of the process that led to it.

Now those “Big Lie” allegations, no closer to true than before, are getting a second, howling wind.

Republicans are expected to believe the falsehoods, pretend they do or at bare minimum not let it be known that they don’t. State Republican leaders from Georgia to Arizona have been flamed by Trump or his followers for standing against the lies.

Only a select few Republicans in Washington are defying him, for they, too, know that doing so comes with a cost. 

Liz Cheney, lifelong conservative and daughter of a vice president once loved by the Republican right while earning the nickname Darth Vader, was willing to pay it.

“History is watching,” the Wyoming congresswoman wrote.