All because she had the unmitigated gall, to tell the truth, in the era of Trump

 In another era, Liz Cheney would have been exactly the kind of candidate Republican leaders would champion. She has the voting record, the pedigree, the fortitude, the eloquence and the smarts they might look for in the party's first female presidential nominee.

But in this, the Era of Trump, traditional political strengths have been supplanted by blind loyalty to the standard bearer. So it is that Wyoming's sole member of Congress has become a pariah in her own party, stripped of her House leadership position, expelled by her state's GOP, widely derided and essentially banished for having the audacity to fight for something conservatives like her used to hold dear: America's democracy.