It takes quite a bit for us to pity someone with the last name of Cheney. Yes, she who was fathered by the notorious warmonger who bore striking resemblance to Darth Vader actually appears for a day to be a tragic hero. Liz Cheney may be one of the few profiles in courage in the collection of toadies known as the Republican Party these days. As a result, she has come in for scorching criticism from The Father, Son and the Party of Ghosts. All of this happened because Chaney stood up for the esteemed expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and expressed her independence in several other ways.

This week's meeting of the House Republican Conference brought a bruising attack on Chaney from the noted Trump sycophant Matt Gaetz. He called on her to resign from her position in the party's leadership in the House or to be removed. His criticism was followed up by a Tweet from Donald Trump, Jr., whose qualifications to opine on every political issue of the day come from his lifetime of success and experience. Finally, the assault on Cheney was joined by Trump himself, who seemingly made reference to her father's warmongering ways when he was in office.

Cheney's Crime Was Support for Dr. Fauci

With all of the venom reserved for Cheney, you would think she called for a primary challenge to Trump himself. Instead, she merely sent out a Tweet offering support for Dr. Fauci at a time when he was under attack by the White House. She vouched for his expertise and his judgement and described him as non-partisan. This was at the same time that Trump was calling Fauci an "alarmist" and refusing to speak to his own medical expert during a raging global pandemic. Cheney was acting in a principled fashion. It shows the sad state of the Republican Party that support for an expert is considered principled.

In today's Republican Party, any fawning on Trump that is short of the loyalty that the Ba'ath Party displayed to Saddam Hussein is enough of an excuse for someone to be tossed out of their job. Certainly, the legitimate courage displayed by Mitt Romney is enough for there to be calls to remove him from the party. While you can look at it as a bunch of lemmings following their leader off the cliff, this is still the party in power in Washington at a time when hundreds of thousands of people are dying.

Now contrast this to the Democratic Party. Sure, there are primary challenges to elected officials from the Left that are sometimes effective, but the party has a big tent of different viewpoints in the party. The Senate has conservative Democrats such as Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin that exist in the same party as AOC and Bernie Sanders. Not once has anyone mentioned tossing Manchin from the party even if they sometimes question his politics. A party thrives when there are diverse viewpoints within the party and a respectful vigorous debate about the party platform.

This Is Just a Brief Preview of What Will Be Happening After the Next Election

Of course, as Democrats, we can grab a cup of popcorn and look forward to the coming GOP civil war that will happen when Trump is sent home in November. If you think that the GOP is in the midst of conflict now, just wait until control of the party is at stake after the election.

Cheney is seemingly planting her flag in the more rational wing of the party since she is known to have higher ambitions. A run for House Minority Leader is not out of the question. Her gamble is that Trump's brand of politics is so toxic that those who supported him may pay with their jobs after a GOP wipeout in November. This sets her up for attack from Trump himself who views anyone speaking up for Dr. Fauci as disloyalty to him.

While we genuinely do respect Cheney's courage to stand up to the Dear Leader and his army of yes-people, we still need to remember who we are dealing with here. This is the same politician who distanced herself from her LGBT sister and has consistently supported a hard-right agenda since she got elected to her father's seat in Congress. Nonetheless, anything that even resembles a Republican these days with a shred of principle should deserve praise.