Thread by @DrewHolden360

Part of why the Rep Cheney fiasco is such news is that political courage doesn’t really exist anymore, so something like a member of Congress picking intraparty fights & thereby losing a temporary position 99% of Americans couldn’t describe is the closest approximation we have.

Being a member of Congress is basically a golden ticket to the good life so long as you don’t get caught breaking lots of laws that people care about - and even then, that’s no guarantee of punishment. Even disgraced members tend to be just fine.

The fallback option is always making a zillion dollars as a lobbyist. How much courage does it take to upset the apple cart when that’s your safety net?

And in the era of social media, there are always going to be groups of people who make someone who takes a political stand into a hero. You won’t die some sort of outcast for doing something unpopular.

So, sure, you may looks your drinking buddies at the Capitol Hill club. You may have to remind people to refer to you as “Senator” as an honorific when you’re just a lobbyist with a bigger house in the Hamptons.

But what people like Cheney are really risking are a) their access to temporal power and b) their political ambitions.

Giving those things up don’t quite strike me as Profiles in Courage moments.

That isn’t to say there aren’t any. I think that Sen Romney’s dogged commitment to his values (hate him all you want) in the trenches everyday has been courageous. I think plenty of what happened in GA post-election was commendable too (even if part of the media story was BS)

And I think that much of Cheney’s criticism is right and that, insofar as political courage is concerned, the GOP proved itself sorely lacking in the wake of the election, as I wrote about back in December: theamericanconservative.com/articles/profi…

But the fawning, breathless way the NeverTrump crowd and plenty of democrats/the mainstream media have talked about this whole situation is really just too rich for my tastebuds.