The political arena is filled with sycophants who place their survival mode ahead of their conscience. Think Ted Cruz or Lindsey Graham and the terrible things they said about Donald Trump until they joined the cult. They're still here. Then there are the deserters like Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney: They who read the handwriting on the wall, packed their bags, and quietly went home. But history remembers those who defied transitory popular sentiment to remain at their station and follow their North Star.
Daniel Webster who shattered his Presidential ambitions by endorsing the Compromise of 1850. Sam Houston who stood alone against the secessionist tsunami in Texas in 1861. George Norris who in 1917 took a lonely stand against American entry into World War I. Margaret Chase Smith who in 1950 defied her fellow Republicans and popular sentiment to denounce McCarthyism. Eugene McCarthy who challenged a President of his own party to stand opposed to the Vietnam War. John McCain who in the middle of a difficult political campaign told an arena of supporters that his opponent, Barack Obama, was a decent family man and a person you don't have to be scared of.
Today, officeholders like these are remembered for staying true to their conscience which shattered their own political trajectories and estranged them from friends and supporters. It takes little courage for a lifelong liberal Democrat to take a stand against Trump. The fortitude is manifested by committed conservative Republicans who recognize that they are burning their bridge to their party even as the alternative party will not offer an another pathway.
So yes, folks like Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Chris Christie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and now Bill Cassidy and Thomas Massie belong in a club of standouts; people who placed fidelity to a higher principle at great professional and personal cost. And that will be the first sentence of their obituaries. Not a bad way to be remembered.
Copyright © 2026, Steven Franklin,
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