We are inundated with news story after news story and ad nausea commentary about former President Donald Trump’s unique threat to our democratic republic. Rep. Liz Cheney is thus the eternal “good conservative” for opposing Trump and “Trumpism.”

Except that this issue has never really just been about Trump. Take Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), a fervent Trump critic who voted to impeach Trump (the same as Cheney) and will resign his office to become the new president at the University of Florida. Sasse has been a staunch moral conservative, voting with the GOP but often clashing with Trump. Still, academia is an area where principled conservatives can make a difference (see Mitch Daniels). Perhaps a bigger difference than by serving in a stalled Senate.