Conservative columnist Rich Lowry in this space on Aug. 20 said U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, had two choices after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. She could either tone down her campaign against former President Donald Trump or choose the end of her political career.

Cheney made the second choice and lost her bid for re-election by a wide margin, which she obviously expected was coming. Lowry called her “a pariah (outcast) within her own party.” However, he did give Cheney a brief pat on the back.

“Hers was an admirable loss,” he said. “It is rare indeed that any elected official is willing to sacrifice his or her office over a matter of deeply held principle.”

Someone selected an extremely fitting quote from John Quincy Adams, 6^th president of the United States (1825-1829), that appeared below Lowry’s column.

Adams said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”

It has become extremely rare in the times in which we live for a public official to take a stand like Cheney did, knowing it was possibly going to destroy her political future.

Lowry said, “Cheney’s alienation from her party is likely to build on itself. Already, she has said that she’d ‘find it very difficult’ to support (Florida) Gov. Ron DeSantis, the leading Republican alternative to Trump…”

Cheney’s rejection of DeSantis comes as no surprise since he is trying awfully hard to out-Trump Trump. DeSantis comes closer than other possible GOP candidates to being a carbon copy of Trump.

Lowry said Cheney should realize she has taken a path that doesn’t end in electoral vindication. He added, “There is zero case for Cheney attempting to go from the role of prophet without honor within her party to Republican vote-getter again.”

Since Cheney said she might run for president in 2024, Lowry emphasized in his column that she is no Abraham Lincoln. No she isn’t, but the odds are she realizes that but thinks she could have some impact on the presidential election.

As for the Republican Party, The Associated Press said Cheney’s defeat marked “the end of an era for the Republican Party as well as her own family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln transforms into the party of Trump.”

One political analyst said, “Liz Cheney represents the Republican Party as it used to be…. All of that is gone now.”

In her concession speech on election night, Cheney said, “Now the real work begins.” The AP said she isn’t likely to win her party’s nomination, but she would give those opposed to Trump an alternative.

Cheney moved her leftover campaign funds into something called, “The Great Task,” a phrase from the Gettysburg Address.

“I will be doing whatever it takes to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office,” Cheney said.

The AP said, “Whether she runs or not, her belief that Trump poses a danger to democracy is a conviction that runs deep in her family. But it’s a view that has no home in today’s GOP.”

A former longtime Republican aide to the late Sen. John McCain said, “It’s just a party of Donald Trump’s fever dreams. It’s just Donald Trump’s club.”

Cheney became the No. 3 Republican in the U.S. House, the same position her father — former Vice President Dick Cheney under President George W. Bush — held. Liz Cheney was the highest-ranking GOP woman at the time, but her opposition to Trump cost her the job.

Then, Cheney became vice chairman of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. The AP said, “Cheney was unequivocal, laying blame for the attack on the defeated president and his false claims of voter fraud and a rigged election.”

Trump “summoned this mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack,” Cheney said at the time. “There has never been a greater betrayal by a president of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”

During over 60 years of covering national and state politics, I can’t remember many times when public officials like Cheney have been willing to risk their political careers in order to stand for a principle.

Cheney’s political career may be over, but as President John Quincy Adams said, “Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.”