In the words of various liberal commentators and political figures over the years, Wyoming representative Liz Cheney is “racist,” a “lowlife” with an “utter lack of shame” who practices “McCarthyism” and is an “unabashed supporter of Trump.” So how is it that Cheney is emerging from last night’s primary as a liberal darling and stalwart Trump foe, raking in piles of cash from Democratic donors while riding a reputation as a defender of liberal values?

“She isn’t really fighting to keep her seat in Congress,” we’re told. “She’s fighting Donald Trump.” She showed “what it means to stand up for truth and democracy.” She’s “the Obi-Wan to Trump’s Darth Vader.” Even former labor secretary Robert Reich at one point seriously suggested she should be president. “If Liz Cheney loses her House seat, as seems likely, I hope she doesn’t disappear from public life,” he wrote two days ago.

Anyone who cares about liberal values should earnestly hope the opposite. Like every other hard-right Republican who’s enjoyed a sudden Trump-era rehabilitation, Cheney has capitalized on the goldfish-like memory of the US liberal establishment, coupled with its relentless fixation on finding the next one, good, reasonable conservative.