You'll read a lot about this exchange and what it represents. Is Cheney;s tough talk to Trump a positioning ploy to be on the "right side" of a bad loss? Probably. Will it matter? Probably not. https://twitter.com/MZanona/status/1285575768022626304?s=20

The Republican Party is too often fashioned around Trump the individual. People describe the party as a "cult," the President's "grip on the party," or the personalization of it as "Trump's party." Republicans' refusal to publicly stand against him serves as proxy of fealty.

But it's a very wrong frame. Elected Republicans avoiding potential political suicide by opposing the President is not equivalent to personal fealty.

Congress just trashed the President's testing, PPE, payroll tax cut ideas - which has been routine the last 4 years.

There's lots of dissent but it's not publicized - intentionally - because that's bad politics for Republicans. It's a great way to lose their job.

Polarized politics ties tighter links between members and their party leader.

But in this instance, the personal angle blurs the obvious point. Trump's disappearance solves nothing. All of the members in this thread will return next Congress if they want to (save maybe 1). Cheney, Jordan, Gohmert, and others will continue their spats...

Never mind the fact these disputes are decades old. It stretches back to Republican Study Committee, Gingrich, the Conservative Opportunity Society, the Bush presidency, and the Tea Party wave.

It pre-dates Trump... by a lot.

If you think HFC will disappear if Trump loses, reconsider. Cheney may try to posture for the best position, but any theoretical future Republican majority includes the HFC+other members in this thread. It's a faction that has swelled its ranks in the last 4 years.

Trump is an important inflection point but there's a much larger dynamic at work as well. If anything, the Party has been largely defined by extreme stances for the better part of a decade.

Another landslide for Rs will weaken the elected "moderates" currently serving and swell the ratio of more right-wing members as they replace safe incumbents. There's been an unusually high attrition rate through retirements under Trump.

This fight has been underway years before Trump. It's clear who's been winning so far. But unless the underlying conservative structure that's enabled this Republican transformation ebb, it's unclear how Trump's disappearance aids some establishment wing of the party.

Being on the "right side" of the wrong side of a landslide, which is what many fashion as Cheney's current tact, won't be a definitive win for her or her party.