Okay, let’s take a word association quiz. List all the thoughts that come to mind when you hear the name “Liz Cheney.” If you included any of the following, you get an A for accuracy:

Daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Former GOP member of the House of Representatives. Former chairwoman of the House Republican Conference. A leading ideological conservative. Consistently voted in favor of Donald Trump’s overall agenda.

But here’s the rub. If your list did not include the word “patriot” then please try again. Go deeper. Think harder. If you still can’t associate the name Liz Cheney with the word “patriot,” then you might want to take down the flag which flies in front of your house or in the back of your pickup truck. In my mind, Cheney’s courageous stance since Jan. 6, 2021 exemplifies the values of a true patriot, someone who genuinely believes in America and the Constitution.

As you recall, Cheney served as vice chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. She ultimately voted to impeach Trump, and she paid a huge political price for doing so. House Republicans stripped her of party leadership. She was censured by the Republican National Committee in February 2022. On Aug. 16, 2022, she lost renomination in Wyoming’s Republican primary to Trump-endorsed Harriet Hageman in a landslide, garnering just 28.9% of the vote.

Cheney was thrown out of the Republican Party because she refused to go along with Trump’s false stolen-election narrative and, even worse, she refused to grant him amnesty for leading an insurrection on the capital. Apparently, it’s not nice to hold Donald Trump to account for anything. Let’s face facts: The Republican Party is no longer the Republican Party; it is the Trump party. And by the way, Trump is neither a Republican nor a conservative; he is … Trump.

Fortunately, Liz Cheney is not alone in her belief that Trump is a dictator. Last month, more than 100 former members of Congress and national security officials from previous Republican administrations signed a letter calling Trump “unfit to serve again” as president.

Please ask yourselves why Cheney and all those former members of Congress and national security officials are sounding the alarm. Are they just sissies? Weak wimps? Treasonous RINOS. (Remember most of them are Republicans.) Or are they patriotic Americans who genuinely believe that Trump is a threat to our future? Give it some good thought before answering.

While you’re thinking, burn into your brain what the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Miller said about Donald Trump: “He is the most dangerous person ever. I had suspicions when I talked about his mental decline and so forth, but now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is now the most dangerous person in this country.”

Billionaire Mark Cuban, American investor and businessman, has a message for those who believe that Trump would be better for the economy. “There is no good reason to vote for Trump as the business candidate.”

Some people, including this observer, wonder how anyone could possibly still support a convicted felon like Trump, especially given his off-the-wall rantings and ravings over the past few months. Eric Hoffer’s 1951 book on authoritarianism (“The True Believer”) helps explain the situation. He noted that demagogues appeal to a disaffected population whose members feel they have lost the power they previously held, that have been displaced either religiously, economically, culturally or politically. Such people are willing to follow a leader who promises to return them to their former positions of prominence and thus make the nation great again.

To cement their loyalty, the leader has to give them someone to hate. Who that is doesn’t really matter; the group simply has to be blamed for all the troubles the leader’s supporters are suffering. Trump has kept his base firmly behind him by demonizing immigrants, the media, and, increasingly, Democrats, deflecting his own shortcomings by blaming these groups for undermining him.

Before concluding, let’s provide some relevant tidbits. Did you know that the S&P 500 has achieved an average compound annual growth rate of 9.8% under Democratic presidents and 6% under Republican presidents since 1951?

The Committee on a Responsible Federal Budget has made economic forecasts based on the campaign promises of Harris and Trump. Vice President Harris would add $3.50 trillion to the projected debt through Fiscal Year (FY) 2035 under our central estimate, as a result of $7.25 trill of deficit-increasing measures, $4.25 trillion of deficit-reducing measures, and $500 billion of interest costs. President Trump would add $7.50 trillion to the projected debt through FY 2035 under our central estimate, as a result of $10.20 trillion of deficit-increasing measures, $3.70 trillion of deficit-reducing measures, and $1.00 trillion of interest costs.

Here’s what Liz Cheney said at the beginning of the hearings on the Jan. 6 attack:

“The question for every one of us who serves in Congress, for every elected official across this great nation — indeed for every American — is this. Will we adhere to the rule of law? Will we respect the rulings of our courts? Will we preserve the peaceful transition of power? Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America? Do we hate our political adversaries more than we love our country and revere our Constitution? I pray that that is not the case. I pray that we all remember. Our children are watching. As we carry out the solemn and sacred duty entrusted to us, our children will know who stood for truth, and they will inherit the nation we hand to them — a republic, if we can keep it.”

Liz Cheney is a patriot. Are you?

David Treadwell, a Brunswick writer, welcomes commentary and suggestions for future “Just a Little Old” columns at dtreadw575@aol.com.