It could seem that in political circles, courage has almost become its own cottage industry. Cassidy Hutchinson is just the latest to capitalize on her fifteen minutes of courage. Obviously, her testimony took a lot longer than fifteen minutes and I’m sure the decision to testify was an agonizing one. Yet, her courage is a lot more inspiring than that of Mitt Romney.

Testifying and simply telling the truth seems ordinary and I suppose in some points of our history it might have been. One of the considerations here is in describing what Hutchinson is giving up. She is 27 years old. She had a bright future in GOP politics. How many people are capable of being the chief aide to the White House chief of staff in their mid twenties?

So, while the book and the accompanying tour on MSNBC might seem craven and self-interested, we have to remember that her lot in life has been cast. Maybe she lands with MSNBC or another center-left outlet, but in the meantime she is a pariah in GOP circles. This doesn’t even mention that everyone knows her face and we can’t calculate what kind of effect this will have on her personal life.

The personal accounts of what both Rudy Giuliani and Matt Gaetz did to her are disgusting and yet completely believable. We have to remember, she was willing to tell the truth while everyone else was scurrying for the exit. This plays into the little things we don’t think about when someone like her is willing to simply speak the truth about their collective experience.

This is wholly different than Romney and most politicians are like Romney. He is retiring from the senate. He is retiring from public life. His book is essentially his mic drop moment. Everyone of us has that fantasy in our head about who we would tell off and exactly what we would say on retirement day. Most of us don’t follow through. After all, what’s the point? However, he is throwing his hat on sideways, yelling “deuces” and exiting stage left. Sure, he is telling the truth and in a party dominated by liars, but who are we really trying to kid here?

Anyone that is 27 is a kid to me. I’ve taught people that are now 40 years old. I’m trying to imagine any of them in Hutchinson’s shoes. I’ve had some ex-students do some pretty remarkable things. Some are lawyers. Some our doctors. I even have one or two that went into movies and the music industry. I don’t know how many would have the courage to do what Hutchinson did.

I don’t think they would have lied. They would likely have done their civic duty and testified behind closed doors, but this was a story America needed to hear for themselves. This is a story that will take her path in life and throw it on a completely new track. Why shouldn’t see make a few dollars along the way? It will help cushion the blow as she does a hard reset on her life.