Republicans have a chance to reboot their party – Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

I used to be a Republican. As a teenager, I wondered if Uncle Ken, the only Democrat in the family, was really a Christian.

When in college, I doorbelled for Richard Nixon. Later, I worked two years for a Republican U.S. senator in his Washington, D.C., office, observing bipartisanship first hand.

In the 1990s I attended Republican precinct caucuses and county and state conventions. I instinctively skewered anything a Democrat said; and just the sound of Sen. Harry Reids voice nauseated me.

But in 2007 I asked myself if I could be objective enough to see the holes in things Republicans said. It was easier than I expected, because the Republican Party was beginning to go crazy.

Then in 2016, Republicans made a pact with the devil by lining up behind Donald Trump; and now hell is demanding payment.

It is only a willful minority dominating the Republican Party. But their disregard for traditional Republican values and the constitution has trashed the party. It has become not just anti-Democrat, but anti-democracy.

Republicans have a chance to reboot their party. But it requires a courageous choice between the Party of Lincoln and the Party of Trump. You cant have both. I ask Republicans, what do you want your party to be and to stand for?

The GOP could be the net winner. No doubt some in the Trump base will no longer be energized to vote Republican. But the party can reclaim a larger number in the middle both independents and Republicans who have been voting for Democrats.

Republicans did as well as they did in Novembers U.S. Senate and House elections because a lot of people voted for traditional Republican values such as fiscal conservatism and good government even as they voted against Trump.

But Republicans ultimately lost the Senate because the subsequent Georgia run-offs became more narrowly focused on Trump.

It wont be as simple as repudiating Donald Trump, although that is an important first step. It will require standing up to continuing Trump threats. (Do you want Eric Trump calling the shots in your party?)

And it will take time. The degradation has been years in the making; the unmaking will also take years.

I can vote for the Party of Lincoln, but not the Party of Trump. I hope to see courage win over cowardice.

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Republicans have a chance to reboot their party - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin