It’s not the Grand Obnoxious Party

Whether he’s a tinhorn dictator fighting to stay in power or an uncouth spoiled child who doesn’t realize how easy it is to incite violence, it’s time for America to move on from President Donald Trump.

We don’t have to be as high-handed as he sometimes has been and throw him out the way Speaker (and de facto new president) Nancy Pelosi is insisting on doing.

We can wait until next Wednesday. No one but violent fringe fanatics are paying attention to him anyway.

We don’t have to disrespect him in the process. His office is worthy of respect, and many of his policies, including his constant questioning of big government, are worthy of praise. But like any hero in a Greek tragedy, he also has perhaps more than his share of flaws.

For Republicans, the key thing is to make sure they move on without him, just as the nation will.

The Republican Party believes in limited government, not no government. It’s the party that ended slavery, anti-competitive trusts, segregation, and the Cold War. It created national parks, environmental protection, interstate highways, and the nation’s space program. It supported, rather than demonized, education. It even was instrumental in supporting family planning.

It’s time for a new generation of leadership in the Republican Party — leadership tied not to the politics of hate and division but to the hope of common sense and the lessening of burdens on average Americans.

It should be a caring party, unlike other parties that simply throw money at causes, enact mazes of regulations aimed at social engineering, or eliminate any sense of personal responsibility.

Reform the Republican Party with an equally focused but more tempered zeal than President Trump demonstrated in trying to reform America and there’s a good chance the Republican Party can survive.

Fail and it may be time to consider starting a new party, just as Abraham Lincoln and other original Republicans did when existing parties failed to act responsibly.

— ERIC MEYER