Take back the party, Republicans

The Republican Party is being taken over by the deplorables. Unless the good people of the GOP stand up and fight for their principles, they will lose out to the Thugpublicans, aka President Donald Trump’s alt-right goons.

Montana’s newly elected congressman, Greg Gianforte, is just the latest flesh-and-blood example of a deplorable. If you were never quite sure what that term referred to, now you can be clear. We generally know them as criminals.

Sean Urbanski is also a deplorable alt-right goon. He recently took his rage to the extreme and stabbed an unsuspecting Richard Collins III to death at the University of Maryland.

There is a growing movement of violent extremism in our country and we must all stand up and reject it.

Do we want to follow the lead of ISIS and adopt violent hate as a social norm? Murder is not acceptable, right?

But we now have a president who admires and praises murderers. He courts support from thugs like Gianforte and Wisconsin Sheriff David Clarke and refuses to denounce hate crimes. Trump scolds our allies, while cozying up to murderous dictators like the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

This should be a wake-up call. Republicans, please follow the leadership of people like John Kasich and stand up to the ignorance that is overtaking your party.

This story was originally published June 23, 2017 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Take back the party, Republicans."