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What’s happened to the Republican Party we used to know? I remember when being a fiscal conservative was a hallmark of the Republican party. Today they have rejected that philosophy by endorsing a spending bill that will add trillions to our federal deficit.

The last Democratic president left us with a growing economy, deficits under control and 15 million fewer Americans without health insurance. More jobs were created in our former president’s last 16 months than in Trump’s first 16 months. And instead of trying to fix our immigration system, Trump and his supporters have committed atrocities at our border by separating children from the parents of those seeking asylum in our country.

As well-known writer Max Boot, a foreign policy adviser to John McCain in 2008 and to Mitt Romney in 2012, reminded Republicans recently, “You used to belong to a conservative party with a white-national fringe. Now it’s a white nationalist party with a conservative fringe. “

Another GOP moderate, Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, has also resigned from the party. “I became a member of the Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life,” Schmidt wrote. “Today, I renounce my membership. It is fully the party of Trump.”

Boot says, “I’ve thrown up my hands in despair at the debased state of the GOP. I don’t want to be identified with the party of child-snatchers.”

JIM RAMSEY

Sandpoint