There are two things I am tired of saying to Republican lawmakers who stand up to Trump.

  1. What took you so long?
  2. Why couldn’t you do this before you announced you’re not running for office again?

It’s not like I don’t want people like Bob Corker and Jeff Flake to denounce Trumpism, and I welcome Michigan Rep. Paul Mitchell’s decision today to quit the Republican Party. But Mitchell is retiring so his decision is more about preserving his reputation for posterity than about fighting back in Congress against his party’s abandonment of representative democracy.

Here’s what I want to see. I want to see Republicans say what needs to be said and then fight for their jobs in a Republican primary. If they lose, they lose, but at least they’re fighting for real rather than accepting defeat before they’re willing to speak up.

I actively detest Mitt Romney and think he is one of the most dishonest people America has ever seen at the highest echelons of our politics, but at least he’s voted to remove Trump from power and continues to speak against him without first deciding to retire. If he loses his safe Utah Senate seat to a Republican  challenger as a result, he’ll still know that he did the right thing, but if he wins it he’ll actually give his colleagues courage to follow his example.