My regular reader (Hi Jeff!) will likely recall that I often spend time in these columns excoriating the modern Republican Party for becoming little more than the party of Trump. Principled Republicans, at least on the national level, seem few and far between. Recall, please, the remarkable floor speech that then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in the wake of the insurrection attack on Jan. 6.

McConnell said, “The mob was fed lies. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people.” He went on to attack the ongoing Team Trump effort to overturn the results of the election, noting “If this election were overturned by mere allegations from the losing side, our democracy would enter a death spiral. We’d never see the whole nation accept the election again …We cannot simply declare ourselves a national board of election on steroids…It would be unfair and wrong to disenfranchise American voters and overrule the courts and states on this extraordinary thin basis, I will vote to respect the people’s decision and defend our system of government as we know it.” Strong words and actual leadership from the supposed leader of the Senate Republicans. 

But it didn’t last…

Fast forward to now, and you have seen a remarkable and disheartening transformation as McConnell has, once again, collapsed in fear of Trump. He now opposes the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate the greatest attack on our Capitol since the British tried to burn it down in 1814. Last January, we saw the vile confederate flag marched through the sacred halls of what should be our bastion of democracy, and in response, we see the Senate GOP leaders now caving in to a radical and false narrative of fake voter fraud, all because they cannot cut the ties that bind them to a failed real estate developer.

I was reminded of the sadness of this turn of events this week when I learned of the passing of a great American, retired Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner of Virginia. Warner was the very model of a principled Republican and of a great American. Having served in in the Navy during World War II and in the Marine Corps in the Korean war, Warner would spend the rest of his long life in public service.

While I often differed with Warner on some, but not all, specific policies, I had great respect for him as the kind of honorable and trustworthy Republican with whom one could genuinely work. He was consistent and moral in both his actions and beliefs. After his retirement from the Senate, he went to work for a think tank working on climate change issues, because he understood what so many in the GOP today do not: that climate change is not a partisan issue but rather is a grave threat to our nation and to the world. Warner was especially worried that China would take the lead on solar cell manufacturing and in other key industries in a warming world. 

History has proven his concerns to be spot on.

In 2009, I was honored to have the senator as a guest speaker in my political science class at the US Air Force Academy. His office called me a few days before his visit, because Sen. Warner wanted me to bring him a copy of the climate change paper I had written while working at the White House back in 1997. I was honored that he knew of my small bit of work and that he was interested. Upon giving him a copy, he handed it back with a smile and said that I should autograph it for him, which I was quite honored to do. 

In speaking to my classes, Warner cautioned that China was spending over $200 million per day on solar and other alternative energy production systems. He told the cadets that he was quite worried that when his political party finally woke up regarding climate change, we would find a world in which the only place from which to buy the needed hardware would be China. Warner strongly supported solar energy research and production on American soil, so that when the time finally came, Americans could buy solar energy systems from fellow Americans.  Warner always put country before party.

Sen. Warner had a long life that was well lived. My own life is enriched by our few hours together. It is both disquieting and deeply disappointing to think that a man like Warner likely could not even get a GOP nomination for office these days, given his so-called “progressive” views on the environment. I await the day that the GOP wakes up, removes the intellectual and moral shackles of Trump, and again embraces the type of leader we saw in Sen. John Warner. 

Semper Fi, Sir, and I hope your party can find its way home soon.