La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Growing up as an Ike-Republican gives me a unique vantage point. Republicans used to support family values, the environment, the Constitution and the rule of our laws. The U.S. president used to be a leader, not a liar.

Longtime Senator Slade Gorton, a Washington Republican, passed away recently. This marks the end of moderate Republicans in Washington State – a party Gorton would no longer recognize as the Republican Party, now under the domination of Donald Trump.

This year, shortly before his death, Gorton threw his support behind Raul Garcia, a Yakima doctor who shared Gorton’s...