It’s gratifying to see the Colorado Republican Party begin to take the necessary steps to restore credibility to the party after voters rejected Dave Williams and his reign of chaos in the recent primary election.

Williams lost the Republican primary for the 5th Congressional District resoundingly to Jeff Crank. And now both the Republican State Central Committee and the El Paso County Republican Party are pushing hard to remove Williams from leadership positions in the party after 16 months of divisiveness, financial abuse and hate stirred up by the destabilizing state party leader.

Makes me wonder how long it will take the national Republican Party to finally do the same with the equally divisive, chaotic and unethical Donald Trump, who happened to endorse Williams.

Fortunately, some of the party’s most revered elder statesmen, former Sens. John Danforth (Mo.), William Cohen (Maine) and Alan Simpson (Wyo.), have just engaged the battle. They recently launched an organization and campaign to restore the party to traditionalist Republican roots.

“Recently it has become popular to assert that this traditional brand of Republicanism is dead, replaced by a new populist, radical version,” the three wrote in a recent oped in The Washington Post. “We disagree. In our view, traditional Republicanism, though currently in eclipse, is no more extinct than the sun was over portions of the country on April 8. And all of us who believe in it must do what we can to ensure its expeditious return.”

To facilitate their party’s comeback, the three senators and a growing number of other former GOP officeholders and officials are forming a new organization within the party — “Our Republican Legacy.”

“This new group will serve as a big tent for all of us who believe in what the party has been and must continue to be,” the senators wrote.

The initiative is pressing for the return of five principles that historically have defined the party and that these Republicans believe are missing now.

Those principles are:

A recommitment to the Constitution, including acceptance of the vote of the people, obedience to the decisions of our courts and support for the peaceful transfer of power.

“We think Jan. 6, 2021, the date of the mob assault on the Capitol, was one of the darkest days in U.S. history, and the events leading to that assault were direct attacks on our constitutional order,” the grand old men wrote.

A recommitment to being the party of union. “We stand against the divisive tactics of both right and left that divide “us against them” by exploiting emotions of grievance and rage.”

Fiscal responsibility. The senators complain that the GOP in recent years has joined Democrats in abandoning that responsibility by dramatically expanding the national debt.

Free enterprise. “We support the private sector as the source of prosperity against big government interventions such as high protective tariffs and price controls.” It was Trump, of course, who slapped high tariffs on Chinese goods. 

And peace through strength. “Our Republican Legacy” believes in “unwavering” support for our allies, as opposed to Trump’s desire to back away from some of those commitments, including military support for Ukraine.

These principles contrast mightily with the trimmed-back party platform just announced by the Trump wing of the party. The new platform is really all about one man’s priorities, not these time-honored ones, which Simpson said have been consistent Republican cornerstones since the days of Reagan, Eisenhower and Teddy Roosevelt, going all the way back to Lincoln.

Initial members who have signed onto the new campaign include former Speaker of the House John Boehner, former Vice President Dan Quayle, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, former Rep. Charlie Dent and 25 other prominent Republicans.

These stalwarts just don’t think Republicans should settle for the way things are right now in the party — at all. They are the national equivalents of state GOP vice chair Todd Watkins, Jefferson County Republican Party leader Nancy Pallozzi and former state chair Dick Wadhams, who are leading the call for the return of a more principled party again in Colorado.

I spoke to Sens. Simpson and Danforth recently about their effort, and Danforth said the idea is to keep some ember of the true Republican Party burning so that it can reemerge from this weird, troubled, divisive time.

The group will not be a lobbying organization or a political action committee. And Danforth said the organization will not tell people how to vote in 2024 or beyond, but you get a strong sense from their website that they believe people should not vote for Donald Trump.

Our Republican Legacy “will be a digital rallying place for all of those currently dispirited about the state of our party and see nowhere to go with their beliefs,” the senators said. “It will be an information hub — a center of news and commentary and ideas about strategies and tactics.”

“In short, this group will be a catalyst for a movement to reassert traditional Republicanism against the populist version it has become under Donald Trump.”

Danforth said the group is raising money and enlisting more members to get the word out and offer an alternative to Trump’s message. I spoke to Danforth and Simpson before the debate, so we didn’t have a conversation about whether the group believes Donald Trump should step aside after his truth-challenged performance. I’m sure such seasoned politicians don’t really believe that’s a possibility right now, but I’m confident they would welcome such a development with open arms.

It’s interesting to me that Democrats are all in a tizzy about replacing Biden after his senior moments during the debate, but there’s no real talk about replacing Trump after his felon conviction and unending stream of lies and threats and often incoherent bombast at the debate, I guess because we’re all so used to it by now.

But make no mistake: Our Republican Legacy was launched as a resistance movement to Trump and his populist brand of politics, and sees Republicans who are colluding with Trump as misguided and irresponsible.

“Many Republicans have given up on trying to winch their party out the populist ditch,” wrote Simpson, Danforth and Cohen. “National resistance has been missing. Our Republican Legacy will provide that resistance and do so with credible leadership and sufficient funding and will continue as a force well beyond the November election.”

When asked on CNN why this effort is any different than past efforts to move beyond Trump, Dent, an adviser to Our Republican Legacy, said, “Yeah, others are trying, too. But we’ve got some heft behind us. We’re just getting started. We’re going to be well capitalized. And we’re serious about it. We think there needs to be a strong alternative narrative to the MAGA movement.”

Matt Gorman, former adviser to one-time Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott, asked on CNN where this movement was during the Republican primary races that just nominated Trump. He also pointed out that the youngest founder of the movement is 83 years old, and was last in office when Gorman was in the third grade.

Dent responded that the message is timeless, regardless of the age of the messengers.

“The Republican Party is divided. It’s not evenly divided but it is divided,” he added. “Many Republicans don’t want a criminal defendant as their nominee. They want something better.

“We’ve got to get to a much better place.”

If Colorado can do it, why can’t the country?