We need a return of old-fashioned Republicans like Liz Cheney

For younger people reading this, you may not know what I am talking about. Perhaps you’re too young to remember a time when Republicans weren’t sending Christmas cards where they posed with assault rifles, or the protagonists of embarrassing outbursts during the president’s State of the Union address.

I was born in the mid-1980s, when state and national politicians were more or less normal, behaved decently in public and could work across the aisle to get the job done. For instance, when I was 8, Roe v. Wade was reaffirmed by a conservative court in a 5-4 decision in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. I was 10 when, in 1994, then-President Bill Clinton signed the assault weapons ban with bipartisan support.

The conservatives I grew up with in the ’80s, ’90s and even 2000s were able to comport themselves in a way that was worthy of the institution they were elected to serve in. Back then, Republicans were not a threat to our democracy. They were not an embarrassment, or a liability, to the country.

I miss those conservatives.