Reading the many heartfelt reflections on the passing of our respected Representative William Clinger, I’m hoping the public will continue to draw valuable lessons from his political life.

He served the Republican party faithfully, managing to combine policy and principle, and when the time came that he could no longer do both, he stepped away from the distressing presidency of Donald Trump.

As a slightly-left-of-middle Democrat, I’m fully aware that we need a functioning Republican party. At present we don’t have one. A large segment of the former party has drifted off into a bizarre set of notions that would make a cat laugh (pedophile Democrats? Jewish space lasers?!) and has shown resolve only in the matter of recounting those damn votes until they get a number that suits them. Sorry, but that’s not how it works. There was no massive voter fraud, and sensible people know it.

Now if the difference in the popular count had been, say, 20,000, there would be grounds for extra-careful examination, but it was over 7 million. Time to quit. Biden is president.

The segment of county Republicans that concerns me is those who know better, and who grieve at what the Party of Lincoln has become. The party today has no policies other than to block everything Democrats want to do. And that is no policy, just as Trump’s goal of destroying every constructive measure of the Obama administration was no policy.

Unless enough rational Republicans can step away from the delusionals and form a functioning organization, we are in some sense done for. The platform for such a party would feature first of all the acceptance of officially sanctioned vote counts, and second, rational cooperation with the other party in place of mindless obstruction.

Please remember: Party affiliation isn’t like marriage; you can easily change it. And it doesn’t matter if your grandpa would be spinning in his grave if you voted Democratic.

Grandpa no longer cares. Do the right thing for the country and work to form a Republican Party that functions, or cross over to the Democrats, or if that’s too much of a stretch, there’s always the Independents. But don’t just be sad about what’s become of your party. Do something.

Dr. Karen Black is a Warren resident.