Two weeks ago I wrote about the need for the Democratic Party to again find a vital and pragmatic center, and its soul – in empathy for all people who are down and through economic opportunity.

I wrote about the need of the Democrats to de-woke and de-left themselves lest they be slaughtered electorally in 2022 and 2024.

They must be a liberal and centrist party once again, not a leftist one.

The essence of modern (as opposed to classical) liberalism is progress with compassion – to increase prosperity for the many while offering a helping hand to those who need it.

How about the Republicans?

Have they also lost their soul, their center, their direction?

They certainly have.

And their intellectual and internal corruption is far deeper than what ails the Democrats, which is perennial distraction, trivialization and disorganization.

The Republicans have made a Faustian bargain.

And I see no easy road back, which is both frightening and tragic. Because depending on the Democrats to save us from yahoo populism, what we used to call John Birch-ism, and, increasingly, authoritarianism, is like depending on teenagers to prevent drownings on an ocean beach: You hope they will be strong and vigilant, but it would be well if at least one adult was also on duty.

There are adults on duty in the Republican ranks of the Congress, along with many juvenile delinquents. But most of the grown-ups have gone silent. They are afraid of Trump voters. They are afraid to try to lead or educate them. And they are afraid of Donald Trump himself, who loves to purge.

Just as no Democrat these days wants to be dubbed a conservative or pro-life Democrat (there used to be such things), lest he be primaried, no Republican who values his political life wants to be called a RINO, or disloyal, by Mr. Trump.

This is profoundly, comically and almost cruelly ironic because Mr. Trump was not a Republican for most of his life. And on the day he left office, almost a year ago, he had apparently decided he was going to leave the Republican Party and start his own party.

That would have been a good thing.

But cowardice plagues Republican office holders. And two other things: One is cynicism. The second is that motion toward authoritarianism.

The cynicism is in playing along with Trump populism. For the jury is now in: Channeling discontentment will not bring back coal, steel or small-town America.

Mr. Trump recognized the hollowing out of middle America and the damage the North American Free Trade Agreement did to the working class. But so did the United Auto Workers – long ago. And, many years ago, so did Ralph Nader and Ross Perot. Mr. Trump connected with the anger and the angry in a personal and visceral way.

It changed nothing.

I am still not sure most Democratic office holders get it. I am not sure they understand why voters hate the elites who have ruled the country for the last 50 years – the folks who crashed the economy in 2008 and gave us the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq, which working class kids and poor kids fought.

Our elites are the same folks who gave us the ruination that is Youngstown, Ohio, where entire neighborhoods have been shut down – water turned off and streets closed. And the closed plant at nearby Lordstown, where American workers built good cars that Americans could afford and their company sent their jobs to Mexico anyway.

But I am very sure the Republicans don’t get it. They have nothing for Youngstown, or Lorain or the Mon Valley. And they have no ideas for rural and small-town America, except, make Obama fail, make Biden fail and “let’s go Brandon.”

But even worse than the fake populism is the embrace of authoritarianism: Let’s try to steal an election after accusing the other guys of trying to do so. Let’s ban books that upset us. And let’s heroize teenage vigilantes who carry big guns they don’t know how to use. The appearance of young Mr. Rittenhouse in Mar-a-Lago was predictable.

I wish to God the Republicans had let Mr. Trump go when he wanted to go. They could have started over.

What they still could do, and what they must do, is this: Make the 2024 presidential primaries a race. Don’t just coronate Donald Trump. Hold a real primary season, a true contest.

There are serious public servants who could offer an alternative – Rob Portman, Mitch Daniels, maybe Chris Christie (who would not roll over like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio). Maybe Mike Pence. Maybe the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis. Or the new governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin. Or Paul Ryan. Perhaps someone now largely unknown will emerge. Remember Wendell Willkie?

I can tell you this: I know both rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders who think that Trump Round II would be devastating for their party. They are waiting to be led.

But someone in the party, at some point, will have to have the guts to stand up to the bully, to fake populism and to creeping authoritarianism.

Someone will have to come up with some actual ideas, the way Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan and Jack Kemp did. Not just grievance but ideas. Maybe Americans can help each other without bankrupting the next two generations. Doesn’t that sound like a Republican idea worthy of the country?

You can’t tell me that a modern Reagan, or McCain or Colin Powell could not stand up to Donald Trump. Perhaps he would lose, in the end, but he would be a hero, and the Republican Party and the commonweal would be the better for his challenge.

Someone will have to stand up, in the party of Lincoln, for the party of Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt, and Calvin Coolidge and Eisenhower.

What is the essence, the soul, of the Republican Party? I’ll give it to you in three words: limited, constitutional government. That is the great principle that is missing in the Republican Party of 2021 and the principle that must be recovered for the party to serve the nation and deserve survival.

Keith C. Burris is the former editor, vice president and editorial director of Block Newspapers (burriscolumn@gmail.com).

First Published: December 5, 2021, 10:45 a.m.