LETTER: The Lincoln Project is grounded in principle

In her Sunday column, Debra Saunders condescendingly calls the ex-Republicans of The Lincoln Project “no-longer-wanted luminaries.” Ms. Sanders obviously does not understand that the members of the The Lincoln Project left the GOP on their own out of principle.

John Weaver, Steve Schmidt and Stuart Stevens — among others in the project — were responsible for management and strategy of Republican presidential campaigns at the highest levels for years before the ascension of Donald Trump. They clearly saw him as a dangerous, unfit individual in 2016 who would wreck the United States and the GOP. They left the party over it while speaking out vociferously against Mr. Trump and the party since that time.

As Mr. Stevens indicated in a recent interview, Mr. Trump is not an aberration. He is the result of decades of the Republican’s Party’s cultivated image as a white grievance party. He also goes on to say that the GOP’s above-ground platform of national security, hawkish foreign policy, national debt reduction, family values, etc. were all lies in the interest of obtaining and consolidating power, as evidenced by the party’s jettisoning of those ideals unceremoniously when Mr. Trump was nominated.

Mr. Stuart additionally notes that he and some of his fellow members had a hand in employing some of the worst parts of Republican campaign tactics — such as racial division, cultural intolerance and blatant disinformation campaigns — and they are doing their part to redeem themselves and what might be left of the party when Mr. Trump is gone. They recognize that country is in ruin due to Mr. Trump and the current GOP and are committed to helping a Biden administration and a Democratic congress clean up the resulting mess and heal the nation.

Ms. Sanders needs to get a clue in recognizing moral principle over hyperbole. Perhaps she no longer knows the difference.