Story highlights David Jolly: Congressional Republicans should respond to Trump's nonsensical approach to policy by ignoring him

The President can own his own legacy, members of the GOP Congress don't have to be involved

David Jolly is a former Republican congressman from Florida. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) With President Donald Trump's nonsensical Twitter approach to both domestic and foreign policy, his tweets regularly descending into depravity, congressional Republicans often find themselves facing the question: "Do you agree with the President's irreverence and self-contradictions, and if not, what will you do to restore sanity -- to restore credibility, dignity?"

David Jolly

We have seen too many of them answer by remaining silent, or dodging, or merely offering their own 140-character criticism that distances themselves from the President. At best, those are attempts to quell the American people's anxiety over the President's behavior. At worst, they come across as affirmations of the public's suspicion that the GOP is only interested in self-preservation.

But in the eyes of many, to simply criticize the President and then immediately return to working with him is a tacit acceptance of his approach to a free press — which smacks of authoritarianism -- his subtle misogyny, and his perversion of what was once respected conservative ideology: He has turned it into a platform for self-promotion that draws its strength from our country's darkest angels.

It is fair for both the media and concerned voters to demand more: a tangible, substantive GOP strategy that honestly confronts the President's waywardness in policy and personal integrity.

Congressional Republicans' response should be this: Ignore the President. Isolate him.

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