It is undeniable that being a Republican member of Congress from a blue state in the Age of Trump is like juggling chain saws on a unicycle. So one wonders what these lawmakers thought when the president told his rabid rally-goers last week to follow his advice when they're in the polling booth on Nov. 6: "Pretend I'm on the ballot," he cooed.

It is an impossible predicament for a veteran legislator like Leonard Lance. He is in the "what elephant?" stage of these proceedings, and there is no escaping it: The voters pulling levers in Central Jersey on Election Day have a right to ask what Donald Trump has done for America, for New Jersey, and for the 7th District, other than clogging the roads around Bedminster on weekends.

And they would be justified in believing that the issues championed by Trump and Republican leadership cling to Lance like a Tiberian bat, as he faces a formidable election challenge from Democrat Tom Malinowski.

Lance argues that his moderate voice can move Republicans to the sensible center, as long as moderate Democrats are also willing to save Congress from its creeping degradation. The flaw in his argument is that the few remaining GOP moderates are either retiring or have abandoned principles for politics by hitching their wagons to Trump, for whom moderation is the dirtiest word in the political lexicon.

Lance has never succeeded in this effort and never will, particularly with big issues such as health care and tax reform. Even when he tries to do the right thing, he is reduced to irrelevance.

Take health care. Affordability is the No. 1 issue in the 7th, which covers six counties, and the voters have already been told that another Republican majority will try to neuter the Affordable Care Act again. Why should New Jerseyans trust Lance to save health care? He has already voted dozens of times to tear up the ACA, and though he voted against its last repeal in May 2017, he helped move a very similar bill out of the Energy and Commerce Committee for a floor vote two months earlier. Lance also helped sabotage the ACA by voting to end subsidies and the mandate to buy insurance, measures that drove up premiums.

Or consider the Republicans' signature achievement under Trump, the 2017 tax plan that capped the state and local tax deduction. It is anathema to voters throughout New Jersey. Lance, like three other GOP representatives from our state, was not in favor of it. But voters must weigh the logic of electing a Republican candidate - particularly one incapable of thwarting the GOP goal of making these tax cuts permanent - instead of a Democrat who would work to repeal them.

Even when Lance gets it right, he vacillates.

Consider the environment: He once supported the fight against climate change, but abandoned the cause as his party moved to the right. Now he is against a carbon tax and cap-and-trade, the only pragmatic solutions at a time the planet is burning. His most recent explanation is that it wouldn't pass Congress. He also wants an "all of the above" energy policy, which means he won't denounce coal.

On immigration, he voted against the original Dream Act, and as recently as 2016 he ran ads opposing "Obama's amnesty for illegals." That helped create the policy mess we are in now, with the president who uses human beings for legislative ransom. Lance has since changed his mind, and supports Dreamers.

These are just two examples, but his opponent has no trouble spotting a trend: "Leonard is a weather vane," Malinowski said. "And the problem with a weather vane is that it doesn't change the way the wind is blowing."

Malinowski has worked at the highest echelons of government - serving on Bill Clinton's National Security Council and as Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama - and he spent 12 years fighting tyranny around the globe as the Washington director of the indispensable Human Rights Watch.

On policy, he favors a public option that allows people to buy into Medicare, given the baked-in cost controls. He favors a repeal of the tax plan and supports cap-and-trade. He wants comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for the undocumented, and more high-tech surveillance to monitor the border. He has the gravitas to be a leader on issues that matter to New Jersey.

Lance, meanwhile, votes with Trump 87 percent of the time. That is intolerable if there's another GOP majority in both houses: The ACA, Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, the Mueller investigation, and the environment would all be in jeopardy. Dream Act? Fat chance. Gateway funding? No chance.

This is not about the quality of the man's soul. No one can summon an unkind word about this model of forbearance from Hunterdon County. But the paradigm for choosing our representatives has changed, and we can no longer afford effete lawmakers who feed Trump's dogmatic arrogance. The Star-Ledger endorses Tom Malinowski.

The GOP members of the Problem Solvers Caucus have the votes right now to force action on bipartisan bills in the House. Why won’t they? pic.twitter.com/0RiVQjQ589 — Tom Malinowski (@Malinowski) October 23, 2018

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