While Republicans currently in office and hoping to be re-elected are fretting about how close they have to stay to Donald Trump to avoid alienating their party’s base, even as Trump alienates independent voters, former Republican officeholders are somewhat more free to express themselves, and 30 of them have written a letter opposing Trump:

… more than half of the former lawmakers on the list are announcing their opposition to Trump for the first time. The group includes former committee chairmen, lawmakers from swing states with decades of experience on Capitol Hill, one of the first openly gay members of Congress, and one member who led investigations on Capitol Hill into scandals involving the Clintons. “Our party's nominee this year is a man who makes a mockery of the principles and values we have cherished and which we sought to represent in Congress,” the group said in a statement.

That’s a nice sentiment, but let’s not get carried away. Donald Trump is undoubtedly ruder and cruder and blunter than your standard Republican politician, but his policies are not radically out of step with today’s Republican Party, as the letter almost acknowledges, saying “it is not policy alone that determines one’s fitness for office.”

Trump is not that far from a Rep. Steve King on immigration, for instance, and King has been an influential figure in how House Republicans handle immigration. Trump may turn the dog whistle into a bullhorn, and pepper it with personal insults, but there’s a reason the Republican base is primed to hear his message. So it’s great to watch Republicans squirm. But let’s not let them squirm away from responsibility for Trump. They own him.

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