By Joseph Signorello III

The Donald Trump era of politics started in New Jersey – I’m convinced of it. It also needs to end in New Jersey. Now, there are policy reasons why I think it’s important to move on from the GOP in New Jersey; more importantly, there’s a moral reason: we kind of owe it to the country.

The forebearer of the “in your face” politics that President Trump has mastered grew roots under former Gov. Chris Christie. As referenced countless times in his new book, “Let Me Finish,” his governorship gave rise to a friendship that lasted at least until Trump’s inauguration in 2017. In hindsight, it’s clear that this relationship must have, at least in part, inspired the current rhetoric from Washington.

Since then, Governor Christie (in true Machiavellian fashion) is trying to white-wash his role in eroding public civility by founding the laughable Christie Institute of Public Policy. Sorry, Chris, but it’s not hard to draw a line from your 2011 dog whistle, “Can you guys please take the bat out on her for once?” (speaking about state Sen. Loretta Weinberg), to 2016’s chants of “lock her up” at Trump rallies. Sometimes, a little kindling locally creates a roaring flame on a national level.

Crazy is most of what the N.J. Republican politicians are in lock-step with — even if they’re not as vocal as Trump. That’s why conservative-leaning independents and historically Republican strongholds like Westfield, have flipped. In 2019, “purple” towns like Garwood, Cranford, and Kenilworth look pretty darn blue — in part because conservative voters can’t recognize the Republican Party they used to know. Who remembers Nixon wanting to ban handguns — am I right? Or how about this gem: “We lead the world because, unique among nations, we draw our people -- our strength -- from every country and every corner of the world. And by doing so we continuously renew and enrich our nation.” Yup, that was Reagan; the 80s must have been wild.

My point is this: Republican candidates who are embarrassed or scared to be associated with the monsters they’ve created are going to tell you they’re “different.” These folks are going to tell you that Trump is an isolated incident, or Christie was a “one-off,” but the policies that enable the outright amoral, sexist and xenophobic views of the president are the underpinnings of the GOP as it’s constructed today. Donald Trump is not some magical alt-right saint that came out of nowhere. Years of morally offensive stances from the Republican Party led to this and were exacerbated by the loudmouth and his allies we had in Drumthwacket for eight years.

Whether you love or hate Democrats, we own our policies; we think the government can help fix things, and we try to make that work. Is it always perfect? Heck no, but we support a government trying to help people, and we don’t run from that. From top-to-bottom, Republicans love to preach a smaller government with more freedom, yet we see nothing but the opposite locally, in Trenton, and in the White House. Even in little Roselle Park, a historically red blip in the center of Union County, Democrats delivered a tighter budget than Republicans have over the last 20 years.

There will be a time when Republicans are more competitive in New Jersey. One day we might even be a Red-ish state again, but that won’t be until the Republican Party fundamentally changes. I encourage you to help make that change this fall. There’s a slew of Republicans around the state and country that will rise to take this current iteration of the GOP to task. History will not look kindly on those elected officials who defended or engaged in current Republican policies.

Always remember local and state elections matter just as much as the presidential ones – sometimes even more so. So this fall, every councilman that comes to your door saying, “they’re not that kind of Republican,” make sure you ask them where they stand on gun rights. For every Assembly candidate that claims, “I would have preferred Rubio or Jeb,” ask them where they stood when Christie gave up federal funding for infrastructure, or how they felt when he talked about taking a bat to a senator. This presidency wasn’t forged in a vacuum, and it doesn’t take that long to get from the Garden State to Trump Tower -- well, depending on how many lanes are open in Fort Lee.

Joseph Signorello III is the mayor of Roselle Park.

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.