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Utah Republicans elected new leaders for their party last Saturday. I welcome the new leadership. Service to the community is to be applauded. Also, I have known Derek Brown for several years and respect his commitment to public service.

The new leadership is being portrayed by media reports as "reasonable" Republicans. I hope so. As reasonable Republicans, I urge them to do the following:

Defend the US Constitution when the president seeks to violate that founding document. That includes disagreeing with the president when he uses US military forces for domestic law enforcement, which is a violation of the Constitution. And when he declares a national emergency so he can spend money that was not appropriated by the US Congress, which is another violation of the US Constitution,expressing public concern and urging his administration to stop violating the US Constitution.

Call out the president when he breaks the law - or even attempts to do so. Now that we know President Trump sought to obstruct justice and only failed because his aides refused to carry out his wishes, the Republican Party leadership should publicly chastise the president.

Admonish the president when he commits unethical, if not illegal acts such as paying off women with whom he had extramarital affairs during the 2016 election and then denying he did so.

Call out the president when he refuses to support the integrity of US elections. Instead of warning Vladmir Putin that the US will not tolerate Russian interference, he says nothing or claims there is no solid evidence Russia interfered. Utah Republicans should not stand for that acquiescence of Russia's role in shaping our electoral process.

Telling the president to stop coarsening our public discourse. President Trump's tweets and other statements that help divide our nation into enemy camps should be condemned by Utah Republicans.

The list could go on. Reasonable Republicans know what to do. However, some really reasonable Republicans are already moving out of a political party that not only does not do anything, such as what I'm suggesting here, but actively defends this behavior by the president merely because he is a Republican.

I believe public servants should hold high standards of behavior - both publicly and personally. I call on the Utah Republican Party to join us in holding to that standard. If they will not do so, Republicans who believe in that as well might consider joining a party that shares their views rather than continuing in one that seemingly no longer does.

- Richard Davis