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Presidents have been impeached, but none have been removed from office due to impeachment. Confusing? Here's how. USA TODAY

Until Trump, I found something to like or respect about most politicians I encountered, even those I strongly disagreed with. That's no longer true.

Back in 1999, I spent a long day tooling around Iowa with Lamar Alexander. At the time of our travels in a Winnebago,accompanied by a couple of aides and a press corps consisting of me and an AP photographer, he was a former Tennessee governor and a presidential candidate trying to compete with the rock star campaign of George W. Bush.

What I remember most from that day was a dramatic back story that, to my puzzlement, he did notmention in his pitch to voters. President Bill Clinton had been impeached by the House and tried in the Senate in a consuming saga of sex, lies and investigations. Voters seemed ready for someone of, as they say, unimpeachable character. Enter Alexander, at least theoretically.

Who would be more perfect for the moment than a man who had taken over a state amid a gubernatorial pardon-selling scandal so seriousthat he was sworn in three days earlyin a secret 1979 ceremony, to cut short outgoing Gov. Ray Blantons corruption spree? So sensational they made a movie about it, called Marie, in which a lawyer (and future senator) named Fred Thompson played himself?The obvious narrative was that Alexander knew how to restore trust in government he had already done it in Tennessee.

Alexander never became president, but in 2002, he was elected to his first of three terms in the Senate. He was known in Washington for pragmaticbipartisanship a senator who quit leadership in 2011 so he could work across the aisle more often, and who made good on thatmost recentlyin partnership with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.,on education and health policy.

Now Alexander's just another Republican cowering at the prospect of crossing President Donald Trump, one of the many people I dont recognize despite having covered and followed them for years or even decades.

Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolinais another. We first met on Sen. John McCains 2000 presidential campaign, when Graham and Thompson were all in with the McCain brand of straight talk, rebellious independence and cross-party relationships.

Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Patty Murray, D-Wash.,on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 21, 2015.(Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

Theres also Floridas Marco Rubio, who wasinstrumental (with Graham) in getting a landmark bipartisan immigration bill through the Senate in 2013. Alaskas Lisa Murkowski, whose primary loss to a Tea Party candidate in 2010, and subsequent win as a write-incandidate, should have meantshed never owe her party anything, and who played key roles in bipartisan negotiations I wrote about in The Art of the Political Deal.Theres even Susan Collins, who with her moderate Maine colleague Olympia Snowewas so notorious in conservative circles for occasionally going her own way, she evinced disgustfrom an Arizonan fed up with both McCain and "those two women who vote with the Democrats all the time."

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These politicians are now strangers to me. Their whole party is untethered not just from reality and its own history, but also from the Constitution itself. I found three pocket copies of it in a drawer the other day and was reminded of how well Ive gotten to know it these past few years. After this, there will be no way to take seriously any GOP argument that relies on the original intent of the Constitution.

I have no doubt many Republicanswill try to deploy it, especially in defense of gun rights. But I ask you, what has changed more since the 18thcentury,the existence of foreign powers whod love to weaken us and the potential for a president who has no problem selling us out, or easily available weapons of war ina country of 329million?

Theres no contest. The Founders never could have foreseen the inventionof semiautomatic weapons or the millions now in private hands. But they well understood "the dangers fromforeign force and influence" and warned about them repeatedly in the Constitutionand in Federalist Papers Nos.2, 3, 4 and 68, for a start.

They also were all too familiar with "the misconduct of public men," asAlexander Hamilton put it inFederalist 65, which is why the Constitution includes an impeachment option.

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For the 40 years I have written about politics, there hasbeensomething to like or respect about nearly every politician I've encountered.Even when I passionately disagreed with someone on tax or gun or war policy, there was always at least one thing: They welcomed immigrants, wanted to save the planetor were willing to defy elements of their own partyto seek a "grand bargain" on taxes and spending. Maybe they were dishonest and had to resign in disgrace, but not before creatingthe Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Lately, the Founders have also been top of mind. Many of the most prominent owned slaves, and it's hard to get past that, even considering their times. But they also laid what they hoped was a permanent foundation for an aspirational nation striving toward its ideals. They clearly anticipatedand feared someone like Trump, and tried to give usthe remedies and protectionswe'd need.

Those safeguardshave failed. Let's hope the union the framers envisioned doesn't fail, as well.

Jill Lawrence is the commentary editor of USA TODAY and author of"The Art of the Political Deal:How Congress Beat the Odds and Broke Through Gridlock."Follow her on Twitter:@JillDLawrence

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I used to cover Republicans who are cowering to Trump. I don't recognize them now. - USA TODAY