I’m old enough to remember the work of New England Republicans like Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Connecticut’s Lowell Weicker, people who possessed broad visions and a deep patriotism.

Representatives like this are almost gone from the political scene, to our national detriment.

Almost.

This past weekend, I caught a glimpse of one who is not only still alive but aiming to become Maine’s next governor: Rick Bennett.

The state senator from Oxford, a lifelong Republican running as an independent for governor, showed up at a rally in Lewiston put together by my friend Safiya Khalid, a pathbreaking Somali American. The rally in Kennedy Park and the Agora Palace Even Center next door drew about 400 Mainers to show their support for an immigrant community under fire by our racist president.

The crowd included a number of Democratic gubernatorial candidates: Nirav Shah, Troy Jackson, Shenna Bellows and Hannah Pingree. U.S Senate hopeful Graham Platner, another Democrat, spoke at the event.

For those of us who worry for our Somali neighbors and friends, the presence of so many political hopefuls went some small way toward quelling the unease brought on by a federal government that stokes fear across the land on a daily basis.

For me, Bennett stood out on Saturday because he wasn’t another Democrat. It was as if he stepped out of a history book and onto the stage.

“In Maine, we look after each other,” Bennett said. “It’s how we live.”

He said that President Trump’s anti-Somali demagoguery was hateful and dangerous: “It does not reflect Maine values, and it does not reflect the kind of country and the kind of state that we want to pass on to our children.”

What refreshing words in a gubernatorial race that features a Republican frontrunner, Bobby Charles, who embraces the foul agenda pushed by Trump, from cheering on the bullies rounding up immigrants to pretending that poor people are soaking a system that largely funnels federal cash to the wealthy. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, Charles told his followers, “Your tax dollars built a Somalia-First Democrat machine in Maine. I’m asking President Trump to burn it down.”

That’s dangerous bigotry. Bennett offers a clear, compassionate antidote to the cartoonish candidate from Leeds.

“The president’s rhetoric isn’t just an insult to one community,” Bennett said. “It’s a denigration of our public discourse and a debasing of our politics. It replaces leadership with provocation, solutions with scapegoating.”

Bennett said leaders didn’t divide people for political gain. What they need to do, he said, is protect “the dignity of every neighbor … especially when it matters most.”

From that stage in Lewiston, Bennett said, “That’s why today I’m proud to stand with the Maine Somali community. Because fear does not make us safer. Community makes us safer.”

I haven’t heard anything remotely close to this from the most prominent Republicans in the state. As I write this, the Maine Republican Party, apparently oblivious to irony, is touting a slogan on Facebook: “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.”

Why, then, does Sen. Susan Collins remain on the sidelines while Trump assails her constituents as “garbage”? Where were the GOP contenders for the Blaine House during the rally in Lewiston? In what decent universe does a foul-mouthed Floridian like former Gov. Paul LePage emerge as his party’s anointed candidate in Maine’s 2nd Congressional District?

Instead of standing for something — for anything — the men and women of Bennett’s once-grand old party are supine, afraid to take on Trump or defend their fellow Mainers.

I hope they listen to what Rick Bennett has to say about dignity and find their courage.