One interesting comment that caught my attention in the many thorough video interviews with 2018 General Assembly candidates on www.theday.com was something said by Bob Statchen, the Air Force veteran who is running against state Sen. Heather Somers for the 18th District seat she holds.

"First, Connecticut has to remember how great it is, and how we are a good state with many strengths," Statchen said, going on to talk about the high number of Connecticut employees with advanced degrees, a high national ranking for private research and development investment and a leadership role in advanced manufacturing, for which the state is known around the world.

Indeed, I think it is a defining characteristic in Connecticut politics, where the only optimism I hear comes from Democrats. Like Republicans on the national stage, with a dark message about immigration and demonizing a ragtag caravan of frightened Honduran refugees, I hear only pessimism from Connecticut Republicans.

I know there is a financial crisis here, one that has festered through the administrations of Republican and Democratic governors and through the most recent General Assembly sessions, which were at almost bipartisan parity.

But it is enthusiasm, confidence, advocacy for good and fair public policy and an optimistic spirit toward this great state that will save us, not mean-spirited budget cutting, scapegoating the unfortunate, decrying diversity and providing windfall tax breaks for the wealthy.

Blame Dan Malloy for not fixing what was broken if you must. But remember, he's gone. Trump is still with us.

Trumpism has sadly taken hold here in the Connecticut GOP, with Trump-like name calling and even attacks on women's rights. I heard one of the region's most prominent Republican officeholders mocking Dr. Christine Blasey Ford on the radio for the way she pulled her blond hair from her eyes while delivering before the Senate her painful account of sexual assault.

Republicans viciously attacked a Democratic selectwoman for kneeling during the pledge of allegiance, a quiet and heartfelt protest that may have been misguided but hardly deserved so much angry attention.

All five Republican candidates in the gubernatorial primary graded our divisive, misogynistic, race-baiting, violence-encouraging president with an "A." The primary winner was caught at a social event right here in Connecticut with a prominent white nationalist. The GOP gubernatorial candidate's ridiculous and unexplained plan to eliminate the state income tax is out of the Trump playbook to further reward the rich. A promise to end the Connecticut income tax, half our revenue, is also as absurd as promising that Mexico will pay for a border wall.

Like Trump, who cheated Trump University students out of millions and treated his charitable foundation as a tax-evading piggy bank, the candidate for governor here last ran a payday loan business considered so unethical it is not even legal in Connecticut.

Don't get me wrong. There are some moderate, reasonable Republicans running for the General Assembly, and if I lived in their districts I might have a hard time not voting for them. But I couldn't, at least not this year, no matter how unappealing their Democratic opponents may be.

This is an election like no other I can remember in my lifetime, and I'm old.

We live in a political ecosystem in which party matters, and I don't see how you can vote Republican here in Connecticut while the American Republican establishment selfishly participates in the president's attacks, not just on the press but on the country's intelligence and criminal justice system.

Trump is essentially under criminal investigation for treason, a prospect that does not seem the least unlikely, given his performance groveling before Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, his attack on America's NATO allies and the growing number of guilty pleas by his close associates.

That criminal probe is on pause, while we vote.

So vote for the good guys in the white hats, not the cynical ones who are attacking the fine people of the country's intelligence and law enforcement agencies, dedicated and loyal Americans, professionals who keep us safe.

Connecticut is a great place to live. Vote with its optimists.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com