“Thank you for letting me use your party.”

That is what RINO Gov. Charlie Baker should have written to new conservative Republican Party boss Jim Lyons.

It would have been appropriate since Baker, a lifelong Republican with liberal tendencies, appears more comfortable these days as a would-be Democrat than as a member of a party that has been taken over by conservative Donald Trump supporters.

Baker can be counted on as one of the original critics of the president, beginning even before the 2016 New Hampshire GOP primary and continuing to today.

Baker knows that he owes his re-election victory over Democrat Jay Gonzalez to Democrats and Independents, not to the declining number of Republicans still voting in the state.

Now that he is into his second, and probably last, term as governor, he needs support from the conservatives now running the state committee like he needs a hole in the head.

It is only through compromise and conciliation with Democrats on Beacon Hill — who hold overwhelming liberal majorities in both the House and Senate — that Baker has been able to succeed as chief executive.

“He is really one of us,” one top Democrat said.