Mail Tribune: Dismayed by Trump, but endorsed his enabler.

"Until we figure out a solution or morph into a culture that won't tolerate, teach or make acceptable the stage of violence, we must adopt an organized and intelligent plan to protect ourselves. It's a matter of self-preservation."

                                           Publisher: Medford Mail Tribune

Go along, get along.

Trump does what Trump does because key Republicans allow it. Yet the Mail Tribune's editorial endorses Trump's enabler.

Walden gives Trump political cover.

I still read the Mail Tribune editorials. It is a pleasant habit from my youth. I learned that apparently some other people do as well. Liberal-progressive social media websites were abuzz with disappointment that the Tribune endorsed Greg Walden. 

I wasn't surprised.  He has achieved seniority and influence, and someone at the Tribune--the owner or editors--wrote that it was useful to have a representative with clout.

My surprise came when I read the superb, deeply personal, editorial in the Sunday newspaper. It condemned Trump for his language of prejudice and division. The writer spoke of his personal sense of endangerment when the threat of anti-semitic violence touched him in his youth, and now again. It was an unusually good editorial, and I recommend it. 

Click here.

It took the personal and particular and generalized it into something universal. It said we needed to develop an organized and intelligent plan to change our politics and culture away from prejudice and violence. It recognized the power of hateful, speech. It addressed President Trump and the kind of language and policy he has used to amplify ethnic division. It is "time to denounce crimes against humanity, any and all individuals and organizations that would even remotely support the ideology of hate aimed at any of us--and he did not do it! We need him to denounce and condemn these actions and organizations by name and set an example for all of us to follow."

A good sentiment, well said.

There is, in fact, a ready solution at hand. Donald Trump is able to do what he does because senior GOP officeholders allow it. Richard Nixon did not resign because he was impeached and convicted. He left office because fifteen or twenty Republican Senators--told him he had lost their support. He realized what that meant. He had lost the GOP, and therefore the credibility and political backstop necessary to keep the presidency.  

Greg Walden is a senior member of GOP House leadership, as was noted in the editorial that endorsed him. Walden is one of the two dozen people who could demand Trump "set an example for all of us to follow," as written in the editorial.

Greg Walden remains silent, in the face of the peril described in the Sunday editorial. Walden remains a collaborator, a Trump enabler. He goes along and gets along. That permits Trump to do exactly what he is doing--and indeed, is increasing the volume of it.

The American electorate is looking for leadership. We get it in the form of cues and signals about what is intolerable. Leaders send the message by either going along, or by digging in heels and saying no. GOP officeholders including Walden are signaling American voters that Trump is OK. 

As the editorial observed, Trump is not OK. 

GOP Senate Leadership

Yet voters see respected officeholders sit quietly, so the culture "tolerates, teaches, or makes acceptable" precisely what the editorial bemoans.  

What could Walden do?  Speak up, as per the editorial, and say that the GOP denounces and condemns actions that supports the ideology of hate aimed at any of us.

We don't need to figure out a solution, as the editorial had suggested: Stop endorsing silent collaborators  of Trump.

No every one will agree that Trump is spreading division and encouraging a culture of hate and violence. If a voter likes what Trump says and does, then those readers should probably support Walden. 

If one is appalled by Trump, as was the editorial writer, then oppose his enabler. That would send a different signal, one implied by the editorial, that it is past time for Walden to denounce and condemn Trump.

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