Salt Lake Tribune Ed Board: "All Utahns, all Americans, regardless of politics...should be impressed

[kpete]

Salt Lake Tribune Ed Board: "All Utahns, all Americans, regardless of politics ... should be duly impressed with Romney's decision to follow his heart and his conscience — and his God — in doing the right thing when doing the right thing was difficult."

Link to tweet

?s=20

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/editorial/2020/02/05/tribune-editorial-mitt/

[Stuart G]

1. K and R Tribune Editorial shows a "Profile in Courage"

[barbtries]

2. what i keep tripping over

is how far we've fallen that just doing the right thing, just having a conscience, makes a person a hero. that should be the default.

[blm]

4. ✔️

[califootman]

12. Yes, but, unfortunately, when common valor has become an uncommon virtue...

...it must and should be celebrated in those places and people where it can be found.

[calimary]

32. Beautifully put.

[PatSeg]

18. I know

Being honest and doing the right thing should not be some big act of courage, it should be normal.

That said, I still give Romney credit for rising above his republican colleagues, who know the truth and still refuse to do the right thing. It will not be forgotten.

[Scarsdale]

23. I agree.

However, when these politicians run for office, they pledge to do the right thing for their constituents, the people who vote for them. Surely we should expect them to do just that? They cannot honestly think that tRump is a good president, doing what is best for the country. This presidency "thing" is the best gig tRump has had in his entire life. He is treated like a king, so he thinks that is what he is. The gop had a chance to knock him off that throne, and did not. He is not even a passably competent human being. He is the biggest fraud who ever walked into the WH. The entire gop KNOWS this, yet still stand by him. I hope they are polishing their resume ready for when their cushy jobs are taken from them by a politician who WILL do the right thing. Namely a DEMOCRATIC contender.

[PatSeg]

27. They all act like

Trump is holding a beloved family member hostage and they must lie and cheat to protect their life. But in reality, they are protecting a job and being most of them are well off financially, it is a job they don't even need. I'm sure some of them are being blackmailed, i.e. Lindsay Graham, but the rest are acting out of fear of losing their political office, which most of them will probably lose anyway.

Talk about Profiles in Cowardice. It is both disgusting and embarrassing to watch.

By the way, behind closed doors almost all of them hate Trump and believe everything Democrats accuse him of.

[DENVERPOPS]

28. Totally Agree PS

They are, by far, THE most thoroughly corrupt political party in the history of our nation..........

If they survive, will we.....?????

[PatSeg]

33. Yes, scary thought

If they do, I think it will be the end of our democracy.

In the midst of all this, I am inclined to see a possible silver lining. Perhaps this is what the country needed to rid us of this corrupt party, at least this version of it. This might destroy the republican party or at least cause it to purge itself and rebuild. Many of the corporate owned politicians will finally have to retire and it might take awhile before a newer version of the party becomes so compromised, well hopefully.

Of course, in darker moments, I fear we are reliving 1930s Germany.

[DENVERPOPS]

35. Agree

Amen to your last sentence, PS

[PatSeg]

36. If we were a better educated nation

I don't think this would be happening.

[h2ebits]

22. I agree with you

Mitt Romney actually did not take a risk doing this. The people of Utah voted him into office and he is deep in the Mormon church. He is also very wealthy--made that way by buying up businesses, stripping them of assets, laying off people, and declaring bankruptcy on the businesses. Wash, rinse, repeat. (Bain Capital)

I think his dirty laundry has been aired enough in public that he has nothing Trump could hold over his head. Romney is not afraid of Trump.

He is not a hero in my eyes. I'm glad that he decided on the merits of the information he had but really, Trump should be removed from office. The rest of the Republicans in office should be labeled as traitors undermining democracy and our Constitution for their own personal gain rather than lauding Romney.

[barbtries]

26. i do label them traitors

and believe it with all my heart.

[pandr32]

30. But that is where we are

...so let's celebrate whatever humanity is shown against the sea of inhumanity, ignorance, and fascism.

Startling that this is us...America today.

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. Yes, but...

At the moment, we can do the right thing knowing we're going to be lauded and have support from the people we most identify with. That shouldn't matter, but it can and does. Doing the right thing when your "in-group" is going to turn on you like a bunch of starved jackals can take courage. Especially when your "in-group" sees group loyalty as a serious moral issue.

There are likely lots of people on the right (conservative/authoritarian) who view Romney's betrayal as a more egregious violation of their moral foundation than Trump's horrific behavior. Makes no sense to rational compassionate people like us, but that is how they think.

It's why Republicans circle the wagon when one of their own fucks up, but Democrats leap to expel when one of theirs does. Group loyalty is simply not felt as morally significant as issues such as fairness to those with more liberal political beliefs.

[barbtries]

41. i get that.

and i did praise Romney and Collins.
but still I trip, because it is symptomatic of an overall slide. we are devolving, regressing, getting worse.

[Pacifist Patriot]

42. It sure feels that way.

I have to have hope the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way. If I don't, I'll drink myself to death.

[Coventina]

3. Meh. He did half of the right thing. Big whup.

[Perseus]

11. Right, you are correct.

[calimary]

34. There is that.

Guess we need to be okay with the “glass half full.”

[Laelth]

5. Indeed.

In fact, I am impressed. Kudos.



-Laelth

[Lonestarblue]

6. I decided to send a simple thank you to Senator Romney for doing the right thing.

This may be coincidence, but the message would not send because the site is “down for maintenance.” Given the evil of Trump and his trolls, I suspect it’s down as punishment for his vote.

[2naSalit]

9. Or just to not receive the threats. ...nt

[smirkymonkey]

14. I did the same thing, but my message seemed to have gone through.

At least I hope it did. Said "message sent". I am sure the miserable deplorable trolls were out in full force with their ugly threats.

[greymattermom]

7. Trump's vindictive nature

and his attempts to punish Romney won't go over well in Utah. This could be interesting.

[DeminPennswoods]

43. The Rs are always trying to rat***k Dems so why

don't Utah Dems work with Weld to get his name on the ballot there as in independent? Looks like Dems are around 30% of Utah voters, Weld would give the Utah Rs who won't vote for a Dem, but don't like Trump a place to go. If Weld could take Utah, makes a possible Trump path to victory that much harder.

There are other western "red states" with large LDS populations where that strategy might work, too, like Idaho for ex.

[kentuck]

8. Trump said he did not like people who used prayer to justify doing the wrong thing.

can't you see? It's all a hoax.

[Perseus]

10. Doing the right thing is not difficult, doing the wrong thing is

These people place so much weight on their political careers, they miss the point that they are there to serve the country, to be truthful, to be honest, to allow themselves to be guided by their principles, when a person follows those guidelines then being truthful is the easiest thing in the World.

When you lie, when you go against your principles, when you know you did the wrong thing you cannot sleep, you carry that weight on your shoulders every day. People like Rush Limbaugh have lived a life of wrong, I never believe he believed in everything he said and did, he has no principles and he did what brought him money, and now that weight is ending his life.

[defacto7]

13. Sorry but deciding to side with truth when it's convenient

does not make it for me. Even if genuine all he did was raise himself to half of normal. That's nothing exceptional.

[smirkymonkey]

15. I think it took a lot of courage, knowing the kind of blowback he would get from his party

and their pack of deplorables. I admire his integrity.

[defacto7]

17. I understand. But the blowback is because he sided with them in the first place.

If he leaves the GOP, I'll think about it.

[empedocles]

29. Far more useful to the US and Dems as a republicon

[PatrickforO]

16. Well, it would be nice to see Trump lose Utah.

But then, they only have 6 electoral votes.

[iluvtennis]

19. As Romeny said, when he was sworn in as juror he took oath to God to be impartial juror. He did

his duty as a juror and listenened to the evidence and rendered a verdict. The rest of the GOP just did jury nullufication where a jury disregards the evidence and votes the way they wann to.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification

[DallasNE]

20. By Implicantion, This Is A Slap At Mike Lee Too n/t

[dugog55]

21. Following his heart and conscience should be enough.

No use in dragging God into it. If God gave a damn about anything happening on this planet, he would have stepped in by now. He supposedly left the stewardship of earth to us people. We have been hell bent on ruining it for a thousand years. Mass genocides in his name, raping and pillaging the planet for precious metals and minerals, and wiping out entire species for pleasure or greed. And the God the GOP is always hiding behind, would turn his back on them, if he cared, or even existed.

[Ponietz]

24. To them it is a sin to covet honor--Romney is their most offending soul

(as Henry Vth would put it)

[ffr]

25. It's almost as though this was planned this way.

To give the GOP a platform for their next mainstream presidential candidate. Except that underneath it all, you'll get the GOP agenda and more hardship.

Call me skeptical.

[Pluvious]

31. Agreed. We know his ambitions continue to drive him

He's smart and knows the likelihood of Don the Con eventually becoming a pariah (like Bush, McCarthy, etc) and those of its ilk (rest of the GOP worms).

The Cult45 will one day be an embarrassing blip in history, with new villains to scorn and use as object lessons.

[Skittles]

37. problem is, the RIGHT THING should not have been difficult - FOR ANYONE

this is all just so damned depressing

[EleanorR]

39. Republicans are pulling out all the stops to quash any praise of Romney

They are absolutely livid that people might praise his integrity in this situation and see him as a hero. His vote exposed the absolute cowardice and lack of moral compass of his fellow republicans, and that is wonderful.

[jmg257]

40. yay! Isn't that special. We the People are so screwed; the bar has been so lowered,

that a politician voting what he thinks is right instead of voting party lines is super impressive.

Reminds me of when there is a blackout, and the populace gets applauded because they don't go crazy and eat each other.

Very depressing that this is where we are with our govt.