Boy Scout For Republican Party Finally Shows Up

There has been a most depressing absence over the past two years of statesmanlike words or actions from Republicans regarding the titular head of their part, Donald Trump.  The bombast, chaos, xenophobia,  white nationalism, and disorder on the international stage all have required stern responses from the elected members of the GOP.  What the nation expected to hear never came.  Silence and bowing was all that the nation witnessed.

But now someone has the spine and spunk to speak out.

Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah and the party’s 2012 nominee for president, to be sworn into the U.S. Senate on Thursday, has laid his cards on the table.  His clean cut look and clean cut character are precisely what the Republicans need to have in their ranks at this time.  All those other Republican senators who slobbered and fawned over the self-admitted sexual predator in the Oval Office, and who placed their party over the needs of the nation, or even above the Constitution, have no where to hide.  We know who they are.

And that is why it is so vital that Romney put his values—and the values of the nation when it comes to decency–on the printed page of the Washington Post.  It is high time that someone shoved Trump back into his place.

To a great degree, a presidency shapes the public character of the nation. A president should unite us and inspire us to follow “our better angels.” A president should demonstrate the essential qualities of honesty and integrity, and elevate the national discourse with comity and mutual respect. As a nation, we have been blessed with presidents who have called on the greatness of the American spirit. With the nation so divided, resentful and angry, presidential leadership in qualities of character is indispensable. And it is in this province where the incumbent’s shortfall has been most glaring.

The world is also watching. America has long been looked to for leadership. Our economic and military strength was part of that, of course, but our enduring commitment to principled conduct in foreign relations, and to the rights of all people to freedom and equal justice, was even more esteemed. Trump’s words and actions have caused dismay around the world. In a 2016 Pew Research Center poll, 84 percent of people in Germany, Britain, France, Canada and Sweden believed the American president would “do the right thing in world affairs.” One year later, that number had fallen to 16 percent.