Chicago Tribune editorial: Trump's presidency a disappointment and a disgrace

[GeorgiaModerate]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/editorials/ct-edit-trump-president-cohen-mueller20180823-story.html

Before anyone says "liberal media", keep in mind that the Tribune's editorial board has a long conservative history.

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[Sir Mohamed]

News at 11. No real conservative can support this dude. I could have told you this two years ago that his presidency would be a disaster.

[KingSweden]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

[Yellowhammer]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

[KingSweden]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

That’s a reasonable response.

I’d argue there’s a lot more objectionable to his conduct than just his personality, things that wouldn’t be an issue with Pence (or Rubio, or even Cruz), but that’s a longer debate.

[IndustrialJustice]

News at 11. No real conservative can support this dude. I could have told you this two years ago that his presidency would be a disaster.

lol. Trump is the apotheosis of American conservatism.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

Except that you don't.

He's not just stupid and evil. He's grossly incompetent. And he's been in clear violation of the emoluments clause since the moment he took the oath of office. The GOP can impeach him any time they want. But they don't want to.

Instead of removing him, or at the very least leveraging their power to have him clean up his act, the Republican party has defended and enabled him. You aren't stuck with Trump. You want Trump. Because his bigotry, ignorance, shallow greed, hollow soul, and hate for public government are what the GOP is really about.

The silver lining to all this is that if our nation survives, Trump will have exposed the whole Republican party as the sewer it is, which will hopefully lead to it's end.

[Sir Mohamed]

News at 11. No real conservative can support this dude. I could have told you this two years ago that his presidency would be a disaster.

lol. Trump is the apotheosis of American conservatism.

Conservatism was once about lowering deficits, free trade, pro-immigration, a strong NATO alliance, tough on Russia, freedom of the press, very supportive of the intelligence community and family values (not paying off pornstars), among other things. GOPers with these stances don't do well in the age of Trump.

[Florida Man for Crime]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

When the duly elected leader of another country is going off the rails (or even is just no longer effective), they have mechanisms to deal with that and allow the country to move on, such as parliamentary votes of no confidence. It seems to me that impeachment is the closest equivalent in the US. Perhaps it should be destigmatized and used more often.

[RINO Tom]

^ Nitpick, but no conservative party in the history of the United States back the Federalists and up to the modern Republicans could reasonably be described as "pro-immigration," regardless of what a few prominent figures might have said or did.

[Badger]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

Except that you don't.

He's not just stupid and evil. He's grossly incompetent. And he's been in clear violation of the emoluments clause since the moment he took the oath of office. The GOP can impeach him any time they want. But they don't want to.

Instead of removing him, or at the very least leveraging their power to have him clean up his act, the Republican party has defended and enabled him. You aren't stuck with Trump. You want Trump. Because his bigotry, ignorance, shallow greed, hollow soul, and hate for public government are what the GOP is really about.

The silver lining to all this is that if our nation survives, Trump will have exposed the whole Republican party as the sewer it is, which will hopefully lead to it's end.

This. Trump' s rampant clinical narcissism syndrome is not a distraction to his presidency, it's part and parcel to it. It infects his dealings with the world, the American people, his rampant self dealing (even outside Russian collusion), and his running the government like an all around dumpster fire.

[Panda Express]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.

As of yesterday, Trump has literally been implicated in a crime thanks to Cohen's plea deal. This is going well beyond "bad personality"

[ProudModerate2]

"Trump's presidency a disappointment and a disgrace."

That's the understatement of the decade. It is a complete and utter disaster!

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Last three GOP presidents HW Bush Clarence Thomas, Dubya-Great Recession and Trump-Kremlin scandal out of the Christie scandals haven't been good down the line.

[Mopsus]

(and that’s a good thing)

[Progressive Pessimist]

"Trump's presidency a disappointment and a disgrace."

That's the understatement of the decade. It is a complete and utter disaster!

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Perhaps the saddest part of all this is that what has happened was completely and utterly predictable.

[Inmate Trump]

They’re right.

I keep telling you, Republicans, that you’d get the same policies with less of the additional nonsense with Pence. Dunno why none of you bite (unless as I suspect it’s not about the policies at all)

Many of us would prefer someone else, especially me. But he's the duly elected president, and I don't want him gone simply because he has a bad personality.
We should have nominated someone else, and Trump's rise is regrettable. But Trump is what we've got, and unfortunately, we have to play the hand that we've been dealt.

Except that you don't.

He's not just stupid and evil. He's grossly incompetent. And he's been in clear violation of the emoluments clause since the moment he took the oath of office. The GOP can impeach him any time they want. But they don't want to.

Instead of removing him, or at the very least leveraging their power to have him clean up his act, the Republican party has defended and enabled him. You aren't stuck with Trump. You want Trump. Because his bigotry, ignorance, shallow greed, hollow soul, and hate for public government are what the GOP is really about.

The silver lining to all this is that if our nation survives, Trump will have exposed the whole Republican party as the sewer it is, which will hopefully lead to it's end.

^ This so much.

I’m a former Republican voter, and due directly to Trump and the GOP’s refusal to reign him in, I've become a Democrat.  At this time, the Democratic Party is the only thing standing in the way between democracy and totalitarianism; they’re the only ones with any chance of being able to salvage something once this moron is finished and I’m proud to now stand with them.

Any Republican who continues to back this man is risking our national security, all for the glorification of the party and one man’s ego. You are on the wrong side of history, and you’ll collectively go down as such.

[OneJ]

It really shouldn’t be a “disappointment” considering his disgrace of a campaign that he managed to win with anyway. When I think of that word, I think of “high” expectations eventually being let down. This is not the case, at least in my opinion.

[mencken]

News at 11. No real conservative can support this dude. I could have told you this two years ago that his presidency would be a disaster.

lol. Trump is the apotheosis of American conservatism.

Conservatism was once about lowering deficits,

Maybe a small minority, but the party of Nixon, Reagan, and the Bushes have no right to suddenly cling to their purses now that Trump is also a big spender.

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These are neoconservative values. Conservatives have traditionally been about assimilation into a cohesive American national identity (the "melting pot", if you will), not overt flouting of the law and multiculturalism.

And NATO was assembled to combat the threat of the Soviet Union, an entity which no longer exists. An ideology which holds as a tenet perpetual opposition to whatever geopolitical entity controls the Northern part of the Eurasian land mass is not only non-conservative, it is nonsensical.

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"I would rather have fake news than have anybody — including liberals, socialists, anything — than have anybody stopped and censored," Trump said.

It seems that NeverTrumpers want not so much freedom of the press as immunity of the press from criticism.

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Like the NATO example, this is ridiculous. A conservative would presumably be supportive of the FBI and CIA and NSA in their roles of helping our national defense, not in anything they choose to do, like say, inequitable application of the law and intervening in domestic political affairs. 

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Admittedly one would be a tad hypocritical to be a strong social conservative and not have strong reservations regarding Trump's personal character. But that was already priced into the equation when he was elected. Surely one can separately evaluate the man's record as Chief Executive from 2017 to present from what happened in his personal life dating back to 2011?