Orlando Sentinel Endorses Trump...NOT!

AROUND THE BLOCK

I learned…

I learned last night that the Orlando Sentinel, a historically Republican-leaning newspaper, published a presidential endorsement editorial, over a year and a half ahead of the presidential election. Or, in this case, a non-endorsement: Orlando Sentinel editorial: Why we won’t endorse Trump for reelection. 

The editorial ran the day of Trump’s angry, fact-challenged 2020 campaign kick-off rally in Orlando. In case you didn’t read the Sentinel’s non-endorsement, here it is in its entirety.

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opinion/editorials/os-op-sentinel-not-endorsing-donald-trump-2020-20190618-63ya7cyb5ngf3irllodwxnznui-story.html

Too bad most people in Orlando (or anywhere else, I fear) won’t read it. And I’m pretty sure the Fox folks, in their Trump coverage, won’t talk about it. Or, if they do, it will be to deride a well thought out, legitimate point of view.

Beyond the litany of Trump’s failures, lies and generally bad behavior, the Sentinel highlights two cringe-worthy points:

"Trump’s capacity for lying isn’t the surprise here, though the frequency is. It’s the tolerance so many Americans have for it."

 
"Through all of this, Trump’s base remains loyal. Sadly, the truest words Trump might ever have spoken was when he said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose his supporters." 

So, no collusion, no obstruction, no crimes, no misdemeanors.

And our Democratic leaders just mosey along pretending to be doing the people’s business while actually getting nothing done because of GOP intransigence. 

Doing nothing while Trump rolls back most environmental rules, denigrates our intelligence community, supports attacks on abortion rights, supports voter suppression ploys and encourages the undermining of our country's electoral system by incompetence and foreign influence. 

Democratic leadership doing nothing while moseying along with no consensus that impeachment, or at least an impeachment inquiry, is the most logical, no necessary, next step to rid the country of this horror show.

Is Democratic leadership waiting and hoping to simply rely on the next election to remove this Trump outrage?

Given how compromised, in so many ways, our electoral system is, that's a long wait and an uncertain hope.

If not now, when?