2
Wednesday, March 9, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
G
N
I
R
SP rd
a
w
r
fo H 13
P
I
N I
O
Turn your clocks forward
1 hour Saturday night.
Daylight Saving Time begins
Sunday, March 13 at 2 a.m.
C
R
A
M
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be
no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday.
To the Editor:
Here’s a shout-out to Nugget contribu-
tors Sue Stafford and Diane Goble for begin-
ning a frank discussion on truly affordable
low-cost housing, in particular as it concerns
elderly women living alone in Sisters and in
the world. Many of my women friends know
other women who also face this sobering
future of not having enough income to pay
for our residence, and being forced out to go
“somewhere.” We have been in a silent sense
of helplessness, so I am grateful for this open
sharing.
There needs to be something between
working ourselves to death and an eventual
poverty-based reliance on State and federal
programs; something between working dur-
ing retirement and outright destitution in a
federally funded assisted-living facility, sub-
sidized by our inadequate Social Security.
Diane Goble speaks my language. I share all
the same concerns. I find housing prices to be
quality-of-life-threatening and potentially able
to ruin an otherwise good life.
I am older, retired, living on a very fixed
income ($300 left over after I pay my rent).
I am poor now, but I wasn’t always. I had
over $100,000 in mutual funds in the ’90s and
lost it. I never recovered. I inherited money,
bought a home, and then lost everything else I
had, trying to save my home during the 2008
mortgage crisis.
Ethical, honest and trying to honor my
debt, I lost my savings, my IRA, some pos-
sessions, and was down to my last $1,000 —
headed for the same fate as “The Lady in the
Van” (current movie). I can still work, but I
am very concerned about what happens when
I can no longer do odd jobs, can’t pay my bills
or my rent. But am not too sick or ready to die.
“The Van” might be in my — or our —
future unless truly affordable/low-cost housing
becomes an option for us elderly women and
men. Personally, I dream of a low-rent ($400/
space is not low-rent) mobile home park for
us, each in our own little RV and space, where
we can live in freedom and dignity, until it is
time to go. It’s either something like that or
someone’s driveway.
Eileen Grellert
See letterS on page 24
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Rain
Rain likely
Rain likely
Chance rain
Chance rain
Chance rain
51/36
51/27
52/30
50/32
49/30
52/na
The Nugget Newspaper, Inc.
Website: www.nuggetnews.com
442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759
Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com
Postmaster: Send address changes to
The Nugget Newspaper,
P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759.
Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon.
Publisher - Editor: Kiki Dolson
News Editor: Jim Cornelius
Production Manager: Leith Williver
Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken
Advertising: Karen Kassy
Graphic Design: Jess Draper
Proofreader: Pete Rathbun
Accounting: Erin Bordonaro
The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area.
Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55.
Published Weekly. ©2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which
appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for
information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition-
ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently
available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts.
N
John
Kass
American Voices
The Republican presi-
dential campaign — and
that vulgar candidate debate
in Detroit — bring us to the
root of the thing.
The Republican coali-
tion is breaking apart. The
GOP establishment’s hold
on power and treasure is
weakening. The Republican
insiders are worried and
angry, and they’ve seized on
Donald Trump and his eco-
nomic nationalism and wild,
bragging ways.
Yet the wise ones among
them must certainly know
that Trump isn’t the cause of
the problem. He’s merely a
symptom.
Trump is the once-useful
barbarian the Republican
establishment cannot con-
trol. Now some insiders are
finagling a move to dump
him at their convention in
Cleveland.
But that will involve
shaming Trump’s middle-
class and working-class sup-
porters, who are drawn to
his economic nationalism.
With Trump or without
him, the Republican coali-
tion has been slowly break-
ing apart for years.
It’s like a solar system of
odd planets, with free trad-
ers and Main Street, evan-
gelicals, corporatists, Wall
Street and neoconservative
intellectuals who’ve prod-
ded the nation into wars.
All these pieces were
part of a Cold War coalition,
a Ronald Reagan coalition.
But the Cold War is over,
Reagan is long gone, and
without that lost density to
hold them in orbit, the plan-
ets are ready to spin out on
their own into uncharted
space.
The evangelicals have
nowhere to go if they wish
to remain a force in politics.
Pro-life Democrats are all
but extinct in Congress.
The free traders and Wall
Street have made a killing
over the past two decades as
Democrats and Republicans
encouraged and helped them
move capital out of the
country with NAFTA and
other trade deals.
But Main Street paid
the price, and is dying.
Capitalism is a liberating
force, but unfettered it can
be destructive. One look at
the shuttered factories and
vacant storefronts will tell
you that.
Politics isn’t buildings.
Buildings don’t vote. And
lectures about the price of
labor in Indonesia won’t
soothe parents with two or
three part-time jobs and no
time for their children.
They don’t want a gov-
ernment handout. And
Trump appeals to them.
But Wall Street has been
sweetening the tongue of
Democrat Hillary Clinton.
The neoconservative war
party intellectuals are aban-
doning the Republicans and
moving toward her as well.
They can see Republican
noninterventionism rising,
first with Rand Paul and
now with Trump, and Mrs.
Clinton is the fiercest raptor
in politics now.
Without that coalition,
the GOP establishment
won’t be able to use gov-
ernment to project power
and graze and get fat and
wealthy.
That’s what terrifies
them. So they’ll fight to
keep it, and destroy whoever
might be in the way.
Republican establish-
ment figures certainly must
see the end of things, see it
moving out there beyond
their walls, some shadow on
the horizon telling them it’s
just about over.
The change is inevitable.
Political coalitions always
rise, fall and are reformed
into something new. But I
sure don’t think Trump and
his boorish vulgarity are the
proper vessel for this change
in the Republican Party.
Paul would be riding
the crest of the wave now
if the neoconservatives
didn’t hamstring him at
the beginning. Ted Cruz is
clearly more conservative,
though unlike Trump, Cruz
talks eagerly of military
adventures.
What Trump has touched
on, perhaps unwittingly, is
an American middle- and
working-class anger so
deep that journalists really
couldn’t see it. It’s been
looked at as some sort of
mental condition, as evi-
dence of illness or racism or
some other pathology to be
treated medically, or mocked
by newspaper pundits and
on social media.
It’s out now, and it’s
raging.
© 2016 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.