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Wednesday, July 27, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
Robert B.
Reich
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
If anyone has reason to be upset about the
airport noise and traffic it would be me. I live
catty corner to the airfield, and the parachuters
often land in my backyard. Oh dear, they might
have trampled a weed and that infernal flap,
flap, flap of the parachute is enough to give me
a nervous breakdown. Gee, I might have to go
to one of the student safe rooms with my binky
and pacifier to reconnoiter. Seeing people
enjoy the outdoors, participating in a healthy,
wholesome sport is so upsetting.
We live in a world of terrorism, human slav-
ery, debauchery, child and animal abuse. Many
of our children are baby-coddled into becom-
ing uneducated mental midgets, self-absorbed,
entitled and allowed to play violence-promot-
ing video games. We feed them cancer-causing
chemical- and sugar-laden food and autism
is reaching 1 in 10 children — but we have
people worrying about a plane taking off every
three or four hours and parachuters enjoying
themselves?
Wouldn’t it be refreshing if all were con-
cerned about the important priorities and quit
majoring on the minors?
This entire situation reminds me of the man
who wrote to The Nugget protesting that we
had taken our two Wheaten terrier puppies to
a craft show and how disturbing that was to his
psyche.
Mr. Benson, if the small minded curmud-
geons start picking on you, just walk across the
street to the old Barclay estate and I will help
ward them off.
Trudie Kae Vlach
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Imagine what would happen if I approached
a small, tourist-dependent Utah town with the
following business proposal.
My business will: Employ only a few folks,
part-time at that. Result in minimal increase
in new tourists. Create noise pollution that
can be heard for miles, dawn to dusk. Lower
property values over a wide area. Irritate tour-
ists so much that they write letters to the editor
against the business. Create a safety hazard on
one of the busy local roads. Negatively affect
the quality of life for many area residents.
I would be laughed out of town if not tarred
and feathered. I would hope that our City
Council would react the same way if someone
offered such a business plan to Sisters Country.
Bruce V. Mason
sisters Weather forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
monday
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
90/50
92/52
92/53
84/46
81/44
80/na
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Does Hillary Clinton
understand that the biggest
divide in American politics is
no longer between the right
and the left, but between the
anti-establishment and the
establishment?
I worry she doesn’t — at
least not yet.
A Democratic operative
I’ve known since the Bill
Clinton administration tells
me, “Now that she’s won the
nomination, Hillary is mov-
ing to the middle. She’s going
after moderate swing voters.”
In fairness, Hillary is only
doing what she knows best.
Moving to the putative cen-
ter is what Bill Clinton did
after the Democrats lost the
House and Senate in 1994
— signing legislation on wel-
fare reform, crime, trade and
financial deregulation that
enabled him to win re-elec-
tion in 1996 and declare “the
era of big government” over.
In those days a general
election was like a compe-
tition between two hot dog
vendors on a boardwalk
extending from right to left.
Each had to move to the mid-
dle to maximize sales. But
this view is outdated.
The most powerful force
in American politics today is
anti-establishment fury at a
system rigged by big corpo-
rations, Wall Street and the
super-wealthy. This is a big
reason that Donald Trump
won the Republican nomi-
nation. It’s also why Bernie
Sanders took 22 states in
the Democratic primaries,
including a majority of Dem-
ocratic primary voters under
age 45.
There are no longer “mod-
erates.” There’s no longer a
“center.” There’s authoritar-
ian populism (Trump) and
democratic populism (which
had been Bernie’s “political
revolution” and is now up for
grabs).
If Hillary Clinton and
the Democratic Party don’t
recognize this realignment,
they’re in for a rude shock.
Trump does recognize it. His
authoritarian populism (“I
am your voice”) is premised
on it.
“In five, 10 years from
now,” Trump says, “you’re
going to have a worker’s
party. A party of people that
haven’t had a real wage
increase in 18 years, that are
angry.”
Speaking at a factory in
Pennsylvania in June, Trump
decried politicians and finan-
ciers who had betrayed
Americans by “taking away
from the people their means
of making a living and sup-
porting their families.”
Worries about free trade
used to be confined to the
political left. Now, according
to the Pew Research Center,
people who say free-trade
deals are bad for America
are more likely to lean
Republican.
The problem isn’t trade
itself. It’s a political-eco-
nomic system that won’t
cushion working people
against trade’s downsides or
share trade’s upsides. In other
words, a system that’s rigged.
Most basically, the anti-
establishment wants big
money out of politics. This
was the premise of Sanders’
campaign. It’s also been cen-
tral to Donald (“I’m so rich I
can’t be bought off”) Trump’s
appeal, although he’s now
trolling for big money.
Getting big money out
of politics is of growing
importance to voters in both
major parties. A June New
York Times/CBS News poll
showed that 84 percent of
Democrats and 81 percent
of Republicans want to fun-
damentally change or com-
pletely rebuild our campaign
finance system.
Last January, a Des
Moines Register poll of likely
Iowa caucus-goers found 91
percent of Republicans and
94 percent of Democrats
unsatisfied or “mad as hell”
about money in politics.
Hillary Clinton doesn’t
need to move toward the
“middle.” In fact, such a
move could hurt her if it’s
perceived to be compromis-
ing the stances she took in the
primaries in order to be more
acceptable to Democratic
movers and shakers.
She needs to move instead
toward the anti-establishment
— forcefully committing her-
self to getting big money out
of politics, and making the
system work for the many
rather than a privileged few.
She must make clear
Donald Trump’s authoritar-
ian populism is a dangerous
gambit, and the best way to
end crony capitalism and
make America work for the
many is to strengthen Ameri-
can democracy.
© 2016 By Robert Reich;
Distributed by Tribune Con-
tent 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.