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2 Wednesday, August 17, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Robert B. Reich American Voices 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Cultures in contrast. Recently, we traveled to the Scandinavian and Nordic countries. Beautiful landscape, lovely people and a vastly different social economy. It was not hard to distinguish social- ism from a capitalistic market. All of the coun- tries had high tax rates, up to 70 percent. Those we spoke to said they had the ben- efits of health care coverage, free education, liberal maternity time away from work, and a 28-hour work week. But they acknowledged doctor appointments were difficult to schedule and serious treatments could be a year or more out. The post-50-year-old crowd complained about the free education and free housing for students. Students lived better than seniors on a pension. And that they had to accept stu- dents from across the EU and pay for them as well. In Denmark, it was reported that the millennials had the lowest personal savings rate. They spent their money on near-term choices and personal credit was at an all- time high. The reason stated was that because nearly all their costs were covered by the gov- ernment, they had no reason to save. A lament that personal accountability was being lost. In the American system, personal account- ability still counts, though it is being eroded. Our history is about a personal work ethic that rewards greater effort. The individual is responsible for their 401Ks and saving options. Personal accountability means “plan and take care of yourself. Don’t rely on the government.” Ever notice that those who complain about a cost want someone else to pay? To those who promote increased entitlements, whose funds are you tapping? We might question, is See LetterS on page 18 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday thursday friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny Sunny 86/48 89/49 86/45 89/46 88/47 84/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. It looks increasingly likely that Hillary Clinton, a self-described “progressive who likes to get things done,” will have her chance starting next January. But how much that’s progressive will she actually be able to get done? The Senate may flip to the Democrats, but there’s almost no way Democrats will have the 60 votes they need to stop Republicans from filibustering everything she says she wants to do. She is unlikely to have a typical presidential honey- moon because she won’t be riding the wave of hope and enthusiasm that typically accompanies a new president into office. She’s already more distrusted by the public than any major candidate in recent history. She hasn’t established a powerful mandate for what she wants to get done. Her policy proposals are admi- rably detailed but cover so much ground that even her most ardent supporters don’t have a clear picture of what she stands for. To say nothing of the moneyed interests — wealthy individuals, big corporations and Wall Street — that are more powerful today than at any time since the Gilded Age and don’t want progres- sive change. Even if Hillary sincerely intends to raise taxes on rich Americans in order to pay for universal child care, afford- able higher education and infrastructure spending, the moneyed interests have the clout to stop her. They’ll also resist any effort to raise the federal minimum wage to $12 an hour, require employers to offer paid family leave, or push employers to share their profits with employees. Economist John Kenneth Galbraith noted in the 1950s, a key legacy of the New Deal was creating centers of eco- nomic power that offset the power of giant corporations and Wall Street: labor unions, small retail businesses, local banks, and political parties active at the state and local levels. These alternative power centers supported poli- cies that helped America’s vast middle and working classes during the first three decades after World War II — the largest infrastructure project in American history (the Interstate Highway pro- gram), a vast expansion of nearly free public higher edu- cation, Medicare and Medic- aid, and, to pay for all this, high taxes on the wealthy. (Between 1946 and 1980, the top marginal tax rate never dipped below 70 percent.) But over the last three decades, countervailing power has almost vanished from American politics. Labor unions have been decimated. In the 2012 presi- dential election, the richest 0.01 percent of households gave Democratic candidates more than four times what unions contributed to their campaigns. Small retailers have been displaced by Wal-Mart and Amazon. Local banks have been absorbed by Wall Street behemoths. And both political par- ties have morphed into giant national fundraising machines. The most promising source of a new countervail- ing power in America was revealed in Bernie Sanders’ primary campaign: millions of citizens determined to reclaim American democ- racy and the economy from big money. That movement lives on. Organizers from the Sanders campaign have already launched Brand New Congress, an ambitious effort to run at least 400 progres- sive candidates for Congress in 2018, financed by small, crowd-sourced donations and led by a nationwide network of volunteers. Sanders him- self recently announced the formation of “Our Revolu- tion” to support progressive candidates up and down the ticket. Hillary Clinton has been relying on big money to finance her presidential cam- paign, but she’s always been a pragmatist about govern- ing. “A president has to deal in reality,” she said last Janu- ary in response to Sanders. “I am not interested in ideas that sound good on paper but will never make it in real life.” The pragmatist in her must know that the only way her ideas will make it in real life is if the public is organized and mobilized behind them. © 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.