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Wednesday, September 14, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
John
Kass
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.
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To the Editor:
I have delighted in living in Sisters for
the last 30 years after my husband retired
and we made the decision to move closer to
family. We looked for a place with a strong
sense of community where we could establish
new friendships and delight in the company
of diverse opinions. But, equally, we looked
for a place that was surrounded by great natu-
ral beauty, and that evoked a strong sense of
place that could inspire us all to take care of it
as we looked to take care of one another.
I was reflecting on all of this the other day
as I sat in my garden and listened to the whine
and pound of tools being used to renovate
homes for growing families and retirees; the
rumble of FedEx, DHL, UPS and U.S. Mail
trucks along our roads as they conveniently
deliver all the goods that we order online; the
whirr of power tools being used to help us
keep our homes and properties ready for wild-
fires and winter; the traffic coming and going
over the mountains and right through the cen-
ter of town; and, yes, the 30-second burst of
buzz of planes taking off from the airport.
I find myself frequently starting to get
irritated by all of this cumulative impact on
ME! But then I remember the random acts
of kindness of drivers in letting an old lady
across Cascade Avenue; the friendly waves
of people who don’t even really know me
as I make my way into town; the hopeful
new restaurants that have sprung up to pro-
vide places for new and old friends to get
together, and jobs for local young people
and optimistic entrepreneurs ... and yes, the
ultimate joy of jumping out of one of those
planes and floating safely to the ground in the
See letterS on page 15
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Wasn’t it just a few weeks
ago that we were told that
the presidential election was
over?
It was so over that Hillary
Clinton’s staff eagerly antici-
pated measuring the White
House drapes in anticipation
of the Clinton Restoration.
And Donald Trump kept
shooting his feet off with
that stupid and vulgar mouth
of his, until only the stumps
remained.
All Hillary had to do to
win was protect her double-
digit polling lead, and play
prevent defense and avoid
a formal news conference
where she’d be asked tough
questions.
You can see it, can’t you,
like a summer dream. But
then summer did what sum-
mers do, and Labor Day
passed, and reality entered
into things doing what real-
ity does, with teeth. It bites.
And now a new CNN poll
shows the race tightening, at
least nationally, with Trump
holding a thin two-point
lead.
So it’s not over? This race
has tightened?
Are the Democrats look-
ing for a parking spot in
Panic City? Not necessar-
ily. But Democrats and
establishment Republicans
who loathe Trump might
be chewing off a few
fingernails.
Clinton’s campaign is
doing a remarkably fine job
taking Trump’s worst quotes
and using them against him
in devastating campaign
spots in the battleground
states. And she’s doing well
in those states where the
Electoral College counts
most in presidential elec-
tions. If the election were
held today, Mrs. Clinton
would most probably win.
But elections are about
momentum, and that
momentum could be turning
Trump’s way.
We have an election
with the establishment and
Hillary on one side and
Donald on the other, backed
by the unemployed working
class that once formed the
backbone of the Democratic
Party, before they were
kicked to the margins in the
new globalism and mocked
as unlettered racists by the
pundits.
Is it possible not to like
Trump, yet also to loathe
Clinton and the history of
the Clintons and their lies
and their parsing language
and their contempt for the
law, and worry what they’ll
do to the country? I think so.
But the way this plays out
in the media, any slight nod
toward Trump sets you up to
be branded, angrily and pub-
licly, as a bigot. It is a for-
mulation that drives clicks
for the legion of pro-Hillary
writers, and it serves the
Democrats well, but it also
smacks of something else:
Of being herded by cow-
boys with cattle prods at the
stockyards. And pushed too
far, there could be a backlash
in the chutes.
Clinton has many advan-
tages. She’s got Wall Street,
not only its millions but
its leverage. She has the
Republican establishment
that fears a Trump elec-
tion will push it away from
the great federal table (or
trough). A great advantage
is that American media has
openly waged war on her
behalf.
So what happened to
Hillary? How could it be so
close?
Here’s what happened.
Hillary happened to Hillary.
Her problem is that she
has always been Hillary
Clinton, understood to be a
liar, the Democratic Nixon
in pantsuits.
And Americans were
reminded again of what the
Clintons are really about,
with the release before the
Labor Day weekend of the
FBI report about her emails
when she was secretary of
state:
Americans
were
reminded of her wheedling,
the lies, her inability to recall
when asked by the FBI. The
lost phones and iPads —
some smashed by a hammer.
And those hundreds of State
Department workers who
kept their mouths shut about
what she did, like patronage
hacks at some machine-run
City Hall, and her staff’s
deletion of thousands of
emails under subpoena.
That’s why the race has
tightened. Americans were
reminded about the true
Hillary, and she can’t have
that.
And if you thought it was
ugly before, just wait.
© 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.