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Wednesday, July 5, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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P
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Jonah
Goldberg
Welcome Quilters!
Letters to the Editor…
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To the Editor:
The devastating June 25 motor-vehicle crash outside the Black Butte Ranch main entrance
has been cruel to victims and their families. They must all be in our thoughts and prayers.
The Oregon State Police and local law enforcement authorities as well as the Oregon
Department of Transportation played vital roles on scene.
I particularly want to commend the firefighters and paramedics from the Black Butte Ranch
and Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire Departments. They did an extraordinary job. We are lucky to
have them.
Larry Stuker
Black Butte Ranch
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Have you caught the new show in town? The Roundabout? Get a DQ, sit on the patio and
watch. It’s already a lo-o-o-ng running show as participants are backed up to Tollgate.
Tom Kopec
Sisters Weather Forecast
Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
91/49
89/51
89/49
88/49
88/na
na/na
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I do not fear much cor-
rection when I say that my
columns of the last few
years have not been char-
acterized by an overabun-
dance of cheerfulness and
optimism.
For instance, about a year
ago, I endorsed a Twitter
personality for president.
No, not that one. I backed
SMOD, the “Sweet Meteor
of Death,” whose sole presi-
dential campaign promise
was to deliver an extinction-
level event upon impact
with earth. But SMOD,
like so many politicians,
disappointed me, which is
why my refrain of the last
few years has been, “Cheer
up, for the worst is yet to
come.”
I bring this up for two
reasons. First, to acknowl-
edge for the reader my
misanthropic biases, and
second, to beg some indul-
gence, as I’m unaccustomed
to describing the light at the
end of the tunnel as anything
other than a locomotive’s
headlamp.
So here it goes: Maybe
things are getting better.
The standard brief against
the president, from the left
and much of the desiccated
center, is that Donald Trump
is a threat to the constitu-
tional order. I do not dismiss
this view out of hand, and if
President Trump were much
more popular, I’d worry
about it more. But to date,
things aren’t working that
way.
The press, by its own
self-aggrandizing account, is
enjoying some new golden
age. Newspaper subscrip-
tions are up.
No thanks to the White
House’s own efforts, this
really is the most transpar-
ent administration in his-
tory. Leaks make it almost
impossible for the White
House to keep anything
secret. And when it does, the
president’s Twitter account
serves almost as a live feed
into what he is thinking.
O b v i o u s l y, l i b e r a l s
despise the president’s
agenda, but most of what he
has accomplished, almost
entirely through executive
orders, has actually been
entirely defensible — and
from a conservative perspec-
tive, laudable — on policy
terms.
If you don’t like him
rescinding so many of
President Obama’s execu-
tive orders, perhaps you
should have pushed harder
for Obama to get things done
the proper way — through
the legislative process.
Then there’s Congress.
For decades, under
Republican and Democratic
presidents and Republican
and Democratic majorities,
Congress has been a feckless
doormat for the president,
ceding ever more authority
to the executive branch. This
is not how it’s supposed to
work. Congress is the “first
branch” of government pre-
cisely because the founders
saw in the presidency the
threat of despotism, or what
Edmund Randolph called
“the foetus of monarchy.”
That’s why Congress has
all the real power under
the Constitution: the sole
authority to declare war,
levy taxes, ratify treaties and
craft legislation.
Most of the Republicans
in Congress have little
experience in crafting seri-
ous legislation, never mind
asserting their first branch
prerogatives. Thanks in part
to the president’s incompe-
tence and in part to his lau-
datory desire to delegate the
tough decisions to Congress,
House Speaker Paul Ryan
and Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell have had
to step up, filling a breach
that began under Woodrow
Wilson and became a chasm
at the end of the Obama
years.
No one can dispute that
it’s been an ugly and at
times embarrassing process,
one that seems frightening
to Beltway denizens who’ve
grown accustomed to presi-
dents driving outside their
constitutional lanes. Nor can
it be argued that the rank-
and-file Republicans rac-
ing to hastily slap together
healthcare legislation and
tax reform are doing so
primarily out of a patriotic
fidelity to the founders’
vision. Rather, they know
that if they don’t deliver,
they will be thrown out of
office like drunks who can’t
pay their bar tabs. But that’s
OK. The founders under-
stood that political ambition
was the lifeblood of institu-
tional heath.
© 2017 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.