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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 2017)
2 Wednesday, August 9, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O N Jonah Goldberg 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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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: Regarding this inflated story of ”Mayor under scrutiny” I would like to shed some light since I actually witnessed this event. This “over 50 petite woman” was not so innocent while walking by reading her mail. She deliberately stood in front of the Ryan’s home with her cell phone out taking a video. She clearly has an agenda; now she is playing the victim card. Please keep in mind that she had the audac- ity to post it on a website. I have lived in this neighborhood over 15 years and I have seen a bit of stuff; however, I do know this: The Ryans are decent people and deserve better than what they are being dished. Michele Williams Coyote Springs s s To the Editor: Congratulations to Skydive Awesome on establishing their new headquarters at Madras where they have acres and acres of safe and scenic landing zones for the parachutists, well away from residential areas and obstacles. We wish them well. And thank you to Sisters Eagle Airport personnel for facilitating the relocation. Skies over our neighborhoods have been wonder- fully peaceful with only the ordinary coming and going of local planes and visitors. For this we are deeply appreciative. Suzanne Pepin s s s To the Editor: I often sit back in silent, idle agreement See LETTERS on page 24 s Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny Mostly sunny 92/57 91/58 87/55 88/54 83/51 79/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 Easterling 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. ©2017 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. “The Trump base is far bigger & stronger than ever before,” the president declared in a series of tweets Monday morning, and that “will never change.” Many observers were quick to point out that this assertion isn’t borne out in the polls. Such nitpicking, however, overlooks a more impor- tant part of this story. In the 1990s and 2000s, Trump had political ambitions, but the traditional two-party system and the media landscape served as impenetrable bar- riers. It was the breakdown of the old ways that opened a path for someone interested in breaking them down even more — in part by embrac- ing a new base of mostly non-college-educated whites. Traditionally, Republi- cans have relied on white, middle-class, white-collar, married suburbanites. The American Communities Project identifies 106 “urban suburbs” — the relatively affluent near-in suburbs of major cities. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won 92 of them. In 2016, Trump lost 89. As Politico’s Charlie Mahtesian recently chroni- cled, Republicans have been steadily losing market share in these crucial districts and counties for decades, as sub- urbanites become a bit more liberal and a lot more hostile to Republican populism on cultural issues. Just as inexorably, the Democrats have been watch- ing white, blue-collar work- ers, the heart of the old Franklin D. Roosevelt alli- ance, migrate to the GOP for some time now. Democrats bet heavily on the growth of minorities, particularly the black vote, urban liberals, immigrants and millennials. This coalition delivered two historic victories for Barack Obama. But opposition to Obama accelerated the defection of rural, working-class and older whites to the GOP cause, costing Demo- crats 63 House seats and roughly 1,000 elected offices nationwide. Now, both parties have similar dilemmas: Their new bases are too small to guar- antee electoral success but too strong to allow funda- mental rethinking of how the parties do business. The Democratic base of hard-core liberals and Trump “resisters” is not a majority coalition. But it is the domi- nant ideological force within the party (and mainstream media), and hence the lead- ership is very reluctant to broaden the party’s message. The new push for zero toler- ance of pro-life Democrats is just one obvious illustration of the bind the Democrats are in. Trump, meanwhile, has dedicated the first six months of his presidency to keeping his base happy. That’s in part because he can’t get legisla- tion through Congress, so he tweets red meat to the faith- ful instead. His media cheerleaders increasingly define conser- vatism not as adherence to any program, but as personal loyalty to Trump. Hence the rising call from figures such as the recently suspended Fox News host Eric Bol- ling to purge the party of “RINOs” (Republicans In Name Only) who are criti- cal of the president. If Trump had an approval rating in the high 50s instead of numbers that bounced around in the 30s, following this advice would not threaten the frag- ile GOP majority. The Democrats have settled on economic popu- lism as their unifying theme, not so much because that’s where all the passion is but because they can’t agree on any other agenda that would enlarge their coalition. The GOP, in turn, is shrinking its ideological commitments — and appeal — and focusing instead on populist rage and the president’s cult of per- sonality. Both courses leave vast swaths of the electorate up for grabs. As a result, there’s the potential for an opening in 2020 for some opportunis- tic figure — Mark Zucker- berg? Michael Bloomberg? — from outside the belea- guered and sclerotic party system who could forge a coalition from both the tra- ditional Democratic and Republican columns, much as Emmanuel Macron did in France. An independent can- didate always seemed like a pipe dream in America’s two-party system. But so did Trump’s candidacy until not very long ago. © 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.
