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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2018)
14 Wednesday, February 7, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon The Bunkhouse Chronicle Craig Rullman Columnist Fear and loathing in D.C. The bludgeoning of our Republic continues. For the sake of argument, consider this: Suppose the Republicans are right, and the Russian collusion narra- tive is, in the words of Victor Davis Hanson, “an incoher- ent effort to destroy Donald Trump’s candidacy beyond the bounds of normal poli- tics and later a renewed and unprecedented endeavor to abort his presidency.” Suppose the collusion narrative actually is manu- factured out of circumstan- tial evidence, combined with a wildly visceral hatred of Donald Trump. Suppose the thought of Trump in the White House so horrified Democrats that the collusion narrative was invented by the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DNC, Perkins-Coie, Fusion GPS, Russian agents via Richard Steele, and with the complic- ity of biased and/or incompe- tent agents in the FBI. Suppose it was all rubber- stamped by corrupt attor- neys in the Department of Justice. And, importantly, suppose all of that was done in an attempt to influence the election outcome in favor of Hillary Clinton and the Democrat Party. But what if none of that is true and the Democrats are right? Suppose Donald Trump actually is a sexually deviant racist and a proto- mafioso fascist charlatan. Suppose he really did collude with Russian agents by way of elaborate, quid- pro-quo money-laundering schemes carried out by a cadre of shady campaign aides and managers — Paul Manafort, Carter Page, General Flynn, et al — with the ultimate aim of securing Russian assistance to influ- ence the election in his own favor. Suppose that unbiased and professional investigations into the Big Truth are now jeopardized by acts of obfus- cation and obstruction from the Trump administration. Suppose the unprece- dented dismissal of Director Comey, the leave of Deputy Director McCabe, the implicit threat to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the pos- sible collapse of the Mueller investigation are the harbin- gers of a dictatorial overhaul of Federal law enforcement. Finally, for the sake of argument, consider a third alternative: Suppose that both sides in the equation are sitting on elements of truth in their respective narratives, and that both sides — enor- mously powerful entities driven by fear and whose only real purpose is to secure more power — engaged in illegal and/or underhanded tactics to influence the out- come of a free election. And then consider that while both candidates, their parties, and the caterpillars of their campaigns were engaged in these murky, Deep State operations to influence votes the only real loser was actually you, and your faith in the integrity of due process in our elections and our judiciary. At the end of the day, after all of the committee meetings, dossiers, FBI texts, partisan media bashings, the carousel ride of prosecutors and directors and deputy directors of this or that, the tweets, the recusals, and the accusations of treason, it is really only Larry and Mary Lunchbucket — that’s you and me — who pay the price for arrogance and corruption in our politics. We lose because under any honest analysis the continuing dysfunction in Washington has raised seri- ous questions about the integ- rity of our entire electoral Full-Service Small Engine Repairs We serve ALL makes and models! • Small Engines • Mowers • Outdoor Equipment Gold Certifi C ifi ed d Stihl Technician on Staff (and Sales!) We sell Stihl Outdoor Power Equipment! 506 N. Pine St. 541-549-9631• www.sistersrental.com RENTAL | STORAGE | SERVICE process. Worse, it continues to batter confidence in our ability to honestly investi- gate powerful politicians and their organizations, of any persuasion. And when we lose the honesty and transparency of due process in this coun- try, when party affiliation is finally more important than justice, we will have lost that thing which distinguishes us from the average narco- terror state or tinpot banana republic. There is an argument to be made that only a healthy republic would be having this kind of shouting match to begin with. Only in a country whose institutions are essentially sound, the thinking goes, would any of these high-stakes politi- cal skirmishes be happening without car bombs, kidnap- pings, and wholesale politi- cal jailings. We can be grateful that it isn’t, yet, but in a nation rap- idly transitioning from can- do optimists into miserable, media-saturated cynics, one wonders how far away from that sort of thing we might actually be. And no serious observer of this partisan war of accu- sation and counter-accusa- tion, of investigations into investigations, should ignore what writer Gavin De Becker calls “The Gift of Fear,” that evolutionary gift of intuition and apprehension that allows us to interpret the presence of danger. And there is terrific dan- ger in the wild polarization of our politics, and the par- tisan temptation to settle for a result no matter how it was achieved. You might despise Cliven Bundy, for instance, find nothing compelling in his beliefs, and wish ardently for him to be imprisoned. But a wiser person celebrates the system of due process that declared a mistrial when government prosecutors were found to have repeat- edly lied and to have with- held material evidence in his case. The triumph of due pro- cess over politics and pan- dering is a win for us all. In the meantime, we can all hope that whatever the truth in the big collusion extravaganza may be, it will eventually shine through. But we aren’t there yet, and it will only happen if our elected representatives — and the Fourth Estate — vig- orously insist on the victory of transparency and due pro- cess over individual politi- cians and political power. And their behavior thus far in that regard — where both sides of the aisle, ele- ments of the major media, and maybe even the FBI are still carrying water for their respective champions — leaves much to be desired. Quality Truck-mounted CARPET CLEANING Quality Cleaning 16 years in Reasonable Prices Sisters! — Credit Cards Accepted — ENVIROTECH 541-771-5048 Licensed • Bonded • Insured • CCB#181062 RESIDENTIAL • COMMERCIAL Bill would address classroom crowding SALEM (AP) — A bill set to go in front of the Oregon Legislature could relieve teachers of overcrowded classrooms. The Statesman Journal reports the bill would require school districts to discuss class size along with salaries, benefits and other topics when making budget decisions. 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