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Wednesday, January 2, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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Jonah
Goldberg
Letters to the Editor…
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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:
It is not the role or responsibility of the
public school system to teach our children
gender politics, as per the book titled “George”
by Alex Gino, being considered by the middle
school.
I believe this is still a free country where
values are taught at home.
Also, regarding Laird’s expansion to 500+
families — my question is when is enough,
enough?
Jeanne Brooks
s
s
s
To the Editor:
Gasoline is an important item in most fam-
ily’s budgets. The current national average for
regular gas according to CNBC is $2.28 per
gallon.
Why are Oregonians the only U.S. residents
incapable of pumping their own gas? This is
a non-partisan issue. Salem, let’s take action
now.
Ed Derksen
Black Butte Ranch
s
s
s
To the Editor:
I wish to thank the Sisters-Camp Sherman
Fire Dept. for once again providing Christmas
dinner for a lot of folks who otherwise would
not be with other people and enjoy a good
meal on this day.
It’s amazing, though, to notice when sign-
ing in, how many people DO NOT donate. I
think everyone could afford a few dollars to
help keep this dinner going. We have no fam-
ily here or anywhere that would come here so
See LETTERS on page 9
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For a very long time
now, I have been predicting
that the Trump presidency
will end poorly because
character is destiny. I’ve
said it so often, I occasion-
ally need to be reminded
that I didn’t coin the phrase.
The Greek philosopher
Heraclitus did when he
observed “ethos anthropoi
daimon,” most often trans-
lated as “man’s character is
his fate.”
Character is one of
those topics, like culture
or morality, that everyone
strongly supports yet also
argues about. When James
Q. Wilson, one of the great-
est social scientists of the
last half-century, turned
his scholarly attention to
character, many of his col-
leagues in academia were
repulsed. Even though
every one of them surely
believed in some notion
of good character, it was
assumed that to talk of it,
let alone seek a definition
of it or a plan for how to
cultivate it, would be an
exercise in lending aid and
comfort to the moralizers of
the right.
But Wilson, a man of
both good and conservative
character, had a more hum-
ble and universal definition
than his colleagues might
have expected: decency,
politeness, self-restraint,
commitment, honesty,
cooperativeness and the
ability to think of others’
well-being.
Weirdly, it’s gotten to
the point that when I say
President Trump is not a
man of good character,
I feel like I should pref-
ace it with a trigger warn-
ing for many of my fellow
conservatives.
Most of the angry
responses are clearly rooted
in the fact that they do not
wish to be reminded of this
obvious truth. But others
seem to have convinced
themselves that Trump is a
man of good character, and
they take personal offense
at the insult. They rush to
rebut the claim, citing banal
or debatable propositions:
He loves his children! He’s
loyal to a fault! He’s authen-
tic! Never mind that many
bad men love their children,
that loyalty to people or
causes unworthy of loyalty
is not admirable, and that
authentic caddishness is
not admirable. Moreover,
he is not remotely loyal to
his wives or the people who
work for him.
What’s most worrisome
is that these defenders are
redefining good character
in Trump’s image, and they
end up modeling it.
Others assume that I am
referencing the president’s
style, specifically his insults
and Twitter addiction. What
his defenders overlook
is that his insults are not
simply an act; they are the
product of astonishing lev-
els of narcissism, insecurity
and intellectual incuriosity.
The president who
became a celebrity by tell-
ing reality-show contestants
“you’re fired” has not fired
any of his Cabinet officials
face to face or even on the
phone. He relies on others,
or on Twitter, to deliver the
news. He loves controversy
because it keeps him in the
center ring, but he hates
confrontation.
Nearly all of the contro-
versies that have bedeviled
Trump’s administration
are the direct result of his
character, not his ideology.
To be sure, ideology plays
a role, amplifying both the
intensity of anger from his
left-wing critics and the
intensity of his transac-
tional defenders. Many of
the liberal critics shrieking
about the betrayal of the
Kurds implicit in Trump’s
decision to withdraw from
Syria would be applauding
if a President Clinton had
made the same decision.
And many of the conserva-
tives celebrating the move
would be condemning it.
But Trump’s refusal to
listen to advisers; his inabil-
ity to bite his tongue; his
demonization and belittling
of senators who vote for his
agenda but refuse to keep
quiet when he does or says
things they disagree with;
his rants against the First
Amendment; his praise for
dictators and insults for
allies; his need to create
new controversies to eclipse
old ones; and his inexhaust-
ible capacity to lie and fab-
ricate history: All of this
springs from his character.
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Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.