PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 11, 2016
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
The GOP vulgarians
By E.J. DIONNE JR.
It was William Bennett,
education secretary in the
Reagan years and the Re-
publican Party’s premier
moralist, who embedded
a phrase in the American
consciousness when he be-
moaned the fact that “our elites pre-
sided over an unprecedented coars-
ening of our culture.”
Well, to borrow another famous
phrase, it is Bennett’s party and two
of its presidential candidates in par-
ticular, Donald Trump and Marco
Rubio, who are merrily defi ning
our politics, our discourse and the
American presidency down. The
2016 Republican primary cam-
paign is now on track to be the
crudest, most vulgar and most thor-
oughly disgusting contest in our na-
tion’s history.
A policy wonk who has spent
nearly two decades in politics was
watching last Thursday’s GOP de-
bate with his two teenage daughters
and was horrifi ed when one turned
to him and asked: “Is this what you
do?” The dad, who didn’t want to
be named because he didn’t want to
embarrass his daughters, said their
acquaintances had higher standards
than the debaters: “They would be
humiliated if their friends talked to
them that way.”
Call me old-fashioned or even
a prig, but I have a rather elevated
view of what politics can be and
what it can achieve. For decades, in
good political moments and bad,
I have repaired for inspiration and
comfort to the political philoso-
pher Michael Sandel’s description
of politics at its best. “When politics
goes well,” he wrote, “we can know
a good in common that we cannot
know alone.”
In the GOP right now, it’s not
going well.
You can place a lot of the respon-
sibility for all this on Trump and,
yes, the media. As I was writing this,
MSNBC (for which I’ve worked
over the years) and CNN were si-
multaneously broadcasting live the
same Trump speech. Welcome to
Trump State Television. Broadcast-
ers have reveled in the ratings to be
gained from airing Trump’s stream-
of-consciousness (if politically ef-
fective) rants, and the coarser the
better.
We might let the blame settle
there, except that Marco Rubio got
frustrated. The man the party’s lead-
ers keep saying is the real challenger
to Trump despite his early diffi cul-
ties in winning actual contents de-
cided that to beat Trump, he had to
join him.
Thus began his own rants that
reached a low point when he de-
clared of Trump dur-
ing a rally last month
in Virginia: “I don’t un-
derstand why his hands
are the size of someone
who’s 5-2. Have you
seen his hands? They’re
like this.” Here, Rubio
held his thumb and fi ngers closely
together to depict something very
small indeed. He added: “And you
know what they say about men
with small hands.”
My naivete extends to the fact
that I did not know that small hands
are often equated to diminutive en-
dowments elsewhere. But Trump,
obviously more worldly than I,
went all defensive at the debate, held
out his arms and declared: “Look at
those hands, are they small hands?
And he referred to my hands -- ‘if
they’re small, something else must
be small.’ I guarantee you there’s no
problem. I guarantee.”
Now we know.
Then there was Trump’s response
earlier in the day to the attack on
him by Mitt Romney. Trump had
a point that Romney was happy to
seek his endorsement in 2012 (and
to ignore Trump’s birtherism and
his other racially and religiously
tinged comments about President
Obama). But here is how Trump
put the matter: “He was begging
for my endorsement. I could have
said, ‘Mitt, drop to your knees.’ He
would have dropped to his knees.”
We expect Trump to be lout-
ish. Worse is Rubio’s refusal to take
responsibility for the course he has
chosen. Explaining that he would
truly prefer to be talking about is-
sues, Rubio went for the-devil-
made-me-do-it defense. “But let’s
be honest too about all this,” he ex-
plained. “The media has given these
personal attacks that Donald Trump
has made an incredible amount of
coverage.”
Yes, let’s be honest: He’s right
about the media, but since when is
it credible, responsible or, for that
matter, conservative to blame some-
one else for what comes out of your
own mouth?
By comparison, John Kasich and
Ted Cruz are looking almost as is-
sue-oriented and responsible as, well,
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.
But the whole Republican race is
now a moral and electoral wreck, a
state of affairs that one conservative
after another mourned during and
after Thursday’s encounter.
For decades, conservatives have
done a great business assailing lib-
erals for promoting cultural decay.
Sorry, guys, but in this campaign,
you have kicked away the franchise.
other
views
(Washington
Group)
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The effect of Trump on Republicans
What kind of Republicans are
in Keizer? There could be Trump
Republicans, Cruz Republicans, or
Rubio Republicans. Maybe Keizer
leans more to Reagan Republicans,
or Hatfi eld, McCall and Packwood
Republicans.
If you live in Keizer your inter-
ests in both the Oregon Senate and
House of Representatives are cham-
pioned by a Republican. Both Bill
Post and Kim Thatcher seem too de-
cent and true to be Trump Republi-
cans. I hope that is the case.
There was news of a small riot near
Disneyland in Anaheim last week in
one of those little wire service stories
tacked on to the end of longer sto-
ries to fi ll the needed column inches.
Six Klu Klux Klan members showed
up in a black SUV for their adver-
tised rally carrying “white lives mat-
ter” signs. Protestors protested and
windows were shattered. The black
SUV quickly retreated, leaving three
unlucky KKK members stranded to
fend for themselves. Luckily there
was a metallic American Eagle on
the end of their fl agpole with which
they were able to stab several of the
counter-protestors in “self-defense.”
Counter-protestors were then seen
stomping two of the KKK members.
If we leave out the use of the fl agpole
as weapon, this is a good represen-
tation of the
current state
of
political
discourse in
our country.
Republi-
can “debates”
featuring
language, lies, uncontrolled temper,
and rudeness that you wouldn’t al-
low from your children or in a high
school debate are now becoming the
normal tenor of the party and de-
grading all of American politics. Re-
gardless of the vile accusations they
have leveled at each other they’ve all
pledged to support the last candidate
standing. Now that’s integrity.
Stephen King, a horror expert, has
this tweet attributed to him: “Con-
servatives who for eight years sowed
the dragon’s teeth of partisan politics
are horrifi ed to discover they have
grown an actual dragon.”
Congressional Republicans have
been content to keep their hands
clean by letting Rush Limbaugh,
Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, and
even Fox News infl ame their base and
corral voters. Now Donald Trump is
the found voice of that anger and
old line Republicans are panicked at
their loss of control. There is a des-
perate “Anyone but Trump” scramble
threatening to split the GOP, driven
a box
of
soap
by a very reasonable embarrassment
at having Donald Trump be the face
of the party.
Trump seems excused from any
standards of decency, honesty, or
civility. No candidate has ever be-
fore boasted about his private parts.
There were no Muslim throngs cel-
ebrating 9/11 in New Jersey. His
black-on-white crime claims are
completely wrong. Mexico will nev-
er build and pay for a big wall on the
border. Mexican immigrants are not
rapists and thugs. If he “brings back”
all those jobs lost to countries with
cheaper labor you should prepare
to spend more for electronics and
manufactured goods. If we had been
willing to pay that price, those jobs
would never have left.
Does the political divide in Keizer
have to look like this? I am at ease
being represented by Sen. Thatcher
and Rep. Post even though I’m a
wild-eyed liberal. If they share Don-
ald Trump’s agenda then I’ll actively
work against them. Even if Trump
loses, and he must, he will still have
some supporters in this community.
I’m not sure if compromise is pos-
sible with these true believers, or if
there is reason to attempt it.
(Don Vowell gets on his soapbox
regularly in the Keizertimes.)
Other people help to make us a success
Lately, I’ve been writing around
on this opinion page, screaming the
equivalent of “The British are com-
ing!” It’s time to take a break from
such mental meanderings and talk
about a topic that’s much more calm-
ing.
This topic has to do with a Harvard
research discovery about the one thing
most everyone needs to lead a happier,
healthier life. The journalist writing
on what was found is Colby Itkowitz
of The Washington Post.
Itowitz begins by commenting
on what her grandmother passed
along to her about a visit to her doc-
tor where she moved her large purse
out of the way, remarking how heavy
it was. “You must be very rich,”
the doctor is reported to have said.
She replied “Yes, I am.” Yet, says Itow-
itz, his grandparents lived modestly in
a two-bedroom rowhouse they moved
into after he returned from WWII and
raised a family there. We’re told they
did not eat lavishly, travel widely
or shop at the fi nest department
stores. Neither had followed their
dream careers. Nevertheless, grand-
mother considered herself rich be-
cause she had a husband, children and
grandchildren, all of whom she valued
and adored.
Conclusion: grandma knew what
Harvard researchers have confi rmed:
Relationships are the key to a happy
life. The Harvard reference has to do
with a 75-year-long Grant Study that,
more recently, the fourth person to
run it, Robert Waldinger, a Harvard
psychiatrist, decided to publish the
fi ndings that the federal government
has spent millions of dollars to fund,
starting in 1938 and following the
lives of Harvard University men, be-
cause he realized that most Ameri-
cans want to know what constitutes a
good life.
Among those chosen were John F.
Kennedy and Ben Bradlee and every
aspect of their lives and the others
in the study was tracked. This study
was teamed with a similar one that
had been following a group of young
men from inner-city tenements since
the 1940s. This teamwork effort al-
lowed them to
contrast social
status and up-
bringings, al-
though other-
wise, everyone
in the study is
a white male.
The men’s
physical and emotional well-being
and genetic testing were periodi-
cally assessed. Many conclusions have
been reached from studying their
lives. Yet, Waldinger and his associ-
ates were able to realize a unanimous
verdict: The happiest and healthi-
est participants in both groups were
those who kept close, spiritually inti-
mate relationships. Eventually, marital
partners got involved so the impact of
marriages on physical health was in-
cluded and the fi nding was that those
satisfi ed in their relationships were
happier and healthier.
Waldinger commented from the
decades-long study that “People who
are more isolated than they want to be
from others fi nd that they are less hap-
py, their health declines earlier, their
brain functioning declines sooner and
they live shorter lives than people
who are not lonely.” Further, “good,
close relationships seem to buffer us
from some of the slings and arrows
gene h.
mcintyre
of getting old.” Wealth, fame, career
and success don’t bring health or hap-
piness but it’s the work they put into
maintaining people connections with
other persons.
Looking into the lives of the men in
the two studies has inspired Waldinger
to make changes from near exclusive
attention to his research and publish-
ing to more emphasis on his role as
a teacher: the connection between
mentor and student that has been
found for him to be more satisfying.
He’s also has done more about reach-
ing out to friends who are sick or are
struggling. Relationships are messy
and complicated, he says, and require
tending to but the effort is highly re-
warding to the giver.
The bottom line is that devoting
as much time as possible to family,
friends and even strangers is the best
way to establish and maintain one’s
health. It may be bold and reckless
to take time away from one’s business
matters and tangible rewards may not
always be realized as quickly as one
would hope but the real advantages
to operating this way, while subtle
and hidden, are internally enhancing
and the most direct path to health and
happiness..
(Gene H. McIntyre’s column ap-
pears weekly in the Keizertimes.)