OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
Walker’s cocktail of ignorance
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
Founded in 1873
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T
The shame of an
Oregon education
he presidents of both Oregon and Oregon State aren’t sure
the residents of this state care about having excellent pub-
lic universities.
“There’s something wrong with
a state willing to be 46th in fund-
ing, willing to be a backwater state,”
bemoaned University of Oregon
President Michael Schill last week.
Can that really be so — this
land of clear mountain streams —
a backwater? Nationally, Oregon’s
reputation is of a green, progres-
sive, well-run state. But dig a little
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a state that is locked in a struggle
with Mississippi and Alabama at the
bottom of many education rankings.
It is no coincidence that those two
other states are among the nation’s
poorest.
Schill, along with Oregon State
University President Ed Ray and new
Eastern Oregon University President
Tom Insko, worry about the mecha-
nisms that fund higher education in
the state. They were pleased with the
funding increase this biennium but
worry about the decrease that they
said is sure to come next time the
economy dips.
That lack of long-term planning
and long-term priority has them
working at a disadvantage. And stu-
dents suffer because of it.
Higher education seemingly did
pretty well in the last legislative
session, with its budget increased to
nearly $700 million for the bienni-
um. So it is possible that the colleges
can be seen as ungrateful — or just
always wanting more dollars.
But Ray said the funding bump
offered a glimpse into a “window of
opportunity” and none of them want
to see that window close.
“The everyday conversa-
tion hasn’t changed,” said Ray.
“Everybody should be upset.”
“And embarrassed,” added Schill.
W
ith the arrival of the pope,
our spirits lift.
With the departure of Scott Walker,
they plummet.
There’s so
much we’ll nev-
er know, such as
how far he was
willing to take
his single issue.
For Walker it
was unions at
dawn, unions
at dusk, unions
in his dreams.
Frank
Having hobbled
Bruni
them in Wiscon-
sin, he vowed to
cripple them nationally, and who’s to
say it would have stopped there? I feel
certain that he was mere weeks away
from a big speech advocating the de-
ployment of ground troops to stamp
out collective bargaining among the
Sherpas in Nepal.
I feel certain, too, that his best gaffes
were still to come, though he gave us
several gems. In an era lacking vision-
ary leadership, he envisioned a great
wall along our northern border to keep
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tyranny of free health insurance. And
we learned that years back, he mangled
an intended “mazel tov” in a letter to
a Jewish constituent, instead writing:
“Thank you again and Molotov.”
I miss him already. And I wonder:
Was it his shallowness that undid him?
Just how little learning will Republi-
can voters abide in a candidate? Did
he test the limit?
One of his former aides, Liz Mair,
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on Monday about his errors, including
“not educating himself fast enough”
on national and world affairs.
Walker evaded foreign policy
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ing tripped up. He bungled domestic
policy questions, seemingly unable to
cling to a sturdy position.
But whether that doomed him is
impossible to say in a Republican
primary season with mixed messages
about the party’s appetite for igno-
rance, at once prodigious and incon-
sistent.
Donald Trump has prospered, and
he’s utterly unapologetic about all the
matters that he hasn’t taken the trou-
ble to bone up on and all the experts
whom he hasn’t bothered to consult.
he American people ought to
be able to sue congressional
members for political malpractice.
If we could, the fast-approach-
ing end of the Land and Water
Conservation Fund would result in a
big payout of damages by the leader-
ship of the House Natural Resources
Committee.
The Land and Water Conservation
Fund (LWCF) may be the most pop-
ular federal program you’ve nev-
er heard of. Relying on no taxes, it
takes some of the proceeds from off-
shore oil and gas leases and reinvests
those funds in outdoor recreation and
conservation throughout America.
It is national self-improvement
using assets that belong to all of us
— a sort of savings account in the
form of better state and local parks,
as well as enhancements in national
parks, wilderness areas, forests and
wildlife refuges.
Started in 1964, it is key to the
creation and maintenance of “thou-
sands of local playgrounds, soccer
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cording to the Trust for Public Land.
It was the creation of Washington’s
legendary Sen. Henry “Scoop”
Jackson, at the request of President
John Kennedy.
The fund will cease to exist un-
less action is taken by Sept. 30.
Despite bipartisan backing for the
fund’s survival, House commit-
So do
Republicans
want fi nesse
or fi re?
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Walker was no doubt as confused
about this as he is about so much else,
and no wonder. Well beyond the Re-
publican primary and the Republican
Party, we’ve exhibited a curious habit
in this country of forgiving intellectu-
al blind spots and refashioning a con-
tempt for schooling as an embrace of
common sense.
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devoted to this. Don’t sweat the brain
work, because there’s Emotional In-
telligence. Don’t think, Blink. Obtuse-
ness in a leader can be redeemed by
The Wisdom of Crowds.
I’m being somewhat loose in my
description of those books. And I’m
not rejecting the importance of in-
stinct.
But I’m weary and wary of poli-
ticians whose ambitions precede and
eclipse any serious, necessary prepara-
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a perfect example.
I kept hearing and reading — after
he’d obviously decided to run for pres-
ident — that he was being briefed by an
emergency crew of wonks. Shouldn’t
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have been paying attention all along,
out of a genuine interest in this sort of
material rather than a pragmatic one?
He wasn’t, and so this candidate —
who had begun gaming out his politi-
cal future all the way back in college,
where he gave his classes short shrift
— took an international trip during
which he refused to discuss interna-
tional relations, oddly claiming that it
wouldn’t be polite.
Etiquette prevailed.
He didn’t.
Molotov, Gov. Walker.
Let’s be clear that there is some-
thing wrong with our state universi-
ties. The graduation rate at two of our
When NBC’s Chuck Todd asked
most popular schools is miserable.
him where he gets his military advice,
The number of Oregon students at
he said: “I watch the shows.” He pre-
both is in serious decline. At Oregon
sumably meant Meet the Press and
State alone, the number of in-state
Face the Nation, though I don’t think
we can rule out Survivor or Game of
students has fallen from 85 percent
Thrones.
to 73 percent, and Ray said he sees it
Time and again, Trump pledges to
falling further if the school continues
amass the proper information just be-
to lose money to educate Oregonians
fore he needs it — no point in doing so
when they can make money by im-
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— and he predicts that he’ll shame
porting students from out-of-state.
everyone then with his abracadabra
Or even more money by importing
erudition. He’s a procrastinating col-
from out-of-country.
lege freshman planning an all-nighter
And let’s be even clearer: there’s
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something wrong with K-12 educa-
But here comes Carly Fiorina, and
tion in Oregon, as well. We’re down
her brand is aced-it-already and know-
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there with Mississippi in graduation
For a magazine story in 2010, I
rate, in classroom hours, in numer-
followed her around and interviewed
ous other statistical categories.
her over several days. Someone would
We’ve been told that we need
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to rebuild our state education sys-
toid about it. I’d ask her about a for-
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tem from the ground up — starting
make clear that she’d dabbled in two
with preschool through third grade.
others as well. Her husband would tell
Of course, we only have one chance
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to get it right. But this state and this
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country have been bouncing through
Her fresh bounce in the polls re-
competing education priorities and
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testing systems and bureaucrats.
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The lack of coherent vision and fol-
chops that night, also seemed to ben-
low-through makes it unlikely that
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students will stay on one track.
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We should be embarrassed at the
state of Oregon’s education system.
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it. It’s a help, for sure. But we need
that total rebuild — a rebuild that
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
reate more complex pieces
says. “That’s the dream.”
must come from the ground up and
New York Times News Service
of meat that are the pinna-
One advantage is health.
— for the sake of this generation
cle of the meat industry,” he
Beyond Meat’s best-selling
product, the Beast Burg-
f only meat weren’t so delicious! added. “I believe that plau-
of college students — from the top
er, is loaded with protein,
Sure, meat may pave the way sible, good-tasting steaks
down, too.
and
pork
loins
are
only
a
vitamins, antioxidants and
Legislators and policy makers to a heart attack.
Omega-3s. The disadvan-
matter of time.”
FDQJHWLQWRVSHFL¿FVODWHU7KH¿UVW
Yes, factory farms torture animals.
tage, alas, is that it still
Puglisi is advising Be-
step to recovery is to admit we have Indeed, producing a single hamburger yond Meat, a startup that
tastes a bit too virtuous.
Mock chicken and beef
patty requires more water than two LVDOHDGHULQWKH¿HOGZLWK
a problem.
crumbles
are triumphs
weeks of showers. But for those of us investments from Bill Gates
Nicholas
when
mixed
in other foods
who are weak willed, there’s nothing and both Biz Stone and Ev
Kristof
(Whole Foods once inad-
like a juicy burger.
Williams of Twitter fame,
Ah, but that’s changing.
not to mention Kleiner Perkins Cau- vertently swapped real curried chicken
A revolution is unfolding in the ¿HOG%\HUVWKHYHQWXUHFDSLWDO¿UP salad with fake curried chicken salad,
IRRGZRUOGUHVXOWLQJLQWKH¿UVWDOWHU that backed Google and Amazon. Be- and no one noticed for two days). But
natives to meat that taste like the real yond Meat says its sales are doubling if I were a cow, I might be a bit em-
barrassed by Beyond Meat’s meatballs
thing. Veggie burgers used to seem each year.
and
Beast Burger.
like
a
blend
of
tofu
and
cardboard,
“We’re
really
focused
on
the
main-
tee chairman Rob Bishop, R-Utah,
Moreover, prices are still a bit high-
but in the last few years food scien- stream,” said Ethan Brown, the found-
won’t allow an up-or-down vote. He WLVWVKDYHFRPHXSZLWK¿UVWUDWHIDX[ er of Beyond Meat, over a lunch of er than real meat.
and other conservative congressional chicken strips and beef crumbles.
But both taste and price are like-
fake chili, meatballs and hamburgers.
ly to improve in the next few years,
It will be awhile before we’re It was a banquet of the bogus.
Republicans are supposedly consid-
Brown, 44, is deeply concerned by and other companies are also making
ering “reforms” of the LWCF. But fooled by a fake sirloin steak, but
these intentions remain unrealized, scientists think they’ll eventually get climate change and spent eight years great progress. One of Beyond Meat’s
there. And before long you’ll walk in a company making hydrogen fuel rivals is Impossible Foods, founded
with lack of action having the result down the meat aisle of your supermar- cells. But he read that livestock cause by a Stanford University biochemist,
of LWCF dissolving.
ket and see plant-based “meat,” even more greenhouse gases than the entire Patrick O. Brown, and there is an ex-
The changes they have in mind leaking “blood.”
transportation industry, SORVLRQRIUHVHDUFKLQWKLV¿HOGWRGD\
The mainstream food industry isn’t
These meat alternatives
and he wondered if he
include limiting the government’s
It
was
a
saying
much publicly. But recently
could
end
up
being
cheap-
shouldn’t
focus
more
on
ability to use the LWCF to expand
released documents from the Ameri-
er
than
real
meat.
Buyers
food.
existing national parks. For most
won’t just be vegans but banquet
He came across two can Egg Board, a quasi-governmen-
Americans, such a use of our mon- also carnivores simply
University
of Missouri tal body, show it regarded Hampton
of the
ey is perfectly acceptable, for ex- looking for healthy, sus-
VFLHQWLVWV ZKR KDG ¿J Creek’s egg-free “Just Mayo” spread
ample buffering iconic Civil War tainable, cheap food.
bogus. ured out how to realign as a “major threat.” In one internal
So look out. If the al-
SODQW¿EHUVLQWRVRPHWKLQJ email, an Egg Board executive jok-
EDWWOH¿HOGVIURPFRPPHUFLDOGHYHO
ternatives
to
meat
are
tasty,
more like meat, and began ingly suggests hiring a hit man to deal
opments that would fundamentally
healthier, cheaper, better for the envi- working with them. Brown found- with Hampton Creek.
degrade visitors’ experience.
My take is that the optimal approach
ronment and pose fewer ethical chal- ed Beyond Meat in 2009, and Whole
In our area, U.S. Rep. Suzanne lenges, the result may be a revolution Foods helped the company develop to food, for health and ethical reasons,
Bonamici, D-Ore. 1st Dist, and in the human diet.
imitation chicken strips that were its may be vegetarianism. But the average
American still consumes close to half
“The next couple of years will be ¿UVWSURGXFW
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler,
At the beginning of 2013, its prod- a pound of meat a day, so a large-scale
R-Wash. 3rd Dist., are both support- exciting ones,” says Joseph D. Pugli-
ive of LWCF to varying degrees, as si, a Stanford University professor of XFWVZHUHLQVWRUHVQRZWKH\DUH impact requires providing options for
structural biology who is working on found in 7,500, and will soon be in the ambivalent or weak willed among
are all four Oregon and Washington meat alternatives. “We can use a broad Wal-Marts as well. Beyond Meat is us who can’t quite make the leap.
state U.S. senators. They all should range of plant protein sources and cre- aiming to get its products on pizzas
And if I can still enjoy a juicy burg-
strongly urge Bishop and other ate a palette of textures and tastes — and in fast-food restaurants and is tar- er now and then, while boosting my
health, helping the environment and
House committee members to keep for example, jerky, cured meats, sau- geting the average consumer.
avoiding the brutalizing of farm ani-
sage,
pork.”
“We
want
to
create
the
next
great
the LWCF alive. As a Republican,
“The true challenge will be to rec- American meat company,” Brown mals, hey, I’m in!
Herrera especially should make her
voice heard by GOP colleagues.
This program clearly deserves
continuing enthusiastic support by
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503- 3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
Congress. Generations of bipartisan
(D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- 326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
support for this smart investment
ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- gov/
'LUNVHQ 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ
of national funds in local commu- 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-
nities deserves to be honored and RI¿FH 6: 0LOOLNDQ :D\ +DUW 6HQDWH 2I¿FH %XLOGLQJ :DVK 224-5244. Web: www.wyden.senate.
Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224- gov
sustained.
The (fake) meat revolution
I
Conservation fund in
danger from inaction
T
Isaac Brekken/AP Photo/File
Republican presidential candidate Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
speaks in Las Vegas Sept. 14.
Where to write