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OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016 What Republicans should say Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Raise trial court judges’ salaries f the many differences between Oregon and our neighbor Washington, the gap in judicial salaries is the most puzzling and galling. The three judges in the Clatsop County Courthouse have salaries of about $124,000 per year. Cross the river and 3DFL¿F&RXQW\MXGJHVHDUQDERXW That is only a hint of how sector attorneys who make more behind we are. Oregon ranks than the judge. It has an impact WK LQ WKH QDWLRQ IRU LWV on the dynamic in the courtroom compensation of trial court — the lines of authority and the judges. levels of respect.” The Oregon Circuit Court We invest judges with enor- Judges Association is asking mous authority and expecta- the Oregon Legislature to tions. Our democracy depends increase trial court judge sala- on an independent, competent ULHV WR WKH UDQJH RI judiciary. An element of that DQG 7KDW ZRXOG competence is the life expe- bring Oregon to the median of rience that a judge brings to state trial judge compensation. the bench. The danger of low When Dawn McIntosh compensation is the inability UHFHQWO\ ¿OHG IRU WKH RSHQ to recruit judge candidates Clatsop County judicial posi- from a broad legal spectrum. Says Judge Mooney: “We’re tion, she effectively made a GHFLVLRQWRFXWKHUSD\VLJQL¿- trained not to be political. I hate cantly. But across Oregon, asking for money. But we’ve PDQ\TXDOL¿HGODZ\HUVFKRRVH reached a point that for the third not to compete for a judgeship, branch of government to work because of low compensation. well we have to get the salary The consequence is that the up to the median level.” Mooney and her colleague, judge is often the lowest-paid lawyer in a courtroom. “If you Judge Paula Brownhill of want people who value their Astoria, are right. It is essen- work, follow the dollars,” says tial to bring Oregon trial court Judge Jodie Mooney of Lane judges’ compensation to the County. “You see other public median of all states. O By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service or a few decades, American and British conservatism marched in tandem. F Thatcher was philosophically akin to Reagan. John Major was akin to George Bush. But now the two conserva- tisms have split. The key divide is over what to do about the slow-mo- tion devastation being felt by the less educated, the working David class and the Brooks poor. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have appealed to working-class voters mostly by blaming outsiders. If we could kick out all the immigrants there wouldn’t be lawbreakers driving down wages. If we could dismantle the Washington cartel the economy would rise. In Britain David Cameron is going down another path. This month he gave a speech called “Life Chances.” Not to give away the ending or anything, but I’d give a lung to have a Republican politi- cian give a speech like that in this country. )LUVWKHGH¿QHGWKHUROHRIJRYHUQ- ment: basic security. In a world full of risks, government can help furnish a secure base from which people can work, dream and rise. Cameron argued that both sides in the debate over poverty suffered real limitations because they still used 20th-century thinking. The left has traditionally wanted to use the state to redistribute money downward. The right has traditionally relied on the market to generate the growth that lifts all boats. The welfare state and the market are important, but, he argues, “talk to a single mum on a poverty-stricken estate, someone who suffers from chronic depression, someone who perhaps drinks all day to numb the pain of the sexual abuse she suffered as a child. Tell her that because her EHQH¿WV KDYH ULVHQ E\ D FRXSOH RI pounds a week, she and her children have been magically lifted out of poverty. Or on the other hand, if you told her about the great opportuni- ties created by our market economy, I expect she’ll ask you what planet you’re actually on.” Cameron called for a more social approach. He believes government can play a role in rebuilding social capital and in healing some of the Matt Dunham/AP Photo British Prime Minister David Cameron listens as Ireland’s Prime Min- ister Enda Kenny speaks at the start of their meeting at 10 Downing Street in London, Jan. 25. Cameron defined the role of government: basic security. traumas fueled by scarcity and family breakdown. He laid out a broad agenda: Strengthen family bonds with shared parental leave and a tax code that rewards marriage. Widen opportunities for free marital coun- seling. Speed up the adoption process. Create a voucher program for parenting classes. Expand the Troubled Families program by 400,000 slots. This program spends SRXQGV DERXW SHU family over three years and uses family coaches to help heal the most disrupted households. Cameron would also create “char- acter modules” for schools, so that there are intentional programs that teach resilience, curiosity, honesty and service. He would expand the National Citizen Service so that E\ SHUFHQW RI WKH QDWLRQ¶V \HDUROGVDUHSHUIRUPLQJQDWLRQDO service, and meeting others from across society. He wants to create a SURJUDPWRUHFUXLWPHQWRUVWR work with young teenagers. To address concentrated poverty, he would replace or revamp 100 public housing projects across the country. He would invest big sums in mental health programs and create a social impact fund to unlock millions for new drug and alcohol treatment. It’s an agenda that covers the entire life cycle, aiming to give people the strength and social resources to stand on their own. In the U.S. we could use exactly this sort of agenda. There is an epidemic of isolation, addiction and trauma. According to an AARP survey, RQHWKLUG RI DGXOWV RYHU UHSRUW being chronically lonely. Drug over- GRVHGHDWKVRISHRSOHDJHVWR increased elevenfold between 1990 and 2010. More than half the Amer- ican births to women under 30 are outside marriage. Poorer parents are too strained and stressed to spend as much quality time raising their kids. According to the sociologist Robert Putnam, college-educated SDUHQWVVSHQGSHUFHQWPRUHGood- night Moon time with their kids than less-educated parents. Meanwhile social support systems are fraying, especially for those without a college degree. Religious DI¿OLDWLRQLVSOXPPHWLQJ6LQFH the number of people who declare no religious preference has tripled. Social trust is declining. Only 18 percent of high school seniors say that most people can be trusted. There are two natural approaches to help those who are falling behind. 7KH¿UVWZH¶OOFDOOWKH%HUQLH6DQGHUV approach. Focus on economics. Provide people with money and jobs and their lifestyles will become more stable. Marriage rates will rise. Depression rates will drop. The second should be the conser- vative approach. Focus on social norms, community bonds and a nurturing civic fabric. People need relationships and basic security before they can respond to economic incentives. But Republicans have walked away from their traditional Burkean turf. The two leading Republican presidential candidates offer little more than nativism and demagogy. David Cameron has offered an agenda for a nation that is coming apart. There desperately needs to be an American version. 2UHJRQOLJKWVD¿UH under coal power Plutocrats and prejudice and ugliness M ost Oregonians get it: The age of coal is over. Nations, states and companies that don’t immediately begin a serious transition to non-coal electricity will face a steep upward curve in costs, which will be passed along to consumers and future generations. Though details will doubt- OHVV EH UH¿QHG GXULQJ WKH legislative process, utilities, conservationists and consumer groups make a good case for 2UHJRQ +RXVH %LOO :HDQLQJ 3DFL¿F 3RZHU DQG Portland General Electric off coal in 14 years, this bill is designed to satisfy state voters would otherwise be tempted to pass a ballot initiative this year that might be more clumsy in achieving the same goal and FRVWPLOOLRQPRUH As the cost of wind, solar and other clean energy comes down, regulations aim to keep fossil fuel-related greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and ocean. By starting to lock in predictable costs for alter- native energy, the big private utilities and society as a whole give themselves a path that avoids future price shocks. Oregon already is planning RQWKHHQGRILWVRQHFRDO¿UHG power plant by 2020, PGE’s IDFLOLW\LQ%RDUGPDQ+% would mean Oregon would cease buying coal-generated electricity produced out of state in places like Wyoming. With vast reserves of coal and other fossil fuels, the interior Western states will doubtless search for other customers for dirty power. But in the long run, it’s likely other states and the federal government will join with Oregon in developing new ways to provide electricity. +% ZLOO GRXEOH Oregon’s alternative energy usage by 2040. This ambi- tious push toward a sustain- able future will provide an additional impetus for clean- power inventors and inves- tors — improving the tech- nology and bringing costs GRZQ 3DFL¿F 3RZHU¶V DQDO- \VLV RI WKH OHJLVODWLRQ ¿QGV LW will increase costs by less than 1 percent a year through 2030. Oregon-related carbon emis- sions through 2040 will be PLOOLRQWRQVOHVVWKDQWKH\ would be without this bill. It’s rare to build such a broad coalition of support DV +% KDV DFKLHYHG ,W won’t please climate-change deniers, whose mantra is still “Burn baby, burn.” A strong majority of Oregonians prefer WKHVDQHDSSURDFKH[HPSOL¿HG by the legislation. this says about political rise of the 1 percent back strategy. when many of today’s If the ugliness in Sanders supporters were American politics is all, very time you think that our in elementary school. But or almost all, about the political discourse can’t get it’s important to understand LQÀXHQFH RI ELJ PRQH\ how America’s oligarchs any worse, it does. then working-class voters got so powerful. 7KH5HSXEOLFDQSULPDU\¿JKWKDV who support the right are For they didn’t get victims of false conscious- devolved into a race to the bottom, WKHUH MXVW E\ EX\LQJ LQÀX- ness. And it might — might ence (which is not to deny achieving something you might have WKDW WKHUH¶V D ORW RI LQÀX- — be possible for a candi- Paul thought impossible: making George HQFHEX\LQJ RXW WKHUH date preaching economic Krugman W. Bush look like a beacon of toler- Crucially, the rise of the populism to break through ance and statesmanship. American hard right was the rise of this false consciousness, thereby But where is all the nastiness a coalition, an alliance between an achieving a revolutionary restruc- elite seeking low taxes and deregula- turing of the political landscape, by coming from? Well, there’s debate about that — tion and a base of voters motivated by PDNLQJDVXI¿FLHQWO\VWURQJFDVHWKDW and it’s a debate that is at the heart of fears of social change and, above all, he’s on their side. Some activists go by hostility toward you-know-who. the Democratic contest. further and call on Democrats to stop Yes, there was a concerted, talking about social issues other than Like many people, I’ve described the competition between Hillary successful effort by billionaires to income inequality, although Sanders Clinton and Bernie Sanders as an push America to the right. That’s hasn’t gone there. argument between competing theo- not conspiracy theorizing; it’s just On the other hand, if the divisions ries of change, which it is. But under- history, documented at length in Jane in American politics aren’t just about lying that argument is a deeper dispute Mayer’s eye-opening new book Dark PRQH\ LI WKH\ UHÀHFW GHHSVHDWHG about what’s wrong with America, Money. But that effort wouldn’t have prejudices that progressives simply what brought us to the state we’re in. gotten nearly as far as it has without can’t appease, such visions of radical To oversimplify a bit — but only, the political aftermath of the Civil change are naive. And I believe that I think, a bit — the Sanders view is 5LJKWV$FW DQG WKH UHVXOWLQJ ÀLS RI they are. Southern white voters to that money is the root of That doesn’t say that movement the GOP. all evil. Or more specif- toward progressive goals is impos- Where Until recently you sible — America is becoming both ically, the corrupting could argue that what- more diverse and more tolerant over LQÀXHQFH RI ELJ PRQH\ is all the ever the motivations time. Look, for example, at how of the 1 percent and the corporate elite, is the nastiness of conservative voters, quickly opposition to gay marriage the oligarchs remained has gone from a reliable vote-getter overarching source of the political ugliness we see coming ¿UPO\ LQ FRQWURO 5DFLDO for the right to a Republican liability. dog whistles, dema- all around us. But there’s still a lot of real preju- from? gogy on abortion and so dice out there, and probably enough The Clinton view, on on would be rolled out so that political revolution from the the other hand, seems to be that money is the root of some during election years, then put back left is off the table. Instead, it’s going evil, maybe a lot of evil, but it isn’t into storage while the Republican to be a hard slog at best. the whole story. Instead, racism, Party focused on its real business of Is this an unacceptably downbeat sexism and other forms of preju- enabling shadow banking and cutting vision? Not to my eyes. After all, one dice are powerful forces in their own top tax rates. reason the right has gone so berserk But in this age of Trump, not so is that the Obama years have in fact right. This may not seem like a very big difference — both candidates much. The 1 percent has no problems EHHQPDUNHGE\VLJQL¿FDQWLILQFRP- oppose prejudice, both want to reduce with immigration that brings in cheap plete progressive victories, on health economic inequality. But it matters labor; it doesn’t want a confronta- SROLF\WD[HV¿QDQFLDOUHIRUPDQGWKH tion over Planned Parenthood; but the environment. And isn’t there some- for political strategy. As you might guess, I’m on base isn’t taking guidance the way it thing noble, even inspiring, about the many-evils side of this debate. used to. ¿JKWLQJ WKH JRRG ¿JKW \HDU DIWHU In any case, however, the ques- year, and gradually making things Oligarchy is a very real issue, and I was writing about the damaging tion for progressives is what all of better? By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service E
