OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2016
What Republicans should say
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
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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
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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
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service, and meeting others from
across society. He wants to create a
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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,
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being chronically lonely. Drug over-
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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
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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.
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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-
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legislative process, utilities,
conservationists and consumer
groups make a good case for
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: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
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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
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power plant by 2020, PGE’s
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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.
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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
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will increase costs by less than
1 percent a year through 2030.
Oregon-related carbon emis-
sions through 2040 will be
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would be without this bill.
It’s rare to build such a
broad coalition of support
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won’t please climate-change
deniers, whose mantra is still
“Burn baby, burn.” A strong
majority of Oregonians prefer
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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
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how America’s oligarchs
any worse, it does.
then working-class voters
got so powerful.
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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
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D
ORW
RI
LQÀX-
— be possible for a candi-
Paul
thought impossible: making George
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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
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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.
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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
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