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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 18, 2016)
OPINION 4A 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 smoking age from 18 to 21 ome in Washington state are trying to raise the legal smoking age from 18 to 21, a step that should be adopted by Oregon and throughout the nation. It will be a challenge to rently are major sources of get all the pieces in place illegal tobacco for younger during the remainder of teens. Butting-up against the Washington’s short legisla- tive session this winter. A REYLRXVEHQH¿WVRIUDLVLQJWKH bill to increase the tobacco tobacco age is the crass esti- possession age has passed mate that Washington would a House committee, but the miss out on $10.4 million in Everett Herald reported this taxes in its current cycle and Tuesday that the overall leg- $21.9 million in the 2017-19 islation has run into opposi- budget period. A few legislators also cite tion based on concerns about tax revenue and fairness. The the unfairness of restrict- age increase is supported by ing tobacco use for an age 65 percent of Washington group that serves in the mili- residents, according to poll- tary. This is about like saying ing, and has a strong advo- they shouldn’t have to wear cate in state Attorney General motorcycle helmets or fas- ten their seatbelts. Keeping Bob Ferguson. Desire for the change is young people off tobacco is driven by modern awareness one of the kindest steps leg- that teenage tobacco addic- islators can take, irrespective WLRQVDUHGLI¿FXOWWRNLFNDQG of whether they are in the lead to lifetimes of adverse armed services. So far, only Hawaii has health consequences. By the time they reach age enacted this smart and 21, evidence suggests young benevolent 21 tobacco age. people are less likely to take Oregon, Washington and the up smoking. At the same rest of the nation should all time, 18- to 20-year-olds cur- get on board. S Do Republicans want to govern? he latest gambit of Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates raises the most basic ques- tion in the race for the White House and control of the U.S. T Senate. Do Republicans want to govern? The assertion that a sit- ting president must not nom- LQDWH D FDQGLGDWH WR ¿OO D vacancy on the Supreme Court is the latest iteration of a political ideology that goes nowhere. Republican pres- idential candidates and the GOP blogosphere encour- age belief in the concept of total victory, instead of compromise. A Democratic African-American president only fuels that illusion of the demand for total victory. Hillary Clinton was on tar- get when she told a Harlem audience that, “Some (Republicans) are even say- ing he doesn’t have the right to nominate anyone, as if somehow he’s not the real president.” Clinton added that, “They demonize President Obama and encourage the ugli- est impulses of the paranoid fringe. This kind of hatred and bigotry has no place in our politics or our country.” The sad thing is that many Republicans would dis- pute Clinton’s last assertion. Hatred and bigotry are at the heart of the Republican presidential campaign – in the words of Donald Trump. And thus far, audiences love it when Trump spreads a gos- pel that is right out of the pre- civil rights South. Republicans’ preference for 12 months of a vacated Supreme Court position is only one aspect of a reluc- tance to govern. One sees it in shutting down the fed- eral government. It was also apparent in the economically scary notion of defaulting on the federal debt. In the deepest sense, Republican lawmakers and presidential candidates are turning their back on the par- ty’s birthright. The Grand Old Party is becoming Hateful Old Party. Editorials that appear on this page are written by Publisher Steve Forrester and Matt Winters, editor of the Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal, or staff members from the EO Media Group’s sister newspapers. THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2016 The eternal sunshine of the spotless Trump supported the crime bill and welfare reform. Bernie Sanders would have us luxuriate in his onald Trump has vision of economic jus- been recognized tice. He’d rather us not for his mastery of the glance backward and note media, his fascination how little headway he’s made to date. with gilt and his bold But Trump is in a dif- DGYRFDF\ IRU EDIÀLQJ ferent category altogether. Matt Rourke/AP Photo hair. He doesn’t so much recast Republican presidential candi- But I think his greatest his yesterdays as utterly date Donald Trump smiles during UHLQYHQW WKHP FRQ¿GHQW a campaign stop, Wednesday, distinction is as a surre- Frank that the brio of his proc- Feb. 17, 2016, in Bluffton, S.C. alist. Not since Salvador Bruni lamations will mask their Dalí has someone so of war, he was like a D.J. dusting bogusness. ambitiously jumbled reality and Lately he’s been trumpeting his off a golden oldie from the vault. hallucination. prescience in having urged the Bush We hadn’t heard that song in a I’m thinking of his news con- administration not to invade Iraq while. We seldom read much anymore ference in South Carolina on Mon- back in 2003, but there’s no such about Trump the birther (unless it’s day and of one assertion in particu- urging on record. The website PolitiFact went in in relation to Ted Cruz and Canada). lar, although with Trump it’s always search of it, combing through news- And while that’s partly because his hard to pick and choose. In an appeal to African-Ameri- papers and television transcripts, 5HSXEOLFDQULYDOVVHHQRSUR¿WLQDQ attack on him that could be taken can voters, he charged that Barack and came up empty-handed. “Trump makes it sound like he as a defense of Obama, it’s also Obama had done nothing for them, and drew a contrast between himself stood on a railroad to try to stop because there’s been so much other, fresher fodder since. and the president by saying: “I’m a the Iraq war train in The sheer volume its tracks,” PolitFact XQL¿HU2EDPDLVQRWDXQL¿HU´ His of his offenses min- The second of those sentences reported. “In real- each affront, LVGHEDWDEOH7KH¿UVWLVMXVWDMRNH ity, by the time he got greatest imizes and as his shock tac- Trump sneeringly divides the world around to forcefully into winners and losers, savagely criticizing the war, trick isn’t tics become predict- able, they inevitably mocks those who challenge him, that train had already to toy with grow less menacing, dabbles in sexism, marinates in rac- left the station.” too. His greatest trick, ism, and on and on. memory I hear it in the 7RFDOOWKDWXQL¿FDWLRQLVODXJK- though, isn’t to toy conversations around able under any circumstances. To with memory but to but to make that claim to blacks is per- overwhelm it, render- me; I see it in media verse. Not long ago, he insis- ing insults and provo- overwhelm coverage that increas- tently questioned the legitimacy of cations at such a hec- ingly treats him as it. Obama’s presidency by latching tic pace that the new a normal candidate. onto the popular right-wing con- ones eclipse and then Familiarity breeds spiracy theory that Obama had been expunge the old ones. It’s as if surrender, even rationalizations: born in Kenya and couldn’t produce the DVR of the electorate and the He doesn’t actually mean what he media can store only so many epi- says. He doesn’t ultimately believe DSURSHU86ELUWKFHUWL¿FDWH Has he forgotten that? Or is sodes before it starts erasing earlier in anything. It’s all strategy, all he simply betting that Americans indignities. spectacle. Sit back and enjoy the +LV ÀDPER\DQW SUHVHQW RYHU- show. have? Every campaign is a painstak- writes his distressing past. It’s the “It’s so fun to watch,” Ezra Klein ing manipulation of memory, an eternal sunshine of the spotless of Vox recently wrote, “it’s easy to attempt to get voters to focus on Trump. lose sight of how terrifying it really His proposed ban on Muslims is.” only certain parts of the past and coming into the country exited the disregard the rest. I might quibble with “fun,” but Candidates say that they’re eager discussion much more quickly than not with the notion that Trump has to run on their records, but what it should have. So did his false used a kind of sensory overload to they want from voters isn’t total claims that Muslims in Jersey City QXPEXVWRWKH¿FWLRQVKHVSLQVWKH celebrated by the thousands on 9/11. indecency he indulges. recall. It’s selective amnesia. At the Republican debate Satur- Hillary Clinton would have us We can’t lose track. We must GZHOO RQ KHU ¿JKW IRU FLYLO ULJKWV day night, when Jeb Bush brought keep score. The sum of them is the in the 1960s. She’d prefer that we up Trump’s galling dismissal of essence of him, a picture worth a edit out bits of the 1990s, when she John McCain’s ordeal as a prisoner thousand slurs. By FRANK BRUNI New York Times News Service D What do we hold most dear now? their local economy.” “the other” for lost jobs, In short, we’re not even though more jobs, particularly low-skilled socialists. The report outlines ¿QG WKLV HOHFWLRQ EL]DUUH jobs, are lost to micro- many steps government for many reasons but none chips, not Mexicans. What we have in Amer- can take — from dereg- more than this: If I were given ica is so amazing — a plu- ulation to education to a blank sheet of paper and told ralistic society with plu- ¿QDQFH ² WR XQORFN more entrepreneurship in to write down America’s three ralism. Syria and Iraq are pluralistic societies with- America, and not just in greatest sources of strength, out pluralism. They can Silicon Valley, but any- Thomas L. they would be “a culture of only be governed by an where, like Louisville, Friedman where “a vibrant startup entrepreneurship,” “an ethic of LURQ¿VW Just to remind again: We have community has developed. … pluralism” and the “quality of twice elected a black man whose 7RGD\ WKH FLW\ ERDVWV ¿YH DFFHOHU- our governing institutions.” grandfather was a Muslim and who ators, a vibrant angel investor com- And yet I look at the campaign defeated a woman to run against munity and partnerships with large so far and I hear leading candi- a Mormon! Who does that? That companies to support startup enter- is such a source of strength, such prises like the GE FirstBuild center, dates trashing all of them. a magnet for the best talent in the which brings together micro-man- Donald Trump is running against world. Yet Trump, starting with his ufacturing and the maker move- pluralism. Bernie Sanders shows “birther” crusade, has sought to ment.” We can do this! We are doing zero interest in entrepreneurship undermine that uniqueness rather it. “Roughly half of private-sec- tor employees work in small busi- and says the Wall Street banks that than celebrate it. Sanders seems to me like some- nesses, and 65 percent of new jobs provide capital to risk-takers are involved in “fraud,” and Ted Cruz one with a good soul, and he is right created since 1995 have come from speaks of our government in the that Wall Street excesses helped tank small enterprises.” Unlike Sanders, Ted Cruz does same way as the anti-tax zealot Gro- the economy in 2008. But thanks to ver Norquist, who says we should the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform not have a good soul. He brims and Consumer Protec- with hate, and his trashing of Wash- shrink government “to tion Act, that can’t easily ington, D.C., is despicable. I can’t the size where I can drag ‘E happen again. it into the bathroom and defend every government regula- I’d take Sanders more tion. But I know this: As the world drown it in the bathtub.” (Am I a bad person if I Pluribus seriously if he would stop gets faster and more interdependent, about break- the quality of your governing insti- hope that when Norquist Unum’ bleating ing up the big banks tutions will matter more than ever, slips in that bathtub and has to call 911, no one — Out and instead breathed life and ours are still pretty good. I won- into what really matters der how much the average Russian answers?) I don’t remember an of Many, for jobs: nurturing more would pay to have our FBI or Jus- entrepreneurs and start- tice Department for a day, or how election when the pillars One. er-uppers. I never hear much a Chinese city dweller would of America’s strength Sanders talk about where pay for a day of the U.S. Securities were so under attack — and winning applause, often from employees come from. They come and Exchange Commission or Envi- from employers — risk-takers, peo- ronmental Protection Agency? Cruz young people! Trump’s famous hat says “Make ple ready to take a second mortgage ZUDSV KLPVHOI LQ DQ$PHULFDQ ÀDJ America great again.” You can’t to start a business. If you want more and spits on all the institutions that do that if your message to His- employees, you need more employ- it represents. panics and Muslims is: Get out or ers, not just government stimulus. America didn’t become the rich- I have just the plan for him: The est country in the world by practic- stay away. We have an immigra- tion problem. It’s an outrage that 2015 “Milstein Commission on ing socialism, or the strongest coun- we can’t control our border, but Entrepreneurship and Middle-Class try by denigrating its governing both parties have been complicit — Jobs” report produced by the Uni- LQVWLWXWLRQVRUWKHPRVWWDOHQW¿OOHG Democrats because they saw new versity of Virginia, which notes: country by stoking fear of immi- voters coming across and Republi- “The identity of America is intrin- grants. It got here via the motto “E cans because they saw cheap labor sically entrepreneurial (enshrined) Pluribus Unum” — Out of Many, FRPLQJ DFURVV %XW ZH FDQ ¿[ WKH by the founders, popularized by One. border without turning every His- Horatio Alger, embodied by Henry Our forefathers so cherished panic into a rapist or Muslim into a Ford. … With enough hard work that motto they didn’t put it on a anyone can use entrepreneurship hat. They put it on coins and then terrorist. Trump seized on immigration as to pave their own way to prosper- on the dollar bill. For a guy with so an emotional wedge to rally his base ity and strengthen their communi- many of those, Trump should have against “the other” and to blame ties by creating jobs and growing noticed by now. By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times News Service I
