OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN TUESDAY, MARCH 15, 2016
Carson endorses the demagogue
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
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JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
By CHARLES M. BLOW
New York Times News Service
O
n Friday, I watched yet
another bizarre scene from
an already bizarre election cycle:
The affable but hopelessly vacant
Ben Carson endorsing the dema-
gogic real estate developer who
once said of Carson that he had a
“pathological temper” as a child
and compared him to a child
molester.
The worm turns
Carson said in his endorsement
speech that there are actually “two
different” sides to the front-runner.
Suddenly, LNG sees red lights at
both ends of the Oregon Coast
What does
this
mean?
Which one is
real? Are they
both? Is there
a Jekyll to this
Hyde? It was
an exceedingly
strange and fee-
ble attempt to
diminish
the
Charles
danger that this
Blow
man poses, but
in a way, if anyone could understand
this duality, it would be Carson.
This is the same Ben Carson who
has inveighed against the “purveyors
of division,” who played a video at
his presidential campaign announce-
ment in Detroit in which the narrator
said in part:
“If America is to survive the chal-
lenges of the modern world, we need
to heal, we need to be inspired, and we
need to revive the exceptional spirit
that built America. Never before have
we been so closely connected to each
other, but more divided as a country.”
This is the same Ben Carson who
used this closing statement at the sixth
Republican presidential debate in
North Charleston, South Carolina, by
imploring Americans to join him “in
truth and honesty and integrity.”
And yet, on Friday, Carson
endorsed one of the most dangerous
and divisive demagogues in recent
presidential election history, a man for
whom “truth and honesty and integ-
rity” are in¿nitely malleable, and eas-
ily discarded, concepts, and whose ral-
lies have been plagued by vileness and
violence.
Carson, like so many conserva-
tives, isn’t truly interested in unity as
much as silent submission, a quiet in
which one can pretend that hostility
has been quashed, all evidence to the
contrary.
These are folks who view dis-
cussions about reducing racial ineq-
uity and increasing queer equality
as divisive. They are people who see
efforts to protect women’s health, in
W
hat a difference a decade makes. Not that long ago, the
proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal and pipeline in
Coos County was considered the most likely to go the distance.
But last Friday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said
no to the proMect. FERC said the proMect¶s Eene¿ts did not out-
weigh the adverse effects on landowners on its pipeline route.
This stunner follows the dates stay in the race so long,
recent reversal thrown at which is all about the plentiful
Oregon LNG. On March supply of campaign money.
, a hearings of¿cer for the Oregon LNG’s quest is a law
Warrenton City Commission ¿rm’s full employment act.
The economics of the fos-
rejected land use permits for
the Skipanon LNG termi- sil fuel sector have changed
nal, saying it would likely dis- dramatically since the 2010
rupt ¿shing and potentially demise of the Bradwood
harm the ecology of the Lower Landing LNG terminal. And
that makes a certain point
Columbia River Estuary.
Oregon LNG is already in about the new prospect that
court with the Army Corps Oregon may avoid the LNG
of Engineers, which has boomlet altogether.
One can feel sympathy for
easements on the Skipanon
Peninsula. The project’s third out-of-work coal miners in
red light is the Clatsop County Appalachia or North Dakota
Board of Commissioner’s business people feeling the
2013 decision to deny a por- reversal of the oil industry.
tion of the pipeline. It has been But the bruising life in the
upheld by the state Land Use coal belt or an oil county is not
something to wish or plan for.
Board of Appeals.
In the face of these obsta- Boom and bust is typical of the
cles, the persistence of Oregon energy world, and if Oregon
LNG is akin to the puzzle of can avoid that hazard, that’s a
why some presidential candi- good thing.
Lynne Sladky/AP Photo
Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, left, speaks
with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after a news
conference at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., March 11.
particular their full range of repro-
This is the same Ben Carson who
ductive options, including abortion, on a radio show in 2013 said of white
and to reverse our staggering income liberals:
inequality as divisive. Indeed, the
“Well, they’re the most racist peo-
very words white supremacy, privi- ple there are because, you know,
lege, racism, bias, sexism, misogyny, they put you in a little category, a lit-
patriarchy, homophobia, and poverty tle box — you have to think this way.
are seen as divisive.
How could you dare come off the
Somehow, they think, these very plantation?”
real oppressive forces will simply die
This is the same Ben Carson who
if only deprived of conversational oxy- has compared women who have
gen. In fact, the opposite is true. By not abortions to slave owners, who said
naming these forces and continuously Obamacare is the worst thing since
confronting them, they strengthen and slavery — yes, he’s obsessed with
spread.
slavery — and that being gay is a
Carson’s endorsement further tar- choice because people go to prison
nished his already tarnished reputa- straight and leave gay. On the issue of
tion. He validated and rubber-stamped whether a Muslim should be allowed
a grandiloquent fascist who is sup- to be president, he said:
ported by a former grand
“I would not advo-
wizard.
cate that we put a Muslim
All Carson’s calls
in charge of this nation. I
All
for civility were in that
absolutely would not agree
Carson’s with that.”
moment proven hollow.
No wonder so many
isn’t
the
calls for only Carson
Americans despise politi-
one. Chris Chris-
cians and see them as soul-
civility tie’s endorsement of the
less and without principle.
front-runner is just as baf-
were
And although both these
Àing and unprincipled. As
men pride themselves on
The Los Angeles Times
proven put it:
being political outsiders
who’ve never held political
had spent
hollow. years “Christie
of¿ce, they are undoubt-
curating an image as
edly political animals and
a policy-focused adminis-
relentless personal brand promoters trator who reached out to Muslims and
who chase a check over a cliff.
Latinos, and he was rewarded with
But the more I thought about it, the rock star status in the national Repub-
more sense it began to make. Carson lican Party. Now he’s backing a can-
and the real estate developer are not so didate who has insulted minorities,
different from one another in this pre- shown a casual disregard for policy
dilection for outrageous utterances, discussions and is reviled by the par-
it’s just that one smiles and the other ty’s establishment.”
scowls.
And yet it is Carson’s endorse-
This is the same Ben Carson who ment that I ¿nd more interesting, not
called President Barack Obama a psy- because it will have a greater impact,
chopath who is possibly guilty of trea- but because he and the front-runner
son and was, oh my, “raised white.” are two sides of the same coin: they
He has accused Obama of work- are both dangerous, but one is a narcis-
ing to “destroy this nation” and com- sist who just might win the nomination
pared Obama’s supporters to Nazi and the other is a near-narcoleptic who
sympathizers.
never had a chance.
Shed more light on
gambling addiction
The Republican Party still decides
W
e live in an era when
gambling in all its
forms is more prevalent than
our grandparents could have
imagined. In the span of about
a generation, the U.S. has
gone from regarding betting as
something slightly immoral to
a major form of entertainment
and source of public revenue.
A story in Friday’s Daily
Astorian focused on gambling
addiction in Clatsop County,
the low rate of treatment for it
and the fact that it is an unac-
knowledged problem that
largely remains hidden.
Based on statistical model-
ing, there are about 800 prob-
lem gamblers in the county,
with only about a dozen in
active treatment.
Authorities de¿ne problem
gambling as having “many
dif¿culties in limiting money
and/or time spent on gam-
bling which leads to adverse
consequences for the gam-
bler, others, or for the commu-
nity,” or “being unable to resist
impulses to gamble, which
can lead to severe personal or
social consequences.”
Local residents and their
families are largely left to their
own devices to decide whether
they meet these standards.
Buying a lottery ticket now
and then pretty clearly isn’t a
problem. Spending so much
on gambling, that there isn’t
enough money left to pay bills
and save for emergencies or
retirement is a problem.
A portion of the state’s gam-
bling income is allocated for a
problem gambling hotline and
counseling. If you believe you
or a loved one has a problem,
call 1-877-MY-LIMIT .
Clatsop
County
Commissioner Sarah Nebeker,
who serves on the county’s
Human Services Advisory
Council, raises excellent points
about the underlying concept
of funding government with
an activity that takes advan-
tage of a psychological Àaw.
“I’m very concerned about
it.” Nebeker said. “We have
a whole generation of young
people coming up that could
be a whole new crop of addicts
for gambling as these machines
become more enticing and we
depend on it for revenue.”
We must talk about this
problem, get it into the light
and develop better ways to
help vulnerable residents resist
damaging levels of gambling.
Beyond this, we should re-ex-
amine our dependence on
betting as a primary funding
mechanism for government.
Oregon state government
has a gambling problem.
State leaders are sponsoring
an activity with adverse com-
munity consequences. What’s
wrong with this picture?
By ROSS DOUTHAT
New York Times News Service
P
olitical parties are mentioned
nowhere in the Constitution,
and the party nominating process
offers few of the protections asso-
ciated with the ideal of “one man
one vote.”
Voters in early states have far more
inÀuence than voters in later ones.
Votes in hard-to-attend caucuses
effectively count more than votes in
high-turnout primaries. Some primaries
are open to party loyalists; others to all
comers. The rules that assign conven-
tion delegates are Byzantine, the dele-
gate selection process is various, and a
few states rely on conventions and cut
the voters out entirely.
As Donald Trump attempts to clam-
ber to the Republican nomination over
a still-divided opposition, there will be
a lot of talk about how all these rules
and quirks and complexities are just a
way for insiders to steal the nomination
away from him, in a kind of establish-
ment coup against his otherwise inevi-
table victory.
We can expect to hear this case from
Trump’s growing host of thralls and
acolytes. (Ben Carson, come on down!)
But we will also hear it from the of¿-
cially neutral press, where there will
be much brow-furrowed concern over
the perils of party resistance to Trump’s
progress, the “bad optics” of denying
him the nomination if he arrives at the
convention with the most delegates, the
backlash sure to come if his uprising is
somehow, well, trumped by the party
apparatus.
Americans speak and think in the
language of democracy, and so these
arguments will ¿nd an audience,
including among party leaders and del-
egates themselves.
But they cut against the deeper wis-
dom of the American political tradition.
The less-than-democratic side of party
nominations is a virtue of our system,
not a Àaw, and it has often been a nec-
essary check on the passions (Trum-
pian or otherwise) that mass
bid and a dif¿cult reckon-
democracy constantly threat-
ing thereafter. Trump would
ens to unleash.
be no exception: Denying
That check has weakened
him the nomination would
with the decline of machines,
indeed be an ugly exercise,
bosses and smoke-¿lled
one that would weaken or
rooms. But in many ways it
crush the party’s general
remains very much in force
election chances, and leave
— confronting would-be
the Republican Party with a
demagogues with compli-
long hard climb back up to
cated ballot requirements,
unity and health.
Ross
insisting that a potential Cori-
But if that exercise is
Douthat
olanus or a Sulla count dele-
painful, it’s also the correct
gates in Guam and South Dakota, ask- path to choose. A man so transparently
ing men who aspire to awesome power un¿t for of¿ce should not be placed
to submit to the veto of state chairmen before the American people as a can-
and local newspapers, the town meet- didate for president under any kind of
ing and the caucus hall.
imprimatur save his own. And there is
The weird rigors of this process have no point in even having a party appara-
not always protected the parties from tus, no point in all those chairmen and
politically disastrous nominees, like state conventions and delegate rosters,
Barry Goldwater or George McGov- if they cannot be mobilized to prevent
ern. But Goldwater and McGovern 35 percent of the Republican primary
were both men of principle and expe- electorate from imposing a Trump
rience and civic virtue, leading factions nomination on the party.
that had not yet come to full maturity.
What Trump has demonstrated is
This made them political losers; it did that in our present cultural environ-
not make them demagogues.
ment, and in the Republican Party’s
present state of bankruptcy, the ¿rst
lines of defense against a demagogue
Denying Trump no longer hold. Because he’s loud
rich and famous, because he’s run
the nomination and
his campaign like a reality TV show,
because he’s horribly compelling and,
would indeed
yes, sometimes even right, Trump has
come this far without many endorse-
be an ugly
ments or institutional support, without
exercise.
much in the way of a normal organiza-
tion, clearing hurdle after hurdle where
Trump, though, is cut from a very people expected him to fall.
different cloth. He’s an authoritar-
But the party’s convention rules, in
ian, not an ideologue, and his anteced- all their anachronistic, undemocratic
ents aren’t Goldwater or McGovern; and highly-negotiable intricacy, are also
they’re ¿gures like George Wallace and a line of defense, also a hurdle, also a
Huey Long, with a side of the ¿ctional place where a man un¿t for of¿ce can
Buzz Windrip from Sinclair Lewis’ “It be turned aside.
Can’t Happen Here.” No modern polit-
So in Cleveland this summer,
ical party has nominated a candidate the men and women of the Republi-
like this; no serious political party ever can Party may face a straightforward
should.
choice: Betray the large minority of
Because such ¿gures speak — as Republicans who cast their votes for
Wallace did, and Long, and Ross Perot, Trump, or betray their obligations to
and others — to real grievances, the pro- their country.
cess of dealing with them is necessarily
For a party proud of its patriotism,
painful, and often involves a third-party the choice should not be hard.