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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN MONDAY, MARCH 21, 2016 No, not Trump, not ever 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 Some progress on affordable housing L By DAVID BROOKS New York Times News Service he voters have spoken. T In convincing fashion, Republican voters seem to be select ing Donald Trump as their nominee. And in a democracy, victory has legitimacy to it. Voters are rarely wise but are usually sensible. They under stand their own problems. And so def erence is gener ally paid to the candidate who wins. And defer ence is being paid. Gov. Rick Scott of Flor ida is urging Republicans to coalesce around Trump. Pun David dits are coming Brooks out with their “What We Can Learn” commentar ies. Those commentaries are built on a hidden respect for the outcome, that this is a rejection of a Republicanism that wasn’t working and it points in some better direction. The question is: Should deference be paid to this victor? Should we bow down to the judgment of these voters? Well, some respect is in order. Trump voters are a coalition of the dispossessed. They have suffered lost jobs, lost wages, lost dreams. The American system is not working for them, so naturally they are looking for something else. Moreover, many in the media, especially me, did not understand how they would express their alien DWLRQ :H H[SHFWHG 7UXPS WR ¿]]OH because we were not socially inter mingled with his supporters and did not listen carefully enough. For me, it’s a lesson that I have to change the way I do my job if I’m going to report accurately on this country. And yet reality is reality. Donald Trump is epically unpre pared to be president. He has no real istic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and KH¶V XQLQWHUHVWHG LQ ¿QGLQJ RXW +H LQVXOWV WKH RI¿FH $EUDKDP /LQFROQ once occupied by running for it with less preparation that most of us would undertake to buy a sofa. Trump is perhaps the most dishon HVWSHUVRQWRUXQIRUKLJKRI¿FHLQRXU lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliv iousness to accuracy. This week, the Politico reporters Daniel Lippman, Darren Samuelsohn DQG ,VDDF$UQVGRUI IDFWFKHFNHG ack of affordable housing has become one of the pivotal social and political issues in northwest Oregon, so it is good to see the state Legislature and Gov. Kate Brown begin to deal with some aspects of the problem. In Clatsop County, the oped for the state’s largest city. Likely to be helpful are some availability of rentals is severely constrained at every WZHDNV WR VWDWH ODQGXVH ODZV price point and the supply of that will relax the annexation affordable homes to purchase SURFHVVDQGSHUPLWWZRDV\HW E\¿UVWWLPHEX\HUVLVDVPDOO XQVSHFL¿HG2UHJRQFRPPXQL fraction of what it once was. ties to modestly expand urban The overall picture is one not growth boundaries in return conducive to continuing eco for creating affordable hous nomic growth and a diverse ing. Oregon obviously should tread lightly in order to avoid society. Even years ago, most ser XUEDQ VSUDZO EXW VRPH ÀH[ YLFHLQGXVWU\ ZRUNHUV IRXQG ibility in addressing housing LW GLI¿FXOW WR OLYH LQ WRZQV needs may help avoid a whole like Cannon Beach. But they sale retreat from the laudable FRXOG ¿QG KRXVLQJ ZLWKLQ goals of growth management. Other aspects of recently commuting distance in places like Warrenton and Astoria. passed legislation are likely to Nowadays, even though prop make it less helpful outside the erty prices haven’t reached XUEDQVHWWLQJ2QHELOOGH¿QHV Cannon Beach’s astronomi affordable as catering to fami cal level, housing bargains are lies making 80 percent of their few and far between through region’s median income. In out the area. Nearby towns in Clatsop County, this would 3DFL¿F &RXQW\ :DVKLQJWRQ translate to $44,700 for a fam also see diminishing availabil ily of four, leaving out many who make less than this. ity and escalating prices. Much was left undone in In Oregon as a whole, there are an estimated 131,000 this year’s short legislative ses KRXVHKROGV FODVVL¿HG DV sion. Efforts to shield tenants “extremely low income” but IURP QRFDXVH HYLFWLRQV DQG only 28,500 housing units rapid rent hikes were stripped available in their price range. away after intense industry Most legislative concern lobbying. There is a dire need in the focuses on Portland and its By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER suburbs, which have many next legislative session for a Washington Post Writers Group more housing units but also full examination of housing many more residents on the issues and how to address them. ASHINGTON — By international and histori hunt for affordable housing. In the meantime, local agen cal standards, political violence But the rest of the state may cies must work within existing VWDQG WR EHQH¿W IURP DW OHDVW FRQVWUDLQWV WR ¿QG DQVZHUV WR is exceedingly rare in the United States. The last serious out some of the solutions devel this critical dilemma. Mark Lennihan/AP Photo Protesters, organized by The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, stage a “die-in” in front of Trump Tower, the residence of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, last Wednesday in New York. hours of Trump speeches and news ground; you cast them down to ruin. conferences. They found more than How suddenly they are destroyed.” ¿YHGR]HQXQWUXHVWDWHPHQWVRURQH The psalmist reminds us that the HYHU\¿YHPLQXWHV proper thing to do in the face of dema “His remarks represent an extraor gogy is to go the other way — to make dinary mix of inaccurate claims about an extra effort to put on decency, gra domestic and foreign policy and per ciousness, patience and humility, to sonal and professional boasts that seek a purity of heart that is stable and rarely measure up everlasting. when checked against The Republicans Donald primary sources,” they who coalesce around wrote. Trump are mak Trump is He is a childish ing a political error. man running for a job They are selling their epically that requires matu integrity for a candi rity. He is an inse unprepared date who will prob cure boasting little boy ably lose. About 60 to be whose desires were percent of Americans somehow arrested at of him, president. disapprove age 12. He surrounds and that number has himself with syco been steady since he phants. “You can always tell when began his campaign. the king is here,” Trump’s butler told Worse, there are certain standards Jason Horowitz in a recent Times more important than one year’s elec SUR¿OH +H EUDJV LQFHVVDQWO\ DERXW tion. There are certain codes that if his alleged prowess, like how far he you betray them, you suffer some can hit a golf ball. “Do I hit it long? Is thing much worse than a political Trump strong?” he asks. defeat. In some rare cases, political vic Donald Trump is an affront to tors do not deserve our respect. basic standards of honesty, vir George Wallace won elections, but to tue and citizenship. He pollutes the endorse those outcomes would be a atmosphere in which our children moral failure. are raised. He has already shredded And so it is with Trump. the unspoken rules of political civil History is a long record of men ity that make conversation possible. like him temporarily rising, stretch In his savage regime, public life is ing back to biblical times. Psalm 73 MXVWDGRJHDWGRJZDURIDOODJDLQVW describes them: “Therefore pride all. is their necklace; they clothe them As the founders would have selves with violence. ... They scoff, understood, he is a threat to the long and speak with malice; with arro and glorious experiment of Ameri gance they threaten oppression. FDQVHOIJRYHUQPHQW+HLVSUHFLVHO\ Their mouths lay claim to heaven, the kind of scapegoating, prom and their tongues take possession LVHPDNLQJIHDUGULYLQJDQGGHFHLY of the earth. Therefore their people ing demagogue they feared. turn to them and drink up waters in Trump’s supporters deserve abundance.” respect. They are left out of this And yet their success is fragile: economy. But Trump himself? No, “Surely you place them on slippery not Trump, not ever. An air of menace about this campaign and the groups (including Trump said that it was MoveOn.org) behind Chi REYLRXV WKDW WKH FROG cago, it is likely to be rep cocker “obviously loves licated, constituting a seri his country.” What is it ous threat to a civilized about punching a demon politics. But there’s a sec strator in the face that ond, quite separate form of makes evident one’s thuggery threatening the patriotism? Particularly 2016 campaign — a lead when the attacker said ing candidate who, with a on television, “Next time wink and a nod (and some we see him, we might Charles burst was 1968 with its bloody times less subtlety), is have to kill him.” Krauthammer 'HPRFUDWLFFRQYHQWLRQ ULRWV stoking anger and encour Whoa! That’s lynch talk. And rather than condemn By that standard, 2016 is, as yet, aging violence. This must be distinguished from that man, Trump said he would be tame. It may not remain so. what happened in Chicago, where instructing his people to look into The political thuggery that shut Trump was the victim and for which paying his legal fees. down a Donald Trump rally in he is not responsible. But he is This from the leader of the now Chicago last week may just be a responsible for saying of a protester strongest faction in the Republi harbinger. It would be nice, there at his rally in Las Vegas that “I love can Party, the man most likely to the old days. You be the GOP nominee for president. fore, if we could know what they used And who, when asked on Wednes think straight about Is that to do to guys like that day about the possibility of being cause and effect. They’d be carried denied the nomination at the con incitement ...? The immediate out on a stretcher, vention if he’s way ahead in del conventional wis folks.” egates but just short of a majority, to riot? dom was to blame the He told another said: “I think you’d have riots,” disturbance on the Legally, no. rally that if they see adding “I wouldn’t lead it but I “toxic climate” cre any protesters pre think bad things would happen.” But you’d ated by Trump. Non paring to throw a Is that incitement to riot? sense. This was an act tomato, to “knock Legally, no. But you’d have to have to be the crap out of them be a fool to miss the underlying of deliberate sabotage created by a totalitar ... I promise you I implication. a fool to ian left that special will pay for the legal There’s an air of division in miss the izes in the intimida fees.” Referring in the country. Fine. It’s happened tion and silencing of interview to yet often in our history. Indeed, the underlying an political opponents. another protester, whole point of politics is to iden Its pedigree Trump said “maybe tify, highlight, argue and ultimately implication. he should have been adjudicate and accommodate such goes back to early WKFHQWXU\ IDVFLVP roughed up.” divisions. Politics is the civilized and communism. Its more recent At the Vegas event, Trump had substitute for settling things the incarnation has been developed on said, “I’d like to punch him in the ROGIDVKLRQHG ZD\ ² OD\LQJ \RXU college campuses, where for years face.” Well, in Fayetteville, North opponent out on a stretcher. leftists have been taunting, disrupt Carolina, one of his supporters What is so disturbing today is ing and ultimately shutting down did exactly that for him — suck that suffusing our politics is not and shutting out conservative speak HUSXQFKLQJ LQ WKH IDFH D SURWHVWHU just an air of division but an air of ers of every stripe — long before being led away. The attacker is being menace. It’s being fueled on both Donald Trump. charged with assault. sides: one side through organized The Chicago shutdown was a Trump is not responsible for the DQWLIUHHVSHHFK DJLWDWLRQ XVLQJ planned attack on free speech and assault. But he is responsible for Bolshevik tactics; the other side by free assembly. Hence the exultant refusing to condemn it. Asked about verbal encouragement and threats chant of the protesters upon the it, he dodged and weaved, searching of varying degrees of subtlety. announcement of the rally’s cancel for extenuation. “The man got car They may feed off each other lation: “We stopped Trump.” It had ried away.” So what? If people who but they are of independent origin. DOO RI WKH VSRQWDQHLW\ RI D EHHUKDOO get carried away are allowed to suck And both are repugnant, both dan putsch. HUSXQFKRWKHUVZH¶GEHOLYLQJLQD gerous and both deserving of the Given the people, the money jungle. most unreserved condemnation. W Providence rescues home health patients H ome health is one of those things we don’t appreciate until we need it, for ourselves or for a loved one. With the imperative of shorter hospital stays, patients are being sent home with a variety of needs — includ LQJ GUHVVLQJ FKDQJHV SRVW VWURNHIROORZXSFRSLQJZWK changes brought on by injury and disease and other things. We associate home health patients with the Medicare population, but that’s not always the case. It was an earthquake when Columbia Memorial Hospital last Thursday announced that it was shutting down its home health department, which it has operated for 20 years. The typical patient population of CMH’s home health service is over 65. The good news is that Providence Seaside Hospital’s home health service will make up for CMH’s absence. As Edward Stratton’s Thursday story indicates, Providence is taking steps to make this a seamless transition. The momentous national shift in health care is largely about insurance and how it is allocated. But our national transition also includes larger VLJQL¿FDQFH IRU KRPH KHDOWK and hospice. While CMH is discarding its home health mission, the hospital’s hos pice program remains robust. That is good news. Oregon’s debate over death with dignity gave new visibility to hospice programs and the palliative care they provide. Meanwhile, the best way to cast our home health needs is to realize the necessity for the community to have the option for complete healing and restoration.
