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
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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
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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
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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.”
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The psalmist reminds us that the
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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
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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.