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OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2016 In the matter of Paul Ryan Founded in 1873 By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group 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 Molly J. Smith /Statesman-Journal via AP Gov. Kate Brown outlined her 2016 policy agenda at a press confer- ence at the State Capitol in Salem in January. Why won’t Gov. Brown show the gumption to lead? Governors are supposed to be leaders I f a politician stays in Washington, D.C., long enough you master the art of saying something while saying nothing. The congressman from Eastern Oregon, Greg Walden, is a master of the articulate non-statement. Governors cannot afford person. The topic was a leg- such sleight of hand. After all, islative proposal to have they are supposed to be lead- public employees contrib- ers. We are also closer to them, ute to their retirement, as pri- physically. Congressmen can vate sector employees do. go to Washington to hide. We wrote about the Public Employees Retirement Governors cannot. It is unfortunate to see System train wreck that is a penchant for non-speak coming for school districts develop so early in our Gov. and city governments. Here was our response to Brown’s Kate Brown. Our sister newspaper the ambivalence. “Gov. Brown’s response is Capital Press sought to learn the position of Gov. Brown a disappointment, because it on the disputed proposal to contains no leadership. She create a national monument sounds more like a lawyer in Malheur County. The or a news anchor — stating proposed monument is the the obvious — than a gov- Owyhee Canyonlands wil- ernor. Where is Brown’s derness and conservation amazement that Oregon is the only state that requires area. Wrote the CP: “Here’s no employee participation in what (Brown’s) people said retirement funding? Where is her anger about the pending she said: “While this is ultimately horror in which school dis- a federal decision, I have tricts and cities will be deci- heard from many Oregonians mated to pay for a phantom with strong views about the workforce of retirees?” We then asked the ques- Owyhee. There’s agreement as to the beauty and unique- tion, “Why won’t Gov. ness of the Canyonlands and Brown lead Oregon on disagreement over whether a PERS? On the Owyhee monument designation can best ensure those characteris- Canyonlands, she does not tics will be enjoyed for future have to lead. But acting like generations. I have commu- she is an umpire in the middle nicated those viewpoints to of the tennis court is an insult federal administration offi - to Oregonians’ intelligence. Brown is, of course, wait- cials and will be closely following this issue in the ing for the election to be over. But our guess is that even then months ahead.” Huh? Brown conveyed the she will not lead Oregonians persona of a lawyer or TV if she is asked to be at odds news anchor. She does not with public employee unions present herself as a leader, as or the liberal Portland center of her electorate. a governor. Even prior to her On Jan. 7, this page made a similar observation about fi rst election to offi ce, a comment that was relayed Brown is becoming a big to us by Gov. Brown’s media disappointment. W ASHINGTON — The morning after, the nation awakes asking: What have we done? Both parties seem intent on throw- ing the election away. The Democrats, running against a man with high- est-ever negatives, are poised to nominate a candidate with the sec- ond-highest-ever negatives. Hillary Clinton started with every possible advantage — money, experience, name recognition, residual goodwill from her husband’s successful 1990s — yet could not put away until this last week an obscure, fringy, social- ist backbencher in a country uniquely allergic to socialism. Bernie Sanders did have one advan- tage. He had something to say. She had nuthin’. Her victory speech was a pud- ding without a theme for a campaign without a cause. After 14 months, she still can’t get past the famous question asked of Ted Kennedy in 1979: Why do you want to be president? So whom do the Republicans put up? They had 17 candidates. Any of a dozen could have taken down the near-fatally weak Clinton, unloved, untrusted, living under the shadow of an FBI investigation. Instead, they nominate Donald Trump — conspiracy theorist (from Barack Obama’s Kenyan birth to Ted Cruz’s father’s involvement with Lee Harvey Oswald), fabulist (from his own invented opposition to the Iraq War and the Libya intervention to the “thousands and thousands” of New Jer- sey Muslims celebrating 9/11), admirer of strongmen (from Vladimir Putin to the butchers of Tiananmen). His outrageous provocations have been brilliantly sequenced so that the many conservatives for hav- shock of the new extin- ing said he would vote for guishes the memory of the Trump. last. Though perhaps not Yet what was surpris- his most recent — his gra- ing was not Ryan’s ever- tuitous attack on a “Mexi- so-tepid semi-endorsement, can” federal judge (born and which was always inevita- bred in Indiana) for inherent ble and unavoidable — can bias because of his ethnic- the highest elected GOP ity. Textbook racism, averred offi cial be at war during a Speaker Paul Ryan. Even general election with the Trump acolyte and possible Charles party’s democratically cho- running mate Newt Gingrich Krauthammer sen presidential candidate? called it inexcusable. — but his initial refusal to Trump promptly doubled First, endorse Trump when, after down, expanding the uni- the Indiana primary, nearly verse of the not-to-be-trusted dare everyone around him was among us by adding Amer- falling mindlessly, some ican Muslims to the list of to say shamelessly, into line. those who might be inher- That was surpris- ently biased. that ing. Which is why Ryan’s Yet Trump is the party’s the refusal to immediately fol- chosen. He won the primary low suit created such a sen- contest fair and square. The sation. It also created, delib- people have spoken. What people the time and space to do? aren’t erately, for non-Trumpites to hold First, dare to say that the the line. Ryan was legiti- people aren’t always right. always mizing resistance to the new Surely Republicans admit right. regime, giving it safe harbor the possibility. Or do they in the House, even as resist- believe the people chose rightly in electing Obama? Twice. ers were being relentlessly accused of Historical examples of other coun- treason for “electing Hillary.” In the end, Ryan called an armistice. tries choosing even more wrongly are numerous and tragic. The people’s What was he to do? Oppose and resign? will deserves respect, not necessarily And then what? What would remain of conservative leadership in the GOP? affi rmation. I sympathize with the dilemma of And if he created a permanent split in Republican leaders reluctant to affi rm. the party, he’d be setting up the GOP’s Many are as appalled as I am by Trump, entire conservative wing as scapegoat if but they don’t have the freedom I do Trump loses in November. Ryan had no good options. He chose to say, as I have publicly, that I can- not imagine ever voting for him. They the one he felt was least damaging to have unique party and institutional the conservative cause to which he has devoted his entire adult life. responsibilities. I wouldn’t have done it but I’m not For some, that meant endorsing Trump in the belief that they might be House speaker. He is a practicing pol- able to contain, constrain, guide and itician who has to calculate the conse- perhaps even educate him. To my mind, quences of what he does. That deserves this thinking has always been hope- at least some understanding. One day, we shall all have to account lessly misbegotten but not necessarily for what he did and what we said in this — nor in all cases — venal. Which brings us to the matter of scoundrel year. For now, we each have Paul Ryan, now being excoriated by our conscience to attend to. Orlando and Trump’s America By ROGER COHEN New York Times News Service O mar Mateen, the Florida shooter who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, just ushered Donald Trump to the White House, Britain out of the European Union, Marine Le Pen to the French presidency, and the world into a downward spiral of escalating violence. Aged 29, Mateen is the Gavrilo Princip of the early 21st century, the young man who ripped up an old, decaying political order. Like the 19-year-old Bosnian Serb national- ist whose bullets ignited World War I, Mateen has set a spark to a time of infl ammable anger. Of course, these somber imagin- ings may prove to be no more than that. Mateen has not yet changed the world; he may never. But there is no question that the larg- est mass shooting in U.S. history comes at a time of particular unease. In both the United States and Europe, political and economic frustrations have produced a groundswell against the status quo and an apparent readiness to make a leap in the dark. Washington and Brussels have become bywords for paralysis. Trump and “Brexit” represent action — any action — to shake things up. They are, to their supporters, the come- uppance smug elites deserve. On top of this, and feeding this, Islam is in epochal crisis. Its Sunni and Shiite branches are mired in vio- lent confrontation. Its adjustment to the modern world has proved faltering and agonized enough to produce a metas- tasizing strain of violent anti-Western jihadi beliefs to which Mateen — like the San Bernardino shooters — was apparently susceptible. That he shot revelers in a gay club suggests once again that Islam and sex- uality constitute a particularly com- bustible realm. Liberal Western sexual mores are the most troubling affront to a certain strain of Islam. The resul- tant confrontation incubates explosive violence. It is 12 years since Theo van Gogh have access to the weapons was murdered in Amster- they need to do their worst. dam by a Dutch-Moroccan Despite having been inves- Muslim jihadi for making a tigated twice in recent years movie about the treatment by the FBI for possible ties of women in Islam; and now to terrorism, Mateen was homosexuals at the Pulse able to walk into a Florida club in Orlando, Florida, gun dealership recently, and are targeted by a U.S. citi- acquire a “long gun” and a zen of Afghan descent who, pistol. This, by any reason- it seems, had also found able standard, is madness. in Islamic extremism the Roger The AR-15 assault ideological answer to his Cohen weapon used by troubles. Mateen was also the It is poisonous to America is weapon used by the blame all the world’s San Bernardino shoot- 1.6 billion Muslims the perfect ers. The former NRA for this crisis of their president, David religion. Trump’s setting Keene, once described self-congratula- the weapons as the tory reiteration of his for “lone “gun liberals love to call for a temporary wolf” ISIS hate.” It is in fact the ban on non-Ameri- rifl e that illustrates can Muslims enter- followers why lax U.S. gun laws ing the United States make American lives exemplifi es his vio- because cheap. The laws are an lence-tinged politics aberration. of division. Michael they have President Barack Oren, the former access to Obama described the Israeli ambassador shooting as “an act to the United States, of terror and an act of was quoted on Twit- the weapons hate.” He made clear ter hours after the they need his disapproval of massacre as saying: gun laws. He called “If I were Trump, I’d to do their for solidarity. He said emphasize the Mus- worst. nothing about ISIS, or lim name, Omar Sad- the way the Islamic diqui Mateen. This changes race.” Later, he said Trump State’s hold on territory in Syria and Iraq would do this, not that he had recom- reinforces the charismatic potency of its ideological appeal, disseminated from mended it. It is, however, also dangerous to that base through the internet. He also said this: “To actively do ignore or belittle the potency of ISIS ideology, the core role it has played in nothing is a decision as well.” Yes, to have actively done noth- recent violence from Paris to Califor- nia, and the link between that ideol- ing in Syria over more than fi ve years ogy and the broader crisis of Islam. The of war — so allowing part of the coun- favored phrase of the Obama admin- try to become an Islamic State strong- istration in addressing this scourge — hold, contributing to a massive refugee “violent extremism” — is vague to the crisis in Europe, acquiescing to slaugh- point of evasive meaninglessness. Yes, ter and displacement on a devastating jihadi terrorists are “violent extrem- scale, undermining America’s word in ists” but calling them that is like calling the world, and granting open season for Nazism a reaction to German humil- President Vladimir Putin of Russia to iation in World War I: true but wholly strut his stuff — amounts to the great- est foreign policy failure of the Obama inadequate. Mateen demonstrated again just administration. It has made the world far more dan- how potent the mix of ISIS and National Rifl e Association ideology is. gerous. I hope for the best but fear the America is the perfect setting for “lone victory of the politics of anger in Amer- wolf” ISIS followers because they ica and Europe. Where to write • U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D): 2338 Rayburn HOB, Washing- ton, D.C., 20515. Phone: 202- 225- 0855. Fax 202-225-9497. District offi ce: 12725 SW Millikan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR 97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax 503- 326-5066. Web: bonamici.house. gov/ • U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313 Hart Senate Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Web: www.merkley. senate.gov • U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D): 221 Dirksen Senate Offi ce Build- ing, Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone: 202-224-5244. Web: www. wyden.senate.gov • State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1431. Web: www. leg.state.or.us/witt/ Email: rep. bradwitt@state.or.us • State Rep. Deborah Boone (D): 900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986- 1432. Email: rep.deborah boone@ state.or.us District offi ce: P.O. Box 928, Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone: 503-986-1432. Web: www. leg.state.or.us/ boone/
