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OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 28, 2016 Web People vs. Wall People 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 Think small City Council’s library decision is underwhelming here is a proverb, sometimes attributed to Goethe, that is useful to big thinkers. “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” The spirit of that admoni- exceptionally appropriate tion has been alive in Astoria retort. over the past 25 years. Big Said Herzig: “It’s the thinkers — in our public council’s responsibility to and private sectors — have give the foundation a clear accomplished transforma- directive, and we have tive projects. failed to do that,” he said, The Astoria Public apologizing to the library Library decision from the foundation. “It’s our fail- City Council on Monday ure, not yours. And I do night was small thinking. apologize.” Actually, the decision was There have been discus- so muddled it is not clear sions among knowledge- where we are going. able, experienced hands, The greatest disappoint- about how to raise $8 mil- ment in the council’s discus- lion privately for the library, sion was the failure to grasp and Price knows that. But the potential of private fund- just as Herzig notes, fund- raising. It was, after all, an raisers do not make “asks” extraordinary gift from a or approach funders such as former mayor that launched foundations and charitable this exploration many years trusts until there is a deined ago. project. When Councilor Cindy Within the murky direc- Price criticized the library tion the council has deliv- foundation for not leading ered, there is room for elab- on fundraising, Councilor oration, and for exceptional Drew Herzig delivered an private fundraising. Just ask. T By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN New York Times News Service es, we’re having a national election right now. Y Yes, there are two parties run- ning. But no, they are not the two parties that you think. It’s not “Democrats” versus “Republicans.” This election is really between “Wall People” and “Web People.” The primary focus of Wall People is inding a president who will turn off the fan — the violent winds of change that are now buffeting every family — in their workplace, where machines are threaten- ing white-col- lar and blue-col- lar jobs; in their neighborhoods, where so many more immi- Thomas L. grants of differ- Friedman ent religions, races and cultures are moving in; and globally, where super-empowered angry people are now killing innocents with disturbing regularity. They want a wall to stop it all. Wall People’s desire to stop change may be unrealistic, but, in fairness, it’s not just about race and class. It is also about a yearning for community — about “home” in the deepest sense — a feeling that the things that anchor us in the world and provide meaning are being swept away, and so they are looking for someone to stop that erosion. Wall People have two candidates catering to them: Donald Trump, who boasts that he is “The Man” who can stop the winds with a wall, and Ber- nie Sanders, who promises to stop the winds by ending our big global trade deals and by taking down “The Man” — the millionaires, billionaires and big banks. I don’t see how the country could afford either man’s plans, but they have a simple gut appeal, and there is overlap between them. Web People instinctively under- stand that Democrats and Republi- cans both built their platforms largely in response to the Industrial Revolu- tion, the New Deal and the Cold War, but that today, a 21st-century party needs to build its platform in response to the accelerations in technology, globalization and climate change, which are the forces transforming the workplace, geopolitics and the very planet. As such, the instinct of Web Peo- ple is to embrace the change in the pace of change and focus on empow- ering more people to be able to com- pete and collaborate in a world with- AP Photo/Andrew Harnik AP Photo/Evan Vucci Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arrives to speak to volunteers at a Democratic party or- ganizing event at the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte, N.C., Monday. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump calls on a report- er during a news conference at Trump National Doral, Wednesday, in Tampa, Fla. Everything rides on the coalition that Clinton assembles. “Socialism was the wrong answer for the industrial age, so it sure isn’t the right answer for the information age” — she is tacking toward Wall People. She is opposing things she helped to negotiate, like the Paciic trade deal, and offering more beneits from gov- ernment but refraining from telling people the hardest truth: that to be in the middle class, just working hard and playing by the rules doesn’t cut it anymore. To have a lifelong job, you need to be a lifelong learner, con- stantly raising your game. To her credit, though, she chose a great running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine, a Web Person with a soul. My hope is that, for the good of the country, Republican Web People will, over time, join the Democratic Party and tilt it into a compassion- ate, center-left Web party for the 21st century. That would be a party that is sensitive to the needs of working people, appreciative of the anchor- ing power of healthy communities, but committed to capitalism, free markets and open trade as the vital engines of growth for a modern soci- ety and to providing every American with the learning tools to realize their potential. I don’t see any chance of the GOP becoming a center-right party again soon. The Tea Party, Trump and Fox News have made its base too angry and disconnected from reality. So everything rides on the coa- lition that Clinton assembles. If America is to thrive in the 21st cen- tury, we desperately need a coalition that can govern smartly in this era of rapid change. Clinton has a chance to break not only the glass ceiling for women, but also the rigid walls that have divided our two parties. If she can pull that off, it will make being the irst woman president the second most important thing she does. out walls. In particular, Web People understand that in times of rapid change, open systems are always more lexible, resilient and propul- sive; they offer the chance to feel and respond irst to change. So Web Peo- ple favor more trade expansion, along the lines of the Trans-Paciic Partner- ship, and more managed immigration that attracts the most energetic and smartest minds, and more vehicles for lifelong learning. Web People also understand that while we want to prevent another bout of recklessness on Wall Street, we don’t want to choke off risk-tak- ing, which is the engine of growth and entrepreneurship. Because the GOP was out of the White House for the last eight years, the party’s base and leadership are the least understanding of the world in which we’re living. That is why the GOP fractured irst and why some Republican Web People, particularly from the business world, are either sitting this election out or voting for Hillary Clinton. Having been secretary of state, Clinton has been touching the world. She knows America has to build its future on a Web People’s plat- form, which was irst articulated by Bill Clinton and, to this day, is best articulated by him. But Hillary has not always shown the courage of her own, or her husband’s, convictions. So, rather than take on Wall People in her party — and saying to Sanders, It’s time for self defense as ires come Banking on delusions of chaos T he driest place in the U.S. — that’s what the Paciic Northwest is between now and, typically, sometime in September. Even here in this normally damp coastal zone where we measure seasonal rainfall in feet rather than inches, this means residents need to manage property with an eye to ire safety. This was most vividly demonstrated by a ire in the dune grass last month in Surfside, Washington, on the Long Beach Peninsula. Despite some grass main- tenance, an out-of-control campire came within feet of destroying oceanfront houses. Dune grass is a type of fuel that dries out and is ready to burn after less than an hour of wind. Beach pines also are prone to rapid ignition. Gorse, Scotch broom, wild berry canes and many other types of local vegetation enhance ire danger. Our Columbia River coun- ties have many homes min- gled among beach grass, shore pines and rural forests. These homes are closely sur- rounded by increasingly dry vegetation. By PAUL KRUGMAN Most of us appreciate New York Times News Service the trees and plants we live with, and are loath to make ast year there were 352 mur- ders in New York City. changes, but rural residents This was a bit higher than the num- need to examine their home- ber in 2014, but far below the 2,245 steads in light of wildire murders that took place in 1990, the danger. city’s worst year. To create a “ire-wise” fact, as measured by the murder landscape, you must remem- rate, In New York is now basically as safe ber that the primary goal is as it has ever been, going all the way fuel reduction with zones of back to the 19th century. National crime statistics, and num- increasing safety nearest your bers for all violent crimes, paint an only home. Local ire departments slightly less cheerful picture. And it’s just a matter of numbers; our big can provide full details, but not cities look and feel far safer than they at a minimum homeowners did a generation ago, because they are. of a certain age always have the should create a well-irrigated People sense that America isn’t the country area encircling their struc- they remember from their youth, and in ture for at least 30 feet on this case they’re right — it has gotten much better. all sides, providing space for How, then, was it even possible for ire suppression equipment Donald Trump to give a speech accept- the Republican nomination whose in the event of an emergency. ing central premise was that crime is run- Plantings should be limited ning rampant, and that “I alone” can to carefully spaced low-lam- bring the chaos under control? Of course, nobody should be sur- mability plants. prised to see Trump conidently assert- More plants are appropri- ing things that are latly untrue, since does that all the time — and never ate outside this zone, but still he corrects his falsehoods. Indeed, the big should be kept low and tidy. speech repeated some of those golden Selectively prune and thin oldies, like the claim that America is the world’s most highly taxed country all plants and remove highly (when we are actually near the bottom among advanced economies). lammable vegetation. until now the false claims have Now is the time to practice been But about things ordinary voters can’t some self-defensive vegeta- check against their own experience. Most people don’t have any sense of tion management. 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. L how their taxes compare with those paid by Europeans or Canadians, let alone how many jobs have been dis- placed by Chinese competition. But 58 million tourists visited New York last year; tens of millions more visited other major cities; and of course many of us live in or near those cities, and ining a return to the (partly see them every day. And imagined) days of male while there are, as there breadwinners and stay-at- always were, bad neighbor- hoods and occasional vio- home wives. lent incidents, it’s hard to Not incidentally, Mike see how anyone who walks Pence, Trump’s running around with open eyes mate, used to fulminate could believe in the blood- about the damage done by soaked dystopian vision working mothers, not to Trump laid out. mention penning an out- Yet there’s no question raged attack on Disney in Paul that many voters — includ- 1999 for featuring a mar- Krugman ing, almost surely, a tially minded heroine in majority of white men its movie “Mulan.” Our big — will indeed buy into But what are the that vision. Why? consequences these cities look changes in the of social One answer is that, according to Gallup, and feel far order? Back when Americans always seem crime was rising, con- safer than servatives insistently to believe that crime is increasing, even when it a connection to they did a drew is in fact dropping rap- social change — that idly. Part of this may be generation was what the whole the wording of the ques- early ’90s fuss over tion: People may have “family values” was ago, a vague, headline-fu- about. Loose the bonds because eled sense that crime is of traditional soci- up this year even while ety, and chaos would they are. follow. being aware that it’s much lower than it used Then a funny thing to be. There may also be some ver- happened: Crime plunged instead sion of the “bad things are happening of continuing to rise. Other indica- somewhere else” syndrome we see in tors also improved dramatically — consumer surveys, where people are for example, the teen birthrate has far more positive about their personal fallen 60 percent since 1991. Instead situation than they are about the econ- of societal collapse, we’ve seen what omy as a whole. amounts to a mass outbreak of societal Again, however, it’s one thing to health. The truth is that we don’t know have a shaky grasp on crime statistics, exactly why. Hypotheses range from but something quite different to accept the changing age distribution of the a nightmare vision of America that population to reduced lead poisoning; conlicts so drastically with everyday but in any case, the predicted apoca- experience. So what’s going on? lypse notably failed to arrive. Well, I do have a hypothe- The point, however, is that in the sis, namely, that Trump supporters minds of those disturbed by social really do feel, with some reason, that change, chaos in the streets was sup- the social order they knew is com- posed to follow, and they are all too ing apart. It’s not just race, where the willing to believe that it did, in the country has become both more diverse teeth of the evidence. The question now is how many and less racist (even if it still has a long way to go). It’s also about gender roles such people, people determined to live — when Trump talks about making in a nightmare of their own imagining, America great again, you can be sure there really are. I guess we’ll ind out that many of his supporters are imag- in November.
