OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2016
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
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
OUR VIEW
Recapping our
endorsements
B
allots for the Nov. 8 general election are arriving in
Clatsop County mailboxes, and no matter who wins, the
most important thing is to exercise your right in the dem-
ocratic process by voting.
Our recommendations
The Daily Astorian recommends:
• President: Democrat Hillary Clinton. Her Republican oppo-
nent, Donald Trump, has too many deep flaws to be at the helm
of our country, and Clinton has the experience to lead our nation.
• U.S. Senate: Incumbent Democrat Ron Wyden, whose
lengthy tenure in the Senate will pay far more dividends to
Oregon than his inexperienced challenger, Republican Mark
Callahan, could provide.
• U.S. House: Incumbent Democrat Suzanne Bonamici,
who faces Republican newcomer Brian Heinrich. Bonamici has
served the congressional district well and deserves another term.
Statewide
• Governor: Incumbent Kate Brown, a Democrat who inher-
ited the governor’s office when Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned
amid scandal. Brown has a greater chance of helping Oregon
during the remaining two years of Kitzhaber’s term than her
inexperienced Republican opponent, Bud Pierce. Brown, though,
needs to step up her visibility and leadership.
• Secretary of State: Republican Dennis Richardson would
provide needed balance among the state’s top leaders. He is
a better fit for the job than his Democratic opponent, Brad
Avakian, the blustery head of the state’s Bureau of Labor and
Industries. In a job that needs impartiality, Richardson is a far
more steady hand than Avakian, who is known for partisan
activism.
• Attorney General: Incumbent Democrat Ellen Rosenblum
is a clear choice over Republican challenger Daniel Crowe, and
her performance merits another term.
• Treasurer: Democrat Tobias Read stands apart from his
three opponents. Read has a more complete resume with experi-
ence as a state representative and expertise while working with
the U.S. Treasury.
The Measures
• Measure 97: “No.” The gross receipts tax on C-corporations
with more than $25 million in sales is misleading and fatally
flawed. It’s a costly, hidden sales tax that would create as many
problems as it tries to solve.
• Measure 98: “Yes.” The measure fills an educational need
by earmarking general fund money for dropout prevention pro-
grams that include vocational and career technical education.
• Measure 99: “No.” Outdoor school can be funded by a vari-
ety of public and private sources other than using state lottery
money specified for economic development.
• Measure 94: “Yes.” This measure would rightfully elimi-
nate forced judicial retirements.
• Measure 95: “Yes.” Universities need investment options
that this measure would allow.
• Measure 96: “Yes.” Oregon’s veterans aren’t a special inter-
est group and they deserve the support this measure provides.
• Measure 100: “Yes.” This measure would prohibit the sale
in Oregon of products and parts of 12 endangered animals.
Locally
• State Representative District 32: Deborah Boone’s legisla-
tive accomplishments should earn her a seventh term in the state
House. She is being challenged by Republican Bruce Bobek.
• Astoria City Council: Bruce Jones, a retired U.S. Coast
Guard commander, stands out for his career achievements and
strategic planning experience. His opponent is Cory Pederson, a
symphony conductor and music teacher.
• Gearhart Mayor: Voters should elect Matt Brown, who has
a better chance of helping reslove the community’s recent divi-
siveness than his opponent, Bob Shortman.
• Seaside School Bond: “Yes.” The bond issue would allow
the district to move three schools out of the tsunami danger zone.
• Pot Taxes: Voters in Astoria, Seaside and Cannon Beach
should say “Yes” to taxing recreational sales. Voters in Cannon
Beach will also decide whether sales should be allowed within
the city.
• Warrenton Charter Amendment: “No.” The initiative
would require double-majority voter approval before the city
can transfer or dispose of assets valued at $100,000 or more and
would tie the hands of those who are elected to do that job.
Three other contested races are on the ballot that The Daily
Astorian chose not to endorse in: a seat on the Warrenton City
Commission with incumbent Pam Ackley being opposed by
Ryan Lampi; Cannon Beach City Council with Herb Florer,
Brandon Ogilvie and Nancy McCarthy vying for two spots as
a councilor at large; and in Seaside with Don Johnson and Tom
Horning vying for a City Council seat.
Dear Republican voters ...
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
Y
ou are a Republican.
You believe President
Barack Obama has been a
disappointment if not a failure. You
think Hillary Clinton is wrong on
most issues, and you worry about her
judgment.
You are agonizing about what to
do this year, and I understand why.
Donald Trump is
clearly distaste-
ful. Yet he at least
seems likely to
appoint conserva-
tive judges and sign
Republican bills. So
what are you supposed to do?
Allow me to tell you about my
grandparents.
They grew up as middle-class
children of the Depression in Phila-
delphia. My grandmother was a star
athlete who went on to raise a tightly
knit family filled with laughter. My
outgoing grandfather first sold pens
door to door and later sold ads for
The Saturday Evening Post and Busi-
ness Week.
My grandparents believed in
American business, and they were
small-c conservative. They voted
Republican, year after year.
Until 1964.
Goldwater
That year, Barry Goldwater won
the nomination from the far right.
Most alarming to many people, he
mused about using nuclear weapons
in the Cold War.
Befitting their generation’s
reserve, my grandparents didn’t talk
much politics. They simply said they
had considered Goldwater beyond
the pale. But years ago, I stumbled
on a four-minute television ad that
Lyndon Johnson’s campaign had run
against Goldwater, and I felt as if I
were listening to my grandparents.
Called “Confessions of a Repub-
lican,” the ad shows a man wearing
a suit and glasses (who eventually
lights a cigarette) in a chair. He is a
Republican, he says, like his father
and grandfather. “But when we come
to Sen. Goldwater, now it seems to
me we’re up against a very different
kind of a man,” says the actor, him-
self an anti-Goldwater Republican.
“This man scares me.”
Trump is scarier
For Republicans today, Trump is
scarier than Goldwater. He is scarier
because he resembles a double agent
dreamed up by liberal screenwrit-
ers. He embodies almost every left-
wing caricature of Republicans that
Republicans despise.
He is a racist and a sexist —
having refused to rent apartments
to African-Americans, retweeted
neo-Nazis, besmirched Muslims
and Latinos and boastfully molested
women. For years, Republicans have
been frustrated by liberal sensitiv-
ity on race and gender. Comes now
Trump, spewing bigotry.
He is also an unrepentant denier
of reality. Do you remember that Al
Franken wrote a jeremiad against
conservatives called “Lies: And the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them”? I imag-
ine the book’s title offends you. Yet
it now feels like a preview of a can-
didate who almost every day makes
immediately disprovable claims.
Trump likewise plays into the lib-
eral narrative that the radical right
verges on being anti-American. He
has suggested our democracy is ille-
gitimate and advocated jail for his
opponent.
Finally, Trump displays a proud
mean-spiritedness about others’
struggles — a mean-spiritedness that
Democrats have long tried to link
to Republican economic policy. He
mocks parents who have lost a child,
people with disabilities and prisoners
of war. He relishes firing people.
Trump is so distinct that he has
made this election unavoidably about
him. If you vote for him, you can’t
pass it off as voting for Supreme
Court nominees. You will be vot-
ing for Donald Trump. You will
be embracing those parodies of
conservatism.
You do not need to do that.
No great options
It’s true that you have no great
options, which is why polls still show
many undecided voters. Gary John-
son, initially intriguing, has proved
unqualified. You could stay home
or write in a vote, but those protests
often feel weak.
The best path is the hardest one.
Only an unambiguous rejection of
Trump will banish Trumpism for
2020 and beyond. Only a lopsided
loss, with millions of Republicans
so repelled by him that they vote for
someone they never imagined they
would, sends the message that big-
otry, lying and authoritarianism vio-
late Republican values — your
values.
I don’t take lightly how hard it is
for you to consider a vote for Hillary
Clinton. I’m sure that George H.W.
Bush, who’s signaled he is voting for
her, will do so out of duty, not joy.
The same applies to many Repub-
lican military figures and conserva-
tive newspapers. Any other choice,
as the former Reagan aide Ken Adel-
man says, is at least “a half vote for
Trump.”
At the end of the 1964 ad, the
man says: “I’ve thought about just
not voting in this election, just stay-
ing home. But you can’t do that,
because that’s saying you don’t care
who wins, and I do care.”
That same year, my grandparents
endured rare arguments with some
close friends. Their friends viewed
it as a betrayal to vote for a Demo-
crat. My grandparents viewed it as
a betrayal to take lightly a man unfit
for the Oval Office. And they never
again voted for a Democrat for presi-
dent. They were Republicans.
This year, the most important
statement that any Republican can
make is clear: I am not Trump.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Bobek for House
am writing on behalf of, and in
the certain knowledge that Dr.
Bruce Bobek is the best candidate
for House District 32. He is caring,
compassionate and capable of work-
ing with and for the people of Clat-
sop County.
A vote for Dr. Bobek insures that
he will work to improve the health-
care, education and job opportunities
in Clatsop County, and he desires to
change the abysmal lack of afford-
able housing.
Vote for someone new — vote for
Dr. Bruce Bobek.
KAREN CUSTER
Seaside
I
Sprit booster
guess most of us from time to time
let our spirits get us down. I know
I do. The other day I came across
a silly story with a message that
seemed to give me a boost.
A group of constructions workers
always ate their lunch together. One
of the workers would open his lunch
pail and say, “Oh no, not another
tuna fish sandwich.” Every day the
same thing, “Oh no, not another tuna
fish sandwich.”
Finally the construction super-
visor said to him, “Why don’t you
do us all a favor. When you get up
tomorrow morning, ask your wife to
make a different kind of sandwich.”
To which he replied, “What do you
mean? I make my own sandwiches.”
The point of the story is, to a large
I
extent we pack our own lunch pails.
Feeling down, bored, feeling sorry
for yourself? Recognize that we
pack our own lunch pails. Why not
make it positive? It’s our attitude that
makes the difference.
JIM BERNARD
Warrenton
Support schools
hen the Seaside School Dis-
trict put forth a bond mea-
sure in 2013 to raise $129 million for
relocation of our schools I opposed
it, primarily because it seemed exces-
sive, put a significant burden on
property owners ($2.16 per thou-
sand of assessed value or $650 per
year on an assessed home value of
$300,000), and because many of the
attributes in the design seemed to be
more about a desire as opposed to a
need.
This time around the school dis-
trict has focused on what is essential
and necessary. They have reduced
their request by almost 40 percent
with the cost to tax payers at $1.35
per thousand of assessed value,
or just over $400 per year on an
assessed home value of $300,000.
The district is first on a waiting
list to receive $4 million in matching
funds from the state, and Weyerhae-
user Co. has graciously donated 80
acres to site the schools well above
the tsunami inundation zone.
Our schools are the lifeblood of
our communities. They assist our stu-
dents in realizing their potential in
W
academics, and help ready them for
their future. The investment in our
students is also an investment in our
future. It will benefit us all.
The time to act is now. Inter-
est rates are at historic lows, and
the cost to construct and develop a
school will only continue to increase.
Please vote yes for our local schools.
It’s important to our community, our
families and our livability.
PATRICK NOFIELD
Cannon Beach
Out of touch
.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has been in
Congress for 35 years, and has
grown out of touch with Oregonians.
His Oregonian challenger, Mark Cal-
lahan, is up to date about what con-
cerns us.
Wyden is a globalist, not a nation-
alist. From trying to force us into
a western version of the European
Union through the Trans Pacific
Trade Partnership, to habitually vot-
ing against both border security and
internal immigration enforcement, he
typifies the elite.
Although Oregonians over-
whelmingly rejected driver cards for
illegal aliens, Wyden has not budged
in his desire for open borders. His
agenda is as far removed from ours
as is his longtime New York home.
Callahan lives here, and intends to
return Oregon and our employment
to the rule of law.
LYNEIL VANDERMOLEN
Tualatin
U