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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 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 OUR VIEW Answers are needed before military arrives D iscussions about using part of Tongue Point for U.S. Army training will raise questions about the considerable benefits — and a few potential downsides — of having a more active military presence in our area. When it comes to military bases, there’s little doubt that most communities regard the cost/benefit ratio as highly positive. Locally, U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River and the Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Center support many civil- ian jobs and produce millions in retail spending, rents and other benefits. Coast Guard personnel are particularly appreciated for civic and economic contributions both during and after active service. It’s impossible to imagine this place without them. In modern memory, there have been few downsides to mili- tary use of local land, water and airspace. Military aircraft occa- sionally rattle windows, for example. There is ongoing con- cern among wildlife defenders about naval sonar exercises off the coast that have been implicated in problems experienced by marine mammals. Legacy soil contamination from the World War II and Korea era still persists in some spots. Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s interest in using part of South Tongue Point for “infiltration and exfiltration training, as well as other unconventional warfare scenario training” is, for now, more ambiguous in terms of local costs and benefits. It can be fairly argued that we all gain by having better-pre- pared soldiers in this era of wildly unpredictable challenges. The landowner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has offered some assurances that Clatsop Community College would still be able to operate its increasingly successful Marine and Environmental Research and Training Station in the same area. It is important to nail down the details in writing and to understand any ways in which training might even temporarily impact land and water access. As college President Christopher Breitmeyer has observed, it’s also increasingly necessary for CCC to acquire state land at Tongue Point to help ensure a long-term future for its promising maritime classes. The Army’s Tongue Point ideas are only a fraction of the armed services’ overall thoughts for using parts of the Lower Columbia region and offshore waters for transitory training and other purposes. For example he U.S. Navy has floated the idea of using coastal state parks in Southwest Washington to train its Special Warfare or SEAL Team units. And in June 2015, the Army disclosed its intention to designate a large helicopter training area encompassing much of Washington’s Pacific and Wahkiakum counties, plus parts of Lewis and Cowlitz counties. As a general matter, we should be proud to share our area in the national interest. But we must remain mindful of the need to ensure that any negative impacts are communicated to mili- tary leadership and dealt with in a responsive and constructive manner. It will be interesting to see what comes of some of these plans. Patriotic opposition to Trump By CHARLES M. BLOW New York Times News Service N othing is safe or sacrosanct in Donald Trump’s devel- oping governance team, and America had better start being alarmed about it and moving to actively oppose it. The time for vot- ing has elapsed, but the time for being vocal has emerged. Let’s take the tally: He has chosen a man hostile to immigrants and with a complicated — to put it mildly — history on race to be attorney general. He has chosen a man who is anti-abortion, pro-fetal “person- hood,” and anti-Obamacare to be secretary of health and human services. He has chosen a man who has criticized paid sick-leave policies and opposes increasing the federal minimum wage to lead the Depart- ment of Labor. He has chosen a climate change denier and anti-environmental-reg- ulation crusader to lead the Envi- ronmental Protection Agency. He has chosen a vocal propo- nent of school vouchers to run the Department of Education. In a way, Trump seems to be trying to destroy these agencies from the inside out, the way a worm slowly devours an apple. Furthermore, he is stacking these jobs with people who have given him cash. According to The Washington Post: “President-elect Donald Trump has now tapped six big donors and fundraisers to serve in his adminis- tration, lining up an unprecedented concentration of wealthy backers for top posts. Together with their families, Trump’s nominees gave $11.6 million to support his presi- dential bid, his allied super PACs and the Republican National Com- mittee, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal campaign filings.” Trump’s defense: “I want people that made a fortune!” And, just as the CIA was assert- ing that Russia meddled in our election specifically to provide suc- cor to this sap, reports emerged that Trump’s likely pick for secre- tary of state is Exxon’s chief execu- tive, who has close ties to Vladimir Putin. Daddy Warbucks is hellbent on appeasing Mother Russia. Not alone Angry yet? Yes. Good! And understand this: You are not alone; you aren’t even in the minority. A Pew Research Center report published last week found: “Trump also receives low marks for his initial Cabinet choices and other high level appointments. By 51 percent to 40 percent, more say they disapprove than approve of the Cabinet choices and appoint- ments Trump has made so far. In contrast, majorities approved of the choices made” by the past four presidents-elect. “In fact, approval ratings for Trump’s cabinet choices are 18 points lower than for the next lowest-rated president-elect.” The beautiful diversity of America, and indeed all of humanity, will always outshine the darkness of racial enmity. Furthermore, the report found: “Just 37 percent of the pub- lic views Trump as well-quali- fied; 32 percent of registered voters described Trump as well-qualified in October. Majorities continue to say Trump is reckless (65 percent) and has poor judgment (62 percent), while 68 percent describe him as ‘hard to like.’” Since the election I have heard from more people than I can count who express fear and anxiety about Trump and the future of the coun- try. There is a stifling sense of discontent and foreboding and apprehension. I know that it can feel like we are all drowning in a deluge of compounding outrages, with every headline about this impending administration appearing to one-up the last, but take heart. You may have been on the losing side of this year’s election, but you are on the right side of history. In the final tally, courage will always defeat fear; love will always con- quer hate; the beautiful diversity of America, and indeed all of human- ity, will always outshine the dark- ness of racial enmity. This is the reason I write, to remind people of honor and cour- age; to tell them that their cause isn’t lost, that their destiny is victory. Maybe I am confined by my craft, pumping out polemics that, it is my great hope, help to stiffen the spines and lift the spirits of those determined to stare down the threat. Language, in that way, holds the possibility of transcendence and conscription. One of the first and most essential ways to mobi- lize around a cause is to establish its moral framing. In a 1780 letter written to a fel- low revolutionary considering “retiring into private life,” staunch abolitionist Samuel Adams — a man strongly opposed to slavery and therefore one of my favorite founders — wrote: “If ever the Time should come, when vain & aspiring Men shall possess the highest Seats in Gov- ernment, our Country will stand in Need of its experiencd Patri- ots to prevent its Ruin. There may be more Danger of this, than some, even of our well disposd Citizens may imagine. If the People should grant their Suffrages to Men, only because they conceive them to have been Friends to the Country, with- out Regard to the necessary Qualifi- cations for the Places they are to fill, the Administration of Government will become a mere Farce, and our pub-lick Affairs will never be put on the Footing of solid Security.” There is no other time to which this could apply more perfectly than now. This is not the time for the “retiring” of “experiencd patriots.” A “vain and aspiring” man now possesses the highest seat in gov- ernment and the administration of the government is on the verge of becoming a farce. America needs you … now. Speak up. Tweets and theater entertain, but Congress is the main event By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W ASHINGTON — The most amusing part of the Trump transition has been watching its effortless confound- ing of the media, often in fewer than 140 characters. One morning, after a Fox News report on lefty nuttiness at some obscure New England college — a flag burning that led a more-contemptible-than- usual campus administration to take down the school’s own American flag — Donald Trump tweets that flag burners should go to jail or lose their citizenship. An epidemic of constitutional chin tugging and civil libertarian hair pulling immediately breaks out. By the time the media have exhausted their outrage over the looming abolition of free speech, judicial supremacy and affordable kale, Trump has moved on. The tempest had a shorter half-life than the one provoked in August 2015 by a Trump foray into birthright citizenship. Trump so thoroughly owns the political stage today that the word Clinton seems positively quaint and Barack Obama, who happens to be president of the United States, is totally irrelevant. Obama gave a major national security address on Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s son got more attention. Unpresidential Trump has mesmerized the national media not just with his elaborate Cabinet-selection produc- tion, by now Broadway-ready. But with a cluster of equally theatrical personal interventions that by tra- ditional standards seem distinctly unpresidential. It’s a matter of size. They seem small for a president. Preventing the shutdown of a Carrier factory in Indiana. Announcing, in a contex- tless 45-second surprise statement, a major Japanese investment in the U.S. Calling for cancellation of the new Air Force One to be built by Boeing. Pretty small stuff. It has the feel of a Cabinet undersecretary haggling with a contractor or a state governor drumming up business on a Central Asian trade mission. Or of candidate Trump selling Trump steaks and Trump wine in that bizarre victory speech after the Michigan primary. Presidents don’t normally do such things. It shrinks them. But then again, Trump is not yet presi- dent. And the point here is less the substance than the symbolism. The Carrier coup was meant to demonstrate the kind of concern for the working man that gave Trump the Rust Belt victories that carried him to the presidency. The Japa- nese SoftBank announcement was a down payment on his promise to be the “the greatest jobs president that God ever created.” (A slightly dubious claim: After all, how instru- mental was Trump to that invest- ment? Surely a financial commit- ment of that magnitude would have been planned long before Election Day.) And Boeing was an ostenta- tious declaration that he would be the zealous guardian of government spending that you would expect from a crusading outsider. Logic to it What appears as random Trum- pian impulsiveness has a logic to it. It’s a continuation of the campaign. Trump is acutely sensitive to his legitimacy problem, as he showed in his tweet claiming to have actu- ally won the popular vote, despite trailing significantly in the official count. His best counter is approval ratings. In August, the Bloomberg poll had him at 33 percent. He’s now up to 50 percent. Still nowhere near Obama’s stratospheric 79 percent at this point in 2008, but a substantial improvement nonetheless. The mini-interventions are work- ing but there’s a risk for Trump in so personalizing his coming pres- idency. It’s a technique borrowed from Third World strongmen who specialize in demonstrating their personal connection to the ordi- nary citizen. In a genuine democ- racy, however, the endurance of any political support depends on the larger success of the country. And that doesn’t come from Carrier-size fixes. It comes from policy — pol- icy that fundamentally changes the structures and alters the trajectory of the nation. “I alone can fix it,” Trump ring- ingly declared in his convention speech. Indeed, alone he can do Carrier and SoftBank and Boeing. But ultimately he must deliver on tax reform, health care, economic growth and nationwide job creation. That requires Congress. The 115th is Republican and ready to push through the legislation that gives life to the promises. On his part, Trump needs to avoid need- less conflict. The Republican lead- ership has already signaled strong opposition on some issues, such as tariffs for job exporters. None- theless, there is enough common ground between Trump and his con- gressional majority to have an enor- mously productive 2017. The chal- lenge will be to stay within the bounds of the GOP consensus. Trump will continue to tweet and the media will continue take the bait. Highly entertaining but it is a sideshow. Congress is where the fate of the Trump presidency will be decided.
