OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, MAY 1, 2017
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
EDITOR’S NOTE
This week, The Daily Astorian is publishing
endorsements in the countywide Port of
Astoria election. Three of the Port’s five
commission seats are being contested,
and voters are being asked whether to
approve a $1.96 million bond measure
for improvements at the Astoria Regional
Airport.
Today we begin our endorsements with
our opinion on the bond proposal, while
Tuesday we offer our views on Position 2,
which pits Dirk Rohne against Dick Hellberg,
and Position 5, which features Frank Spence and Pat
O’Grady vying against each other. On Thursday we will en-
dorse in the Position 1 race which has the political rarity of two
incumbents, Commissioners James Campbell and Stephen Fulton, battling for
the same seat.
Ballots were mailed to all registered Clatsop County residents last week, and
we hope that whether you agree with our views or not, that you take part in
the democratic process by exercising your right to vote.
OUR VIEW
Populism on pause
By CHARLES
KRAUTHAMMER
Washington Post Writers Group
W
Voters should
say ‘Yes’ on Port
bond measure
V
oters are being asked whether to approve a $1.96 mil-
lion bond measure for the Port of Astoria that would
be used for improving the airport’s infrastructure. We
think they should say “Yes.”
If approved, the money will be used to begin development
of 10 acres at the southernmost point of the airport, just west
of a runway and taxiway, close to Airport Road. If approved,
the annual average tax rate during the four-year life of the
bonds is estimated at $0.1235 per $1,000 of assessed value or
about $12.35 per year for property assessed at $100,000.
The bond measure has two essential purposes, and provides
voters with two substantial reasons to support it.
First, it would provide money for infrastructure to relo-
cate the nonprofit Life Flight Network, an air medical trans-
port service. Life Flight would move from its current tem-
porary operations trailer near the airport terminal — located
about 500 yards from its temporary hangar, which slows
emergency response times — to a larger, combined han-
gar-and-operations facility on a small portion of the 10-acre
tract. Life Flight’s current hangar only accommodates one
helicopter, while the new hangar would fit a helicopter and
a fixed-wing aircraft as well as a crew rest area. The service
uses both types of aircraft but can currently only accommo-
date one aircraft here. Additionally, as part of the plan, a road
will be extended from the Life Flight facility and landing area
to Airport Road for easier and safer ambulance entrance and
exit.
In December, Clatsop County
and cities and hospitals on both
sides of the Columbia River
If the
wrote letters of support for Life
airport is
Flight to the Port, urging it to
do whatever it could to ensure
ever going
an upgraded facility is devel-
to be more
oped and operational as soon
than it is —
as possible. We agree heartily
that Life Flight is an invaluable
and be more
and vital asset to the region and
of a revenue
needs that facility.
Importantly, the second pur-
generator
pose of the bond measure is
for the
that by adding improvements
Port — it
to the south end of airport, the
money will provide additional
needs that
economic expansion opportu-
forward-
nities by laying the foundation
for water and sewer service in
thinking,
an area of the airport where it’s
long-term
currently unavailable.
If the airport is ever going
investment.
to be more than it is — and be
more of a revenue generator for
the Port — it needs that forward-thinking, long-term invest-
ment. With infrastructure in place we believe it gives the
Port a far better chance of landing aviation-related training
or repair businesses, which could be a catalyst for other eco-
nomic expansion. It’s a much better strategy than standing pat
and waiting for those types of businesses to come here and
then wondering why they didn’t.
And while it’s admirable several Port commission-
ers searched and advocated for lower-cost alternatives, the
choices they came up with simply aren’t feasible, aren’t as
safe and are potentially even more costly than the proposal
backed by the Airport Advisory Committee.
For all of those reasons, voters should mark “Yes” on their
ballots on the Port’s bond measure.
ASHINGTON —
Yesterday’s conventional
wisdom: A wave of
insurgent populism is sweeping the
West, threatening
its foundational
institutions — the
European Union,
the Western alli-
ance, even liberal
democracy itself.
Today’s conventional wisdom
(post-first-round French presiden-
tial election): The populist wave
has crested, soon to abate.
Chances are that both verdicts
are wrong. The anti-establishment
sentiment that gave us Brexit, then
Donald Trump, then seemed poised
to give us Marine Le Pen, has
indeed plateaued. But although she
will likely be defeated in the sec-
ond round, victory by the leading
centrist, Emmanuel Macron, would
hardly constitute an establishment
triumph.
Macron barely edged out a
Cro-Magnon communist (Jean-
Luc Melenchon), a blood-and-
soil nationalist (Le Pen) and a cen-
ter-right candidate brought low by
charges of nepotism and corruption
(Francois Fillon). And the ruling
Socialist candidate came in fifth,
garnering a pathetic 6 percent of
the vote.
On the other hand, the populists
can hardly be encouraged by what
has followed Brexit and Trump:
Dutch elections, where the nation-
alist Geert Wilders faded toward the
end and came nowhere near power;
Austrian elections, where another
nationalist challenge was turned
back; and upcoming German elec-
tions, where polls indicate that the
far-right nationalists are at barely
10 percent and slipping. And, of
course, France.
In retrospect, the populist panic
may have been overblown. Regard-
ing Brexit, for example, the shock
exaggerated its meaning. Because it
was so unexpected, it became a sen-
sation. But in the longer view, Brit-
ain has always been deeply ambiv-
alent about Europe, going back at
least to Henry VIII and his break
with Rome. In the intervening 500
years, Britain has generally seen
itself as less a part of Europe than
an offshore island.
The true historical anomaly was
Britain’s EU membership with all
the attendant transfer of sovereignty
from Westminster to Brussels.
Brexit was a rather brutal return to
the extra-European norm, but the
norm it is.
The other notable populist vic-
tory, the triumph of Trump, has also
turned out to be less than meets the
eye. He certainly ran as a populist
AP Photo/Michel Euler
French riot police advance as garbage containers overturned by pro-
testers lie on a street during a demonstration by high school stu-
dents against both presidential candidates, far-right Marine Le Pen
and centrist Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Friday.
and won as a populist but, a mere
100 days in, he is governing as a
traditionalist.
The Obamacare replacement
proposals are traditional small-gov-
ernment fixes. His tax reform is
a follow-on to Reagan’s from
1986. His Supreme Court pick is a
straight-laced, constitutional con-
servative out of central casting.
And his more notable executive
orders read as a wish list of tradi-
tional business-oriented conserva-
tism from regulatory reform to the
Keystone XL and Dakota Access
pipelines.
The
normalization
of Trump is
one indicator
that there may
be less to
the populist
insurrection
than imagined.
I happen to support all of these
moves, but they don’t qualify as
insurrectionist populism. The one
exception may be trade policy. As
of now, however, it remains ad hoc
and idiosyncratic. Trump has made
gestures and threats to those cun-
ning Mexicans, Chinese and now
Canadians. But it’s not yet clear if
he is serious about, say, withdraw-
ing from NAFTA or just engaging
in a series of opening negotiating
gambits.
The softwood timber dispute
with Canada is hardly new. It dates
back 35 years. Every intervening
administration has contested the
terms of trade in various forums. A
full-scale trade war with our lead-
ing trading partner would indeed
break new ground. Anything short
of that, however, is the art of the
deal.
The normalization of Trump
is one indicator that there may be
less to the populist insurrection
than imagined. The key, however,
is Europe, where the stakes are
infinitely higher. There the issue is
the future of the nation state itself,
as centuries of sovereignty dissolve
within an expanding superstate.
It influences every aspect of daily
life — from the ethnic makeup of
neighborhoods to the currency that
changes hands at the grocery.
The news from France, where
Macron is openly, indeed osten-
tatiously, pro-European (his cam-
paign headquarters flies the EU
flag) is that France is not quite pre-
pared to give up on the great exper-
iment. But the Europeanist elites
had better not imagine this to be
an enduring verdict. The populist
revolt was a reaction to their reck-
less and anti-democratic push for
even greater integration. The task
today is to address the sources of
Europe’s economic stagnation and
social alienation rather than blindly
pursue the very drive that led to this
precarious moment.
If the populist threat turns out to
have frightened the existing powers
out of their arrogant complacency,
it should be deemed a success. But
make no mistake: The French elec-
tion wasn’t a victory for the status
quo. It was a reprieve. For now, the
populist wave is not in retreat. It’s
on pause.
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
office: 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 Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
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 office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.