OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
If liberals bothered to vote
The Daily Astorian/File
Bottom right, Camp Rilea’s Staff Sgt. Toben Pond, left, and Sgt.
Mike Williams fire off a few rounds Thursday on ‘Old Smokey,’ a
howitzer once used in Vietnam, to commemorate the June 21,
1942 Japanese submarine attack on Fort Stevens.
10 years ago this week — 2007
Lefse was selling like hotcakes Saturday at the fairgrounds, where the
40th annual Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival was in full swing.
Visitors were queuing up for favorite delicacies like aebleskiver (ball-
shaped pancakes) and frikadeller (pork meatballs) at the Danish Society
booth and Finnish cardamom bread.
A study commissioned by liquefied natural gas developer
NorthernStar Natural Gas Co. identifies LNG as an “engine for
economic growth.”
The study’s author, University of Oregon economist Dr. Phil
Romero, found an LNG terminal in the Pacific Northwest would
support between 5,100 and 20,300 more jobs and household
income growth between $51 million and $214 million.
The bizarre ecosystem in Long Beach’s Island Lake Forest is safe from
development, thanks to a deal struck between a family of longtime cran-
berry farmers and a Columbia region conservation group.
The 359-acre property is an anomaly, scientists say, because old growth
Douglas fir and Sitka spruce trees, which prefer drier climates, sprout from
sand dunes in an area doused by more than 80 inches of rain each year.
This habitat — acquired May 31 by Columbia Land Trust — gives ref-
uge to herons, eagles, osprey, bears, elk, river otters and woodpeckers, said
Glenn Lamb, the conservation group’s executive director. Some scientists
believe the forest could be home to the federally endangered marbled mur-
relets, seabirds that look like a duck crossed with a penguin.
The land had belonged to Long Beach resident Frank Glenn IV’s family
since 1940, and Glenn said the idea of selling the land to a logging company
broke his heart. He started visiting the area as a teenager.
50 years ago — 1967
Chamber of Commerce members enjoyed fine weather Fri-
day for what was termed “a most interesting” tour of the Port-
land waterfront along the Willamette River.
Members returned with a suggestion from officials of Port-
land International Airport, also a part of the tour. Officials rec-
ommended Astoria consider use of miniliners, 8-to 10-passenger
planes for flights between Astoria and Portland.
The twin-engine small aircraft are capable of traveling more
than 200 mph, and it was noted that with use of the aircraft more
frequent scheduling could be arranged. Up to four flights per
day could be made without loss.
Even though the session of the state Legislature just ended in Salem
failed to see enactment of some type of a property tax relief bill, Clatsop
County will benefit in this regard when all details are worked out allowing
Northwest Aluminum to locate here.
Treasure digger Tony Mareno of Salem said Tuesday he
thinks he is getting closer to locating the fabled Spanish trea-
sure on the beach at Manzanita south of Neahkahnie mountain
in northern Tillamook County.
Mareno has erected a plywood shelter over the deepening
hole on the sands and said he has unearthed what he believes are
pieces of redwood timbers.
There appear to be traces of strong mineral in the hole, he
said. Shovels left in the diggings overnight turn green by morn-
ing, he reported, indicating the presence of copper compounds.
75 years ago — 1942
The boom of hostile gunfire, a sound not heard in Clatsop County since
the earliest days, broke upon the startled ears of many a resident Sunday
night, but frightened few and the chief emotion it aroused was a burning
curiosity to know what had happened.
Many Clatsop residents slept through the whole thing, but in Warrenton
and the Clatsop Plains district the sound of banging gunfire was so loud that
nearly everyone who had gone to sleep was awakened.
In fact, people of the district from Hammond south several miles all
thought they could hear the whistle of shells right overhead.
Nine 5-inch explosive shells, “undoubtedly” fired by a large
enemy submarine several miles at sea last night, landed near the
Columbia River harbor defenses at Fort Stevens reservation,
Col. Carl S. Doney, commanding officer of Fort Steverns dis-
closed today.
Col. Doney said the submarine, presumably Japanese, prob-
ably aimed its shots at Fort Stevens but that the aim was bad. He
acknowledged however that the shells “came close — too damn
close.” There was no damage and no casualties. No buildings on
the military reservation were hit. The shells landed harmlessly
on the beaches and swamps bordering the shoreline on the south
bank of the mouth of the Columbia River.
AP Photo/David Goldman
Jon Ossoff, Democratic candidate for Georgia’s 6th congressional district, talks to reporters during a
stop at a campaign office in Chamblee, Ga., on Monday.
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
I
f liberals voted at the same rate
as conservatives, Hillary Clinton
would be president. Even with Don-
ald Trump’s work-
ing-class appeal,
Clinton could have
swept Michigan,
Wisconsin
and
Pennsylvania.
If liberals voted
at the same rate as conservatives,
Democrats would control the U.S.
Senate. Clinton or Barack Obama
could then have filled the recent
Supreme Court vacancy, and that
justice would hold the tiebreak-
ing vote on campaign finance, labor
unions and other issues.
If liberals voted at the same rate
as conservatives, the country would
be doing more to address the two
defining issues of our time — cli-
mate change and stagnant mid-
dle-class living standards. Instead,
Trump is making both worse.
On Tuesday, the northern suburbs
of Atlanta held the country’s most
significant election since Trump’s
victory. It was a special election
in a conservative-leaning district
once represented by Newt Gingrich
and until recently by Tom Price, an
architect of a health care plan that
would take insurance from millions.
Special elections aren’t normal.
They can attract far more attention
and money than a typical U.S. House
race does, and the Georgia race did.
Yet it nonetheless offered a tantaliz-
ing lesson for Democrats.
Their candidate, Jon Ossoff, had
a real chance to win partly because
he didn’t suffer from the gap in
voter passion and commitment that
usually bedevils Democrats, espe-
cially in off-year races. Ossoff lost.
But it would be a big deal if Dem-
ocrats could more often close their
passion-and-commitment gap. Even
modestly higher turnout could help
them at every level of politics and
hasten the policy changes that liber-
als dream about.
After all, polls show that a major-
ity of Americans support progres-
sive positions on most big issues.
Yet Republicans dominate state and
federal government.
Turnout is a big reason. Last
year, Americans between the ages of
18-24 voted for Clinton over Trump
in a landslide. Only 43 percent of
citizens in that age group voted,
however. By contrast, Americans
over age 65 supported Trump — and
71 percent of them voted. Similarly,
Americans in their 30s were more
likely to support Clinton, and less
likely to vote, than those in their 50s.
The pattern also exists across
ethnic groups. Asian and Hispanic
voters went for Clinton in a bigger
landslide than millennials, but most
Asian and Hispanic citizens didn’t
vote.
And the gaps grow even larger in
midterm elections. A mere 17 per-
cent — 17 percent! — of Americans
between 18 and 24 voted in 2014,
compared with 59 percent of seniors.
If you’re liberal and frustrated by
these statistics, you should be. But
you shouldn’t be defeatist.
What can be done? First, don’t
make the mistake of blaming every-
thing on nefarious Republicans. Yes,
Republicans have gerrymandered
districts and shamefully suppressed
votes (and Democrats should keep
pushing for laws that make voting
easier). But the turnout gap is bigger
than any Republican scheme.
Second, keep in mind that turn-
out is a human-behavior problem.
It involves persuading people to
change long-established habits. And
there is a powerful force uproot-
ing all kinds of habits today: digital
technology.
More specifically, smartphones
are changing how people interact
with information. I’d encourage pro-
gressives in Silicon Valley to think
of voting as a giant realm ripe for
disruption. Academic research by
Alan Gerber, Donald Green and oth-
ers has shown that peer pressure can
lift turnout. Smartphones are the
most efficient peer-pressure device
ever invented, but no one has fig-
ured out how social media or texting
can get a lot more people to the polls
— yet.
Finally, remember that the polit-
ical left has had some recent suc-
cesses in raising turnout, and they
involved old-fashioned politi-
cal excitement. Obama won partly
through higher turnout among
younger and nonwhite voters. Black
turnout even exceeded white turnout
in 2012, before slipping last year.
This month’s British election is
also intriguing. The Labour Party
did better than expected, helped by a
surge of younger voters angry about
Brexit. But Britain also offers a cau-
tion to anyone who thinks higher
turnout depends on far-left can-
didates, like Jeremy Corbyn, the
Labour leader. Corbyn didn’t win,
and he didn’t come very close.
My instinct is that the answer for
Democrats involves a passionate
message of fairness — of providing
jobs, lifting wages, protecting rights
and fighting Trump’s plutocracy. It
can be bolder than Democrats have
been in decades. But it should not
resemble a complete progressive
wish list, which could turn off swing
voters without even raising turnout.
People who don’t vote regularly
aren’t progressive activists in dis-
guise. They tend not to follow poli-
tics closely. Although most lean left,
they are not doctrinaire, and they’re
not looking for white papers. They
are looking to be inspired.
Obviously, these are tough times
for Democrats. They haven’t had
much electoral cheer since 2012 —
and Ossoff’s loss was another set-
back. But Democrats should remem-
ber that they still have one enormous
advantage.
The country’s real silent major-
ity prefers Democrats, if only that
majority could be stirred to vote.
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