Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Time to speak for
commercial ¿sKing
Last week included one of the
coming weeks.
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The differences between all these
Northwest’s annual calendar: the
numbers may come as a surprise
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to those who don’t pay attention
the Columbia River.
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The forecast
the rhetoric of
for the important
those who oppose
spring chinook run
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If we want
is about 300,000 to
you might suppose
the irst taste
the river’s mouth,
gillnetters were
about 28 percent
swallowing up a vast
of Paciic
fewer than last year
proportion of the
Northwest
but more than the
salmon run. In fact,
10-year average of
this rather typical
spring to remain in year,
285,000. Forecasts
mainstream
are one thing
gillnetters
will
part of our
and reality quite
harvest perhaps
culture and
half of 1 percent of
another, but there is
the run. And that’s
a good chance that
economy, we
if they’re lucky
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need to continue — accidentally
businesses that rely
catching too many
on them will have a
speaking up
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fun few weeks from
for commercial protected by the
March 1 to April 9.
Species
The initial
ishing families. Endangered
Act sometimes
allocation is 7,515
drastically curtails
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even this sort of
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conservative season.
Bonneville Dam, 1,222 for the
It’s no wonder consumers have
mainstream non-tribal commercial
to pay so much for a precious meal
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FRPPHUFLDO¿VKHULHV*LOOQHWWHUVZLOO of our homegrown spring chinook
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3DFL¿F1RUWKZHVWVSULQJWRUHPDLQ
March 29 and April 5.
part of our culture and economy, we
This also is a good time to note
need to continue speaking up for
that in 2015 sea lions killed 8,500
spring chinook salmon in the tailrace FRPPHUFLDO¿VKLQJIDPLOLHVZKRSXW
Columbia salmon on our tables.
just below Bonneville, and many
Sensible salmon management
more in the relatively unobserved
140-plus miles between the dam and UHTXLUHVDOO¿VKHUPHQWRZRUN
together — along with tribes, river
the river’s mouth.
managers, conservationists, leaded
Smart beasts that they are, it is
widely anticipated they will again be leaders and others — to continue
rebuilding runs.
showing up in the river in force in
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher
Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor.
Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
OTHER VIEWS
Nothing short about this session
The (Eugene) Register-Guard
V
oters amended the Oregon
Constitution six years ago to
require annual legislative sessions,
and the new calendar has evolved quickly.
The 35-day sessions in even-numbered
years were expected to be codas to the
160-day odd-year sessions — lawmakers
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a few unanticipated problems and go
home. But the short session that convened
Monday will deal with some meaty
issues, and some thorny ones.
Part of the increasingly substantive
role is a product of the initiative process.
By this time of year, it becomes possible
to discern the most consequential ballot
measures likely to be considered in the
November general election. The February
session offers lawmakers their last
opportunity to act as shortstop, approving
substitutes for initiative proposals or
referring to the ballot alternative measures
of their own.
Democrats also feel a need to take
advantage of their control of the gover-
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both the House and Senate. Their position
is likely to be no stronger in 2017, and
could be weaker — which adds an
element of urgency to items on the party’s
agenda.
Those factors combine to bring
forward the issue of an increase in
Oregon’s minimum wage. A big increase
would have consequences for workers,
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organizations — consequences that would
vary by economic sector and geographic
region. A hurry-up legislative session will
not have time for the hearings, committee
reviews and debate the issue deserves.
But unless the Legislature approves
some sort of minimum wage increase, an
initiative for a larger and more disruptive
increase is likely to be on the ballot in
November. Gov. Kate Brown has called
for a two-tier increase that would be
phased in more slowly than initiative
sponsors propose.
Similarly, an initiative is headed for
the ballot that would impose a 2.5 percent
gross receipts tax on sales by corporations
in excess of $25 million a year. The tax
would raise an estimated $5.6 billion per
biennium — a potential game-changer for
Oregon schools and other public services.
But the effects would inevitably include
higher prices for retail goods, utilities,
fuel and services.
The Legislature may try to devise a
corporate tax increase that would have
fewer regressive effects.
Another tax proposal that is certain
to arise would double the state’s hotel-
motel tax to 2 percent. The $17 million
in annual revenue from the current tax
is used to promote Oregon tourism.
Revenue from the increased tax would
be used to provide $25 million in support
for the 2021 world track championships
in Eugene.
Another complex issue before the
Legislature will be Oregon’s shortage
of affordable housing. The shortage has
been worsening since the recession of
2008, with construction lagging behind
demand by about 40 percent. Housing
prices in Portland, in particular, have
been rising faster than in all but a few
of the nation’s markets. The Legislature
will discuss proposals to allow local
governments to require that new
housing developments include a certain
percentage of units for lower-income
buyers or renters. Crafting such rules
in ways that don’t discourage housing
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short session.
An even more complicated and
far-reaching issue is climate change.
In the 2015 session, a California-style
proposal for a cap-and-trade program
for the state’s primary sources of carbon
emissions was set aside in favor of new
standards to reduce the carbon intensity
of transportation fuels.
The cap-and-trade proposal, which
rewards large emissions reductions at the
expense of those who fail to scale back
emissions, will be reintroduced in the
session that opens Monday, but whether
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an open question. One possibility would
be to scrap the clean fuels standard,
which has become mired in partisan
politics, in favor of the cap-and-trade
program, which would achieve the same
goals.
The minimum wage, corporate taxes,
lodging taxes, housing, climate change
— that’s a lot of heavy lifting.
Other contentious issues, such as a
SURSRVDOWRDOORZSROLFHWRUHPRYH¿UH-
arms from the homes of people who are
under temporary restraining orders, could
be added to the list. And Republicans
are demanding that the Legislature act to
improve education funding, protect open
school enrollment, provide investment
incentives for small businesses and begin
to prepare for increased pension and
Medicaid expenses.
It will be a busy 35 days. The notion
that even-year legislative sessions would
be concerned with tying up loose ends
has been left behind.
OTHER VIEWS
The manners war
D
onald Trump was inducted
improper and imposes an invisible
into the World Wrestling
social power on society.
Entertainment Hall of Fame
Trump smashed through that and
in 2013. He’d been involved with
created a riveting spectacle. He insulted
professional wrestling for more than a
people’s looks. He stereotyped vast
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groups of people — Mexicans and
on the business side, because so many
Muslims. He hinted at menstruation.
of the events were held at his hotels.
He called members of the establishment
But then he got involved in the story
morons, idiots and losers. He bragged
David
lines, appearing in the ring as an actual
Brooks and boasted without cessation.
character.
Social inequality is always felt
Comment
His greatest moment came in 2007
more acutely than economic inequality.
with the pay-per-view series called
Trump rose up on behalf of people
“Battle of the Billionaires,” when he verbally
who felt looked down upon, made them
went up against the WWE’s chief executive,
feel vindicated and represented and turned
Vince McMahon. The feud started when Trump social conduct on its head. He led a one-man
interrupted McMahon on Fan Appreciation
linguistic revolution.
Night and upstaged him by raining thousands
The cultural element of this revolution was
of dollars in cash down on the crowd in the
based on his complete rejection of the feminist
arena. It continued with a
transformation. Over the
verbal barrage and proxy
past few decades, at least in
match, and ended with a
respectable society, there has
triumphant Trump shaving
been a shift in the way men
McMahon’s head in the
and women are supposed to
middle of the ring.
behave. Blatant machismo
I mention this because
has been condemned and
the thing I’ve found most
female empowerment
surprising in this presidential
celebrated.
campaign is the way the
But Trump was
nation’s crisis of political
unabashedly masculine. His
authority has produced
machismo is still the lingua
a hunger for masculine
franca of pro wrestling, cage
spectacle.
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This is an anxious and
movies.
angry nation. Many people have lost faith
His candidacy is an implied critique of the
in institutions and the nation’s leadership.
feminization of America — that the country
Many feel powerless, in decline and adrift.
has become too soft, too nice, too lacking in
old-fashioned male authority. Trump responded
Somewhere in his marketer’s brain Donald
with ridiculous aggression every time his
Trump intuited that manners are more
authority was questioned. When John McCain
important than laws and that if you want to
attacked him, Trump responded, “He’s not a
assault the established powers you have to
war hero.”
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Every time Trump was challenged on
been one long exercise in taking the “low,” or
anything, he was compelled by his code to
proletarian, manners of professional wrestling
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and interjecting them into the “respectable”
He shoved aside his early competitor Jeb
arena of presidential politics.
Bush, who was raised to be a gentleman, the
By shifting the cultural language Trump
embodiment of exactly that code Trump was
initiated a new type of culture war, really a
upending.
manners war. He seemed fresh, authentic and
When he was praised by one of the world’s
resonant to a lot of people who felt alienated
most venomous thugs, Vladimir Putin, he had
from the way elites govern, talk and behave.
the canniness to embrace the praise and lavish
Professional wrestling generates intense
it back — a response that would have violated
interest and drama through relentless
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confrontation. Everybody knows it’s fake at
I still don’t think the spectacle is going
some level, but it is perceived as fake and real
at the same time (sort of like politics). The story to carry Trump to the White House or even
the nomination. But I do think this has been
lines are Manichaean — good takes on evil,
ZLQQHUVWDNHRQIDLOXUHV7KHDXGLHQFHV¿HUFHO\ a period in which many silent segments of
identify with different characters. What matters society have found their voices, often in
is not so much who wins or loses, or whether
shocking and impolite ways.
you are good or evil, but the aggressiveness
The next president will have to respect
by which you wage each mano-a-mano
these voices, understand their grievances and
confrontation.
channel what is legitimate in their concerns in
7UXPSEURXJKWWKLVVW\OHRQVWDJHDWWKH¿UVW deferential ways, reminding everyone from all
Republican debate, and a thousand taboos were classes that we are one nation, one people, with
smashed all at once. In respectable politics,
one fate.
as in respectable society, there is a certain
Ŷ
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David Brooks became a New York Times
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Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
This is an
anxious and
angry nation.
Many have
lost faith in
institutions and
leadership.
YOUR VIEWS
Rumors of coal’s demise
are grossly exaggerated
People and special interest groups continue
arguing the demise of coal. Yes, prices in
the industry have struggled over the last
several years due to over-regulation and
stringent efforts by this administration to alter
America’s energy portfolio.
But it is far-fetched thinking at best to
theorize coal’s disappearance from U.S. and
global energy use.
A recent article in the East Oregonian
attempts to paint this picture, stringing
together questionable facts and logic to argue
to readers the demise of coal exports and
consumption in places like East Asia. But
these facts do not match the whole deck of
cards.
Countries like India and China, if anything,
are increasing imports and domestic use of
coal because they understand it is cheap,
plentiful, and dependable. It has the ability
to deliver electricity to their explosive
populations which are largely impoverished.
This means advancements in technology,
health care, and local economies.
A Wall Street Journal article in 2014 put
it best by stating, “Analysts expect the [U.S.]
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term, saying coal will remain the dominant
fuel source globally in spite of environmental
concerns.”
The writing in this instance is on the wall:
demand for coal will only increase over time.
As such, the U.S. can — and should — step
up to meet this need and position itself as an
energy leader.
Ken Taylor
Prineville
ProSosed +ermiston ¿re
district targets rural residents
Who are you rural residents surrounding
Hermiston? From what I’ve read, you all
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and emergency services. Please, introduce
yourselves, I would like to meet you. My
phone number is 541-289-0762. You are
welcome to call if you don’t want the
enhanced services, also.
The Hermiston City Council, the county
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WKLVSURSRVDOWRFRPELQH¿UHGLVWULFWVFRVWLQJ
(only) rural residents more taxes. From my
perspective, Hermiston has outgrown its
ability to provide necessary services. If this
growth can’t support itself, then the leaders
are inept.
Personally, I don’t buy this sham of theirs,
that it’s only for our own good and they know
what we need out here. Apparently, they have
scratched their heads and pondered how to
get more revenue. So, let’s just jump outside
the city limits and plunder the dispersed rural
minority.
This scheme is actually promoted as more
services within the city and no tax increase.
*R¿JXUH
Rod Triplett
Hermiston