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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 5, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, March 5, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com MIKE FORRESTER STEVE FORRESTER KATHRYN B. BROWN Pendleton Chairman of the Board Astoria President Pendleton Secretary/Treasurer CORY BOLLINGER JEFF ROGERS Aberdeen, S.D. Director Indianapolis, Ind. Director OUR VIEW State rules in a federalist land The United States, most of us accomplished. learned in our elementary civics Take minimum wage. classes, employs a federal system of That may be the most timely government. discussion, since a bill was signed Oregon, being the progressive into law by Oregon Governor Kate state that it has been for the last 50 Brown this week. years, has been ahead Earlier this session, of federal action on the Legislature Addressing approved the highest some issues. But that presents problems. minimum issues on a statewide Take marijuana. wage in the nation, state-by-state DQGEHFDPHWKH¿UVWWR The state has decriminalized by geographic basis has its differ possession and use for area. By 2022, wages adults, but it remains will rise to a minimum problems, illegal at the federal $14.75 an hour in especially for of level. That means Portland, $13.50 in adults are free to grow mid-size border towns. Oregon’s in Oregon soil and counties and $12.50 smoke under Oregon in rural areas, which sky, but aspects of the industry includes all of Eastern Oregon. President Barack Obama praised that step beyond state lines quickly the state for its action, but Obama become mired in a murky legal has been unable to persuade the quandary. Insurance and banking Republican-led Senate from systems have been wary of getting bumping up the federal minimum involved in something that is legal wage past $7.25, which he was able in the state, but illegal under federal put into practice in 2009. law. The problem with raising From our view in Eastern minimum wage at the state level will Oregon, drug policy needs federal be most devastating in places like directive. The U.S. should either Ontario, a town that borders Idaho, enforce federal law on the books where minimum wage still comes in that regards marijuana as illegal, or at $7.25. it should change that federal law As wages rise on the Oregon so the marijuana industry can be side of the state line, will industry DVHI¿FLHQWDQGVDIHDVSRVVLEOHLQ that relies on unskilled labor — like states that allow it. agriculture — move over to Idaho? Or take immigration. If you own a restaurant or a farm in State Sen. Bill Hansell’s driver’s Ontario, you are right to be nervous card plan way back in 2014 was DERXWWKHORQJWHUP¿QDQFLDO DVPDOOVWDWHOHYHO¿[RIRQHWLQ\ viability of your business in an issue in the larger environment of environment where labor rules are so the country’s broken immigration dramatically different just a stone’s policy. The law allowed illegal throw away. immigrants to get a driver’s license We understand and support state and car insurance. rights. Clearly, people in California Yet voters, in a ballot initiative, and people in Alabama want to live UHSHDOHGLWE\DVLJQL¿FDQWPDUJLQ under a different set of laws — and The thought was that the bill made that’s what makes the U.S. such life easier for people who were DÀH[LEOHDQGKHDOWK\GHPRFUDF\ breaking federal law. It may have Those laws must be Constitutional, EHHQDSUDJPDWLF¿[RIDQHYLGHQW and basic rights of Americans must problem — but in the face of such be respected from sea to shining sea. blatant disregard for federal law, it But sometimes we need federal ZDVQ¶WJRLQJWRÀ\ law to take the lead and solve the At the same time, multiple FRPSOH[QDWLRQDOSUREOHPVZHDUH attempts at immigration reform, led facing. by presidents of both parties, have Yet the U.S. Congress has failed to gain traction in a divided been ground to a halt by partisan Congress. Immigration policy ELFNHULQJDQGLQ¿JKWLQJ6WDWHKRXVHV remains a mess at the federal level across the nation have taken on the and voters clearly don’t want states bigger lift of legislating, but there to try to nickel-and-dime short term are clear problems with that. solutions. They want a consistent Places like Ontario, where states national approach to what is clearly a national issue, and they’ll live with with dramatically different political philosophies rub elbows, suffer the the broken system until a complete most. overhaul or crackdown can be 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. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. OTHER VIEWS Donald Trump, the great betrayer ow, at long last, the big guns WKHPWRH[DJJHUDWHWKHLULQFRPHV are being brought to bear. The Better Business Bureau gave the Now, at long last, some major school a D- rating in 2010. Republicans like Mitt Romney are “They lure you in with false speaking up to lay waste to Donald promises,” one student, Patricia Trump. Murphy, told The Times in 2011. For months Trump’s rivals and Murphy said she had spent about other Republicans have either retreated $12,000 on Trump University classes, in silence or tentatively and ineptly much of it racked up on her credit David FULWLFL]HGKLPIRUH[DFWO\WKRVHWUDLWV Brooks cards. “I was scammed,” she said. that voters like about him: for being a The barrage can continue with Comment slapdash, politically incorrect money- Trump Mortgage. On the campaign hungry bully. trail, Trump tells people he saw %XWQRZ¿QDOO\²DWORQJODVW²PDMRU the mortgage crisis coming. “I told a lot of Republicans are raising their heads and people,” he has said, “and I was right. You highlighting Trump’s actual vulnerability: his know, I’m pretty good at that stuff.” LQDELOLW\WRWKLQNIRUDQH[WHQGHGWLPHDERXW Trump’s biggest lies are the ones he tells anybody but himself. himself. The reality is that Trump opened his +HVHGXFHVSHRSOHZLWKKLVFRQ¿GHQFHDQG mortgage company in 2006. Others smelled his promises. People invest a bubble, but not Trump. “I time, love and money in him. think it’s a great time to start But in the end he cares only a mortgage company,” he about himself. He betrays told CNBC. “The real estate those who trust him and market is going to be very leaves them high and dry. strong for a long time to It’s unpleasant to have to come.” play politics on this personal Part of the operation was level. But this is a message a boiler room where people that can sway potential Trump cold-called clients, sometimes supporters, many of whom have only the pushing subprime loans and offering easy barest information on what Trump’s life and approval. career have actually been like. Jennifer McGovern had trusted Trump and This is a message that can work in a sour went to work for him. But she got stiffed in and cynical time among voters who already the end. In 2008 a New York state Supreme feel betrayed. This is a message that can Court judge ordered Trump Mortgage to pay work because it’s a personality type everyone her the $298,274 she was owed. The bill understands. This is a time when it is not in wasn’t paid. fact too late, when it may still be possible to “The company was set up in a way that we prevent his nomination. could never recover what we were owed,” she The campaign against Trump has to told The Washington Post. EHVSHFL¿FDQGUHOHQWOHVVDVHULHVRIFOHDU The stories can go on and on. The betrayal H[DPSOHVUROOHGRXWGD\XSRQGD\ZLWKWKH of investors when his casino businesses went same message. Donald Trump betrays. EDQNUXSW7KHEHWUD\DORIKLV¿UVWZLIHZLWK It can start with Trump University, where KLVÀDJUDQWSXEOLFDIIDLUZLWK0DUOD0DSOHV Trump betrayed schoolteachers and others The betrayal of American workers when he who dreamed of building a better life for decided to hire illegals. The people left in the themselves. wake of other debacles: Trump Air, Trump Trump billed his university as a place Vodka, Trump Financial, etc. people could go to learn everything necessary These weren’t just risks that went bad. about real estate investing. According to a They were shams, built like his campaign ODZVXLW¿OHGE\1HZ<RUN¶VDWWRUQH\ around empty promises and on Trump’s general, Eric Schneiderman, more than 5,000 fragile and overweening pride. people paid $40 million, a quarter of which The burden of responsibility now falls on went to Trump himself. 5HSXEOLFDQRI¿FLDOVHOHFWHGDQGQRQHOHFWHG Internal Trump University documents at all levels. For years they have built suggest that the university wasn’t really relationships in their communities, earned the oriented around teaching, but rather around right to be heard. If they now feel that Donald luring customers into buying more and more Trump would be a reckless and dangerous courses. president, then they have a responsibility to According to the New York lawsuit, their country to tell those people the truth, to LQVWUXFWRUV¿OOHGRXWFRXUVHHYDOXDWLRQV rally all their energies against this man. WKHPVHOYHVRUKDGVWXGHQWV¿OORXWWKH Since the start of his campaign Trump has non-anonymous forms in front of them, had more energy and more courage than his pressuring them into giving positive reviews. opponents. Maybe that’s now changing. During breaks students were told to call their Ŷ credit card companies to increase their credit David Brooks became a New York Times limits. They were given a script encouraging Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. N It’s unpleasant to have to play politics on this personal level. YOUR VIEWS GOP is a grass roots party, there is no “establishment” Political season is in full swing and I am hearing a lot of talk about outsiders and what the “establishment” is trying to do. These entities are real, but where do they get their power? The Republican Party is a grassroots party and all of the power begins in our neighborhoods, or in political language known as precincts. In Umatilla County there are 45 precincts, each with 2 to 6 precinct committee persons representing them on the county central committee — 168 PCPs total. Delegates elected by each of Oregon’s 36 county central committees then make up the state central committee that meets 3 to 4 times a year. In presidential election years all PCPs are asked to attend the state convention. The state central committee every four years elects one national committeeman and one national committeewoman. These two from each state and territory along with congressional leadership make up the Republican National Committee. So who is the “establishment?” If you trace the line all the way back you will see that the establishment was put in place by you, the voter. There are three areas where the results can turn out different than we would wish. First is that the criteria for being a Republican is a desire to register as one — that is it. It is not like your church where you have to subscribe to a set of beliefs to belong. Likewise, anyone FDQUHJLVWHU5HSXEOLFDQDQGUXQIRURI¿FHEXW that doesn’t mean they subscribe to the party platform. This brings us to the second area for disappointing results, and that is the shallow voter. There is no question that our culture is changing dramatically in America. Politics has transitioned for many from ideas to entertainment. Too many can tell you who is the quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks but can’t tell you who their senator is, or list the last ten Taylor Swift hits but are hard pressed to list more than three of the Ten Commandments. Why do we get the results we get? Because we don’t know the hard questions we should ask, let alone the answers. The third area that leads to less than desirable results is your input to the process. Vote. It is deplorable when we have less than 40 percent of registered voters turn in a ballot on Election Day. Become involved in your community. There are 168 Republican precinct positions in Umatilla County and currently OHVVWKDQDUH¿OOHG7KDWPHDQVWKDWWKRVH 40 are making the decisions for all 168 positions. This is an opportunity for your voice to be heard. This Saturday morning while you are drinking your coffee, go to http://sos. oregon.gov/elections/Documents/SEL105.pdf Print the form out, take it to the courthouse by March 8 and let your neighborhood elect you to the central committee this May. Larry B. Moore, chairman Umatilla County Republicans Milton-Freewater
