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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, March 24, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Response
to tragedy
Tragedies are coming at us too
tragedy of this kind, are resigned to
fast to keep track.
evil in the world and reminded that
Brussels. Paris. Ankara,
it’s up to them to defend themselves
twice. San Bernardino. Umpqua
and their family.
Community College. Newtown.
But when the tragedy is
Downtown Manhattan.
international terrorism instead of the
We all have a human response to
domestic kind, the script Àips.
such events: Anger. Fear. Sadness.
Conservatives are more likely
Confusion. A steely resolve to not be to stare in disbelief and want quick
intimidated by violence.
action. They want drones in the sky.
But even in times of tragedy,
They want boots on the ground.
we slip too quickly into political
They refuse to live in a world where
pitfalls that divide us. It pigeonholes someone can blow themselves up
our thinking and keeps us from the
and kill innocent people and our
well-rounded response required
government’s response is not swift
to confront a serious, complex
and powerful.
problem.
In this situation, liberals are
There’s nothing wrong with that
more likely to take the deep breath.
kind of response.
They blame the
After all, we feel
murderous, hateful
what we feel,
perpetrators most
The response
believe what we
all. But they see
of liberals and of
those people as
believe, and we see
the rare outlier, a
the world as we
conservatives
subset in a world of
see the world. But
is flipped if
mostly law-abiding,
it’s disappointing
people.
that political
the tragedy is peaceful
differences impede
They worry
so quickly on real
perpetrated by about prejudicial
against
human emotion
a lone gunman, response
and empathy, even
a race, a religion
before the smoke has or by a network or a region. They
also see a wide
cleared and blood
of terrorists.
has dried.
web of underlying
For this
issues at play:
countries where
experiment, we’ll
use the catch-all phrases “liberal”
totalitarianism reigns and education
and “conservative,” although neither is verboten, as well as a western
culture more willing to bomb than
are perfect descriptors.
But take, for instance, the
build. They preach patience and
common response to a school
peace, and try to rein in the kind of
government-led warfare that they
shooting.
Liberals are more likely to
believe contributes to this hatred and
enemy-making.
respond with absolute disbelief that
Both responses in both situations
we live in a world where this kind
have value. So why can’t we
of thing can happen. They want the
incorporate parts of each of them?
president to sign a law the next day,
It’s clear that evil does exist in
instituting tighter gun control or
increased mental health funding and the world, and combating it requires
a multi-pronged approach. It’s sad
facilities.
Conservatives, on the other hand, that in the wake of a massacre here
in America we cannot even consider
try to take a deep breath. They
policy improvements. And it’s just
believe that laws are not going
as sad that in the case of terrorism
to stop every psychopath in this
world. They understand the inherent we cannot honestly confront the
problem of Muslim extremism when
inability to stop every bad deed and
that is the culprit.
murderous thought. They blame the
These problems — violence and
perpetrator ¿rst and foremost, but
also point to underlying issues like a war and mental instability and a
lack of mental health and the decline desire to destroy and earn celebrity
and immortality — are complex and
of societal mores. They certainly
ingrained. In order to confront them,
don’t think gun laws will make any
multiple avenues must be explored.
difference.
And multiple outlooks on
“Stuff happens,” Jeb Bush said
the world can be bene¿cial, not
about the shooting at Umpqua
detrimental, to creating solutions
Community College where nine
people died. It was a heartless and
that make do make progress,
insensitive answer, but it is a clear
however slight. It’s easy to shrug our
descriptor of one kind of response.
shoulders and say “stuff happens,”
Conservatives, in the face of a
but it does no good.
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
Explaining Rubio’s defeat
M
IAMI — One of Marco
campaign was on the skids, his
Rubio’s informal circle of
audience dwindled to paid staff and
advisers was nervously
blood relatives. The Rubio crowd
looking at his iPhone early Tuesday
wasn’t that different.
evening at Rubio’s “Florida primary
Anybody there, including Rubio
night celebration” at Florida
himself, might well have thought back
International University. “The exit
to the sky-high hopes after his well-
polls look brutal,” he told me.
received campaign launch at Miami’s
He pointed to a question that asked
Freedom Tower last April and ask:
Byron
Florida voters how they felt about the
What happened?
York
federal government — enthusiastic,
But people weren’t really in the
Comment
satis¿ed, dissatis¿ed, or angry?
mood for analysis. Several mentioned
Forty-¿ve percent of the voters said
the brief phase of Rubio’s campaign
they were dissatis¿ed, while another 40
in which he turned into an insult comic
percent said they were angry.
targeting Trump. Everybody
How could the sitting senator
was disappointed in that. Or
from Florida — the highest-
maybe it was the zillions of
ranking federal of¿cial in his
dollars in negative ads dropped
state — survive at the polls
on his head by his so-called
when 85 percent of his voters
friend Jeb Bush. But on a sad
are dissatis¿ed or angry with
night, nobody wanted to dig
the federal government he
too deeply.
represents?
Many were more likely to
He didn’t. Donald Trump
blame the voters — they’re
beat Rubio 41 to 34 among
just too angry — than Rubio.
voters dissatis¿ed with the
Indeed, that might become
federal government and 58 to
the accepted pro-Rubio
17 among voters angry with
explanation of his loss; the
the government. Rubio won
country, in the middle of a
50 to 25 among those satis¿ed
temper tantrum, just wasn’t in
with the federal government,
the mood for a fellow as sunny
but that was only 11 percent of
as Marco Rubio.
the electorate. (The 2 percent
Certainly they didn’t blame
who said they were enthusiastic
Rubio for his disastrous
about the federal government
foray into comprehensive
was too small to divide
immigration reform. But the
between the candidates.)
fact is, the Gang of Eight tarred
Nevertheless, at 6 p.m.,
nearly everything Rubio did
Team Rubio was still looking
afterward. First, much of the
for a way to stay in the race. What if he lost by Republican base disapproved of the bill’s
single digits, maybe 5 to 9 percentage points?
basic provisions.
If that happened, and John Kasich pulled out
Second, Rubio’s tortured efforts to distance
Ohio, then maybe Rubio could stay in as part
himself from his own work looked like a
of the general #NeverTrump effort.
massive Àip-Àop.
After all, Rubio had been saying for a
Third, many Republicans suspected Rubio
couple of days that he would go on to Utah
of doing Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer’s
Wednesday, win or lose. He would campaign
bidding, which is about the worst thing that
in the next primary state, and then do some
can happen to a GOP senator.
fundraising in California, and then on and
Fourth, Rubio’s defense of the bill
on. Of course, he had to say that. But when
sometimes boiled down to accusing rival
the votes actually came in Tuesday night,
candidates of being as bad as he was, which
the results were as brutal as the exit polls.
wasn’t much of a defense.
Trump won with 45.8 percent to Rubio’s 27.0
And ¿fth, on the issue front, especially
percent — almost exactly the margin the polls on economic policy, some voters who were
had predicted going into the primary.
especially concerned about jobs saw Rubio as
A discussion was held. Rubio made the
an advocate for bringing more foreign workers
only decision he could, and by 8:15 p.m. he
to the U.S. at the expense of Americans
was at the podium, his family by his side,
already here. It was the problem that kept on
announcing that his campaign was over.
giving.
“While it is not God’s plan that I be president
In the end, Rubio told the crowd that he
in 2016, or maybe ever,” Rubio told a deeply
lost because he ran a hopeful and optimistic
disappointed crowd, “and while today my
campaign in a year in which angry, pessimistic
campaign is suspended, the fact that I’ve
voters just weren’t interested in hope and
even come this far is evidence of how special
optimism.
America truly is, and all the reason more
Rubio is 44 years old. In the past, the
why we must do all we can to ensure that this
Republican Party has been kind to losing
nation remains a special place.”
candidates who give running for president a
The Rubio campaign picked a small venue
second try. And Rubio has plenty of time to
for such an important event. It was at the FIU
give it another go. As I was leaving the FIU
Arena, a basketball facility that seats 5,000.
Arena, a man I had brieÀy chatted with earlier
But it was held in the rather narrow atrium
tapped me on the arm. He motioned to the big
outside the arena itself. The space couldn’t
Rubio campaign bus and said simply,
accommodate a very large crowd, but the
“He’ll be back.”
crowd wasn’t very large. It was not, after all,
Ŷ
an event for a general audience. John McCain
Byron York is chief political correspondent
used to joke that when his presidential
for The Washington Examiner.
Rubio told the
crowd he lost
because he
ran a hopeful
and optimistic
campaign
in a year in
which angry,
pessimistic
voters just
weren’t
interested.
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. Senators
Governor
Ron Wyden
Kate Brown
Washington office:
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office:
541-962-7691
Senator
Jeff Merkley
Bill Hansell, District 29
Washington office:
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office:
541-278-1129
U.S. Representative
Greg Walden
Washington office:
185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office:
541-624-2400
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
900 Court St. NE, S-423
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us
Representatives
Greg Barreto, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-38
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.GregBarreto@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
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 and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send
letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.