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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, June 9, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JENNINE PERKINSON TIM TRAINOR Advertising Director Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Remember Ali by celebrating paciism In this year of deaths of cultural dangerous thing to do and he paid icons — David Bowie, Harper dearly for it. While never jailed, Lee, Merle Haggard and Prince — he was stripped of his title, banned perhaps no one was as universally from ighting in the United States admired as Muhammad Ali. and forbidden from leaving the Certainly Ali had the bigger impact. country. Ali’s famous quote “I ain’t He is arguably the most famous got no quarrel with the Vietcong,” human being of the last half century. helped galvanize the anti-war Ali is an American hero in the movement behind a simple truth. truest sense of the word, not only Ali was a unique paciist and for his athletic achievements but his conscientious objector. Surely no contributions to civil rights, religious one could call him a coward. He understanding, modern culture and tested himself physically, mentally human dignity. and morally as much as anyone He “invented” the on the planet. He modern black athlete took more punches The United and the modern — literally and black entertainer — iguratively — than States should he was both 60 years anyone else. Though celebrate the ago. His wordplay he was proud was as rhythmic of never having people who and charged as punched anyone saved lives by outside the ring. any modern poet. He challenged Perhaps we trying to avoid should and changed remember and end war, and memorialize sportswriting and the larger media. and men and and sometimes Ali He reinvented women like him. one of the basic succeeded at it. Dylan Matthews of tenants of pugilism. Vox wrote a column He showed that last week titled “It’s a person could live and die with time we have a holiday to honor dignity, even when suffering from those who try to stop wars, too.” a debilitating disease. He was a UN This country celebrates Memorial ambassador of peace. Day and Veterans Day, as we should. Ali was no saint, of course. His The sacriice those men and women militant wing of the civil rights gave cannot be understated and movement pushed as hard for cannot be forgotten. segregation as the Ku Klux Klan. But should we also celebrate, in His racially-tinged insults of Sonny some way, the people who saved Liston were terribly cruel. Yet he just as many lives by trying to avoid took so many great risks with his and end wars — and sometimes health and his legacy, it’s amazing succeeded at it. We could celebrate that he lived most of his life with American paciists such as Albert even one of them intact. Einstein, Pete Seeger, Martin Luther Perhaps Ali’s greatest King Jr., Helen Keller, Eugene Debs, contributions to a better world was Jeannette Rankin and Wendell Berry. his refusal to ight in Vietnam. We’d be introduced to others that In 1967, Ali was at the height of aren’t household names. Open it up his physical powers and cultural the world and you include Mahatma inluence — he was the heavyweight Ghandi, John Lennon and Leo champion of the world, he had Tolstoy. changed his name and his religion, No one is more beloved today he routinely graced the cover of than Muhammad Ali. As a country, magazines while inlaming and we should remember his remarkable enraging White America. heart, and the thing he kept closest to His refusal to enlist was a it: his deep desire for peace. 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. The #NeverTrump party desperate scenarios below the magic 270 — and the third he #NeverTrump conservatives party at 6. The election would then go who hope to recruit a third-party to the House of Representatives. candidate to challenge Donald It’s far-fetched, to say the least — Trump and Hillary Clinton have so no Republican has won Florida, Ohio, far had no luck. A number of potential and Pennsylvania since George H.W. candidates, well known and not, have Bush drafted on Ronald Reagan’s turned down the chance to run. But no popularity in 1988. But even if Trump matter who eventually takes the job, pulls it off, and also wins every other the new party will operate on a set of Byron state Romney took in 2012, what wishful-thinking scenarios in which York are the chances a relatively obscure victory depends on one improbable Comment event after another. candidate could accomplish what Perot One such scenario is the hope of could not — winning a state? Not very winning the election outright. Organizers high. insist that a third-party candidacy would not And even if all that happened and the be a frivolous exercise, and that the purpose of election went to the House of Representatives, a run would be to win. But there are more the fact is there is no chance insurmountable problems. a third-party candidate could The Constitution speciies reach the 270 electoral votes that the vote be taken by required to win the White state, with each state given House. one vote for president. So It’s a commonplace that a state with a Democratic the states that have voted majority in its House Democratic in the last six delegation would cast one presidential elections total vote for Clinton. And a state 242 electoral votes — just with a Republican majority 28 short of a Democratic would cast one vote for ... victory. Republicans have who? more than 100 electoral The Constitution says the votes in states that have House must vote for one of voted for the GOP in the last the top three candidates in six elections. At this point number of electoral votes. in the race, it is simply not That means no Paul Ryan possible that 2012 nominee or other outsider scenario. Mitt Romney, who won 206 So the president would electoral votes, or Nebraska be Clinton, Trump, or the Sen. Ben Sasse, who has never run for third-party candidate. Assuming the House is national ofice, or any lesser-known candidate still in Republican hands — remember, this would win 270 votes. It just won’t happen. would be next January, when the House that Indeed, third-party advocates concede there is elected this November takes ofice — does was never a chance. “The way this would anyone believe that Republican politicians, happen would never be to win 270,” one such acting in concert within their state delegations, advocate said in a recent conversation. “That would select the candidate with six electoral was never a plausible scenario.” votes over the candidate with 267? Knowing they would never hit the winning Some third-party advocates embrace other number, the third-party planners instead scenarios. In one, an independent candidate hoped to create a situation in which neither would draw just a point or two from Trump the Republican nor the Democratic candidate in a few closely contested states — enough would reach 270, which would send the for Trump to lose. But that, of course, would election to the House of Representatives. lead not to third-party victory but to a Hillary To call such an outcome implausible would Clinton win, which is an outcome some be generous. To keep both Hillary Clinton longtime Republican #NeverTrumpers cannot and Donald Trump below 270, a third-party publicly support. candidate would have to win at least a few Other scenarios rely on the hope that electoral votes, which means he would have to something crazy will happen. Perhaps Trump win a state. That is hard to do. Ross Perot won will implode, or a third-party candidate will 19 percent of the popular vote in 1992 and emerge on the left. After all, it’s been an zero electoral votes, because he did not win a unpredictable year. single state. Finally, some third-party advocates One hopeful scenario envisions a third- concede they have little chance of winning but party candidate winning Utah, where Trump just want a candidate for whom a conservative was trounced in the Republican primary. who can’t accept Clinton or Trump can vote in Start with the 2012 electoral map, good conscience. advocates say, in which Obama won 332 It’s still not clear whether the third-party electoral votes and Romney 206. Assume run will actually happen. Organizers have Trump wins every state Romney won. Then promised a strong organization and plenty of assume Trump wins Florida, Ohio, and money. But with only pie-in-the-sky scenarios, Pennsylvania. That would put him at 273 — and so far no candidate, hope — and victory — and Clinton at 265. But then take enthusiasm — are dwindling. away Utah, with its six electoral votes, and ■ give it to the third party candidate. That leaves Byron York is chief political correspondent Trump at 267 and Clinton at 265 — both for The Washington Examiner. T One hopeful scenario envisions a third-party candidate winning Utah, where Trump was trounced in the Republican primary. YOUR VIEWS Instead of secession, have equal rural representation In the December 31, 2015, edition of the East Oregonian there was a review of signiicant news events. The number one local news story viewed online was: “La Grande man pushing for secession to Idaho” (Sept. 24, 2015, by Jade McDowell). The East Oregonian article related to the growing discontent of those who live on the dry side due to our limited number of votes in determining the direction of our state. The problem is mathematics. We live in a state where our state representatives and senators are proportioned by population. Thus the western side of the state has the population and therefore the most number of elected representatives and senators. Our founding fathers realized the need to keep the power balanced. The Connecticut Compromise stipulated that representatives would represent a speciied number of citizens. However, the number of senators was ixed at two per state regardless of size or population of the state. This concept equalizes the large number of representatives from populous states with a ixed number of senators. My simple proposal would be to follow the federal approach. Maintain the election format for state representatives. Senators would be distributed by landmass. Oregon has a landmass of about 98,000 square miles. We presently have 30 state senators, 26 from west of the Cascades and four on the east side. In the new equation, each senator would represent about 3,000 square miles of Oregon. This proposal would just be endorsing the concept that our Founding Fathers established: to allow small populations areas to have a strong voice. This solution would be far simpler than seceding. Kristopher B. Peterson Hermiston 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 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. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.