Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, June 18, 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 Trump will make GOP unrecognizable This is the era of disruptive — three wives and two divorces — technologies. which you think may have scared Uber is one for the taxi industry, off evangelical voters who make Airbnb for hoteliers, the internet for up such a powerful segment of the newspapers. GOP. You might Such Trump’s Over the course think technologies use inability to name a innovation to of his campaign, single Bible verse create an entirely would be held Trump has new market with against him by an entirely new voters, but it’s not dismantled value. The rules of so. numerous the game must be Just this week quickly rewritten he attacked another supposed and long-entrenched sacred cow within powers are thrown the GOP coalition: cornerstone scrambling to the the National Rile beliefs of the bottom of the heap. Association. Trump Donald Trump Republican Party. said he would approach the NRA is such a disruptive about a law that technology for the would ban people on the terrorist Republican Party. The GOP will be watch list from buying guns. It’s a unrecognizable once he is through with it, whether that is in November great idea — something more than 90 percent of Americans agree with or two presidential terms down the — but because of NRA power and road. threats such a bill has not been able Over the course of his campaign, to pass the Senate. Trump has dismantled numerous Trump’s naiveté and his ego have supposed cornerstone beliefs of the allowed him to bust down doors Republican party, sometimes for no one thought any GOP candidate good and sometimes in a way that could get away with. will do longterm damage to the He has leveled blistering attacks GOP. on Fox News and popular anchor Here are a few examples: Megyn Kelly. Republicans are known for their He has been notably ickle on unwavering support of the American matters of policy, and his anti-free military, but Trump’s plethora of trade platform is at odds with potshots haven’t spared American Republican orthodoxy that promotes soldiers. industry-led policies. “He’s not a war hero,” he And don’t get us started on famously sneered about John McCain, a man who suffered gravely immigration. Party leaders like Paul Ryan have threatened to sue Trump in the name of the United States over his immigration bans and after being captured and tortured in forced deportations. And no one in a North Vietnamese prison cell for either party takes Trump’s idea to more than ive years. And last week he accused soldiers build a wall and make Mexico pay for it seriously. of graft and corruption: “Iraq, He has ripped apart Obamacare at crooked as hell. How about bringing every turn, but also spoke in support baskets of money — millions and millions of dollars — and handing it of making sure the government didn’t let people “die on the streets.” out ... I want to know who were the Trump’s success is inexplicable soldiers that had that job, because I on one hand, but quite simple on the think they’re living very well right other. now, whoever they may be.” He is a reminder that the He also has plans to privatize boogeymen that have been veterans’ care and was caught propping up the Republican Party lying about his inancial support for generations have become for veterans’ charities, only outdated. A majority of Americans cutting the check months after he are no longer fearful about gays or promised he would and after being marijuana or Communist health care. repeatedly questioned about it by Trump has created new The Washington Post. He also said boogeymen — mostly racially he would order American service focused — that have had success in members to kill the families of congealing a sizable contingent of ISIS members, something that Republicans around him. But he’s would make them immediate war certainly polling in the mid 30s, a criminals. He has also excoriated George W. Bush and his wars in Iraq disastrous number, and if he fails in the November election or even fails and Afghanistan. Another example: Perhaps one of to make it that far, Republicans will the thickest planks in the Republican have a dificult task of rebuilding the Grand Old Party. platform in recent decades has been Yet all his wild disruptions have opposing abortion. yanked a few rotten planks from And despite being pro-choice for much of his life, Trump now says no the Republican platform. There is a chance it is rebuilt as a more modern one is as anti-abortion as he is. party, released from the shackles of Yet he went out of his way to a few bad stances. But there is also support Planned Parenthood when the risk that it is reborn as a mutant the organization was under routine mess of dangerously far-right, attack during Republican primary anti-immigration, isolationist insult debates. “You can say whatever you want, comics. Trump will not leave anything as but they have millions of women he found it. That may be beneicial going through Planned Parenthood in the Republican primary, but it’s that are helped greatly,” he said. more than a little nerve-wracking to It caused millions of heads to think he could recast what it means spin, but it didn’t cause his poll to be president of the most powerful numbers to dip. county on Earth. Neither did his background 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 Religion’s wicked neighbor B dominion, and religion’s wicked arack Obama is clearly wrong intellectual partner, the spirit of when he refuses to use the word dogmatic dominion, the passion for “Islam” in reference to Islamist laying down the law.” terrorism. The people who commit In other words, there is the spirit of these acts are inlamed by a version of an Islamist ideology. They claim religion and, frequently accompanying an Islamist identity. They swear fealty it, its wicked neighbors, the spirit of to organizations like ISIS that govern political and intellectual dominion. themselves according to certain It seems blindingly obvious to David interpretations of the Quran. Brooks say, but the spirit of religion begins As Peter Bergen writes in his with a sense that God exists. God is Comment book “The United States of Jihad,” the primary reality, and out of that “Assertions that Islamist terrorism has lows a set of values and experiences: nothing to do with Islam are as nonsensical prayer, praise, charity, contrition, grace and as claims that the Crusades had nothing to do the desire to grow closer toward holiness. with Christian beliefs about the sanctity of Sincere faith begins with humility in relation Jerusalem.” to the Almighty and a sense On the other hand, of being strengthened by his Donald Trump is ininite love. abhorrently wrong in In some sense the phrase implying that these attacks “Islamic radicalism” is are central to Islam. His wrong because terrorism is attempt to ban Muslim not a radical extension of immigration is an act of this kind of faith. People bigotry (applying the sins of don’t start out with this the few to the whole group), kind of faith and then turn which is sure to incite more into terrorists because they terrorism. His implication became more faithful. that we are in a clash of The spirit of dominion, civilizations is an insult to on the other hand, does not those Muslims who have start with an awareness of risked and lost their lives in God. It starts with a sense the ight against ISIS and the Taliban. of injury and a desire to heal injury through The problem is that these two wrongs revenge and domination. are feeding off each other. Obama is using For the terrorist, a sense of humiliation is language to engineer a reaction rather than the primary reality. Terrorism emerges from to tell the truth, which is the deinition of a psychic state, not a spiritual one. This turns propaganda. Most world leaders talk about into a grievance, the belief that some external Islamist terror, but Obama apparently thinks enemy is the cause of this injury, rather than that if he uses the phrase “Islamic radicalism” some internal weakness. the rest of us will be too dim to be able to This then leads to what forensic distinguish between the terrorists and the psychologist Reid Meloy calls “vicarious millions of good-hearted Muslims who want identiication” — the moral outrage that only to live in fellowship and peace. comes from the belief that my victimization Worst of all, his decision to dance is connected to the larger victimization of my around an unpleasant reality is part of the group. enveloping cloud of political correctness that It’s only at this point in the pathway drives people to Donald Trump. Millions of that religion enters the picture, or rather an Americans feel they can’t say what they think, absolutist, all-explaining political ideology or even entertain views outside the boundaries that is the weed that grows up next to religion. laid down by elites, and so are drawn to the Bin Ladinism explains all of history and guy who rails against taboos and says what he gives the injured a course of action that will believes. make them feel grandiose and heroic. It is the The fact is that 15 years after 9/11 we still human impulse for dominance and revenge haven’t arrived at a true understanding of our that borrows righteous garb. enemy. How much is religion involved in For the religious person it’s about God. For jihadism, or psychology, or politics? the terrorist, it’s about himself. When Omar And the core of our confusion is that we Mateen was in the midst of his rampage, he are unclear about what a religion is, and how it was posting on Facebook and calling a TV might relate to violence sometimes carried out station. His audience was us, not the Divine. in its name. Omar Mateen wanted us to think he was For clarity on that question, it helps to martyring himself in the name of holiness. He start with William James’ classic work, “The was actually a sad loser obliterating himself Varieties of Religious Experience.” In that for the sake of revenge. book, James distinguishes between various ■ religious experiences and “religion’s wicked David Brooks became a New York Times practical partner, the spirit of corporate Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. The fact is that 15 years after 9/11 we still haven’t arrived at a true understanding of our enemy. 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.
