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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, August 10, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Neither Trump
nor Clinton offer
Plan B on TPP
Hillary Clinton and Donald
came out against the pact.
Trump has always been
Trump are running for president.
against TPP, calling it “terrible
Their expressed positions on
for America.” Though China
issues, and the positions of their
respective party platforms, are easily isn’t a party to TPP, Trump says
it gives China opportunities to
distinguishable.
get in “through the back door.”
Except for trade, where there’s
As governor of Indiana and a
not much difference between
congressman before that, Mike
Republican or Democrat standard
Pence, Trump’s running mate, has
bearers. If farmers and ranchers
long supported multi-nation trade
were to decide on this issue alone,
deals — including
they would have a
TPP. He too
hard time picking
the candidate who
Eighty percent of underwent a
best represents their
the wheat grown post-convention
conversion.
interests.
There have been
Trade is the
in the Northwest
many trade deals
lifeblood of
is bound for
over the years. Some
agriculture in
them good, some
the Northwest
Asian markets. of
of them bad. Even
and California.
Without access in the best, someone
Everything from
the United States
apples to nuts is
to those markets, in loses
as other of
dependent on trade.
producers are their countrymen
Eighty percent of
win.
the wheat grown
inished.
And it is thus
in the Northwest
with the TPP. In
is bound for Asian
granting access to
markets. Without
its market to our farmers, Vietnam
access to those markets, producers
will expect more favorable terms for
are inished.
its manufactured goods here. What
Both sides are for trade — fair
country would make a deal in which
trade. And by that they mean trade
it received nothing in exchange for
that doesn’t cheat middle class
its concessions?
Americans out of good-paying
Without TPP, what’s Plan B?
jobs. Democrats are also concerned
Both Clinton and Trump say they’ll
with foreign labor standards
reopen the negotiations on TPP and
and environmental regulation.
other pacts and get a better deal for
Republicans want our partners
America. Maybe, but those kinds
to respect American intellectual
property and stop manipulating their of negotiations take time, In the
meantime, some of our toughest
currencies.
competitors could get a toehold in
By those standards, they all say,
many previous deals have been very some of our best markets in Asia.
Supporters of TPP, including
bad. And the recently submitted
President Obama, are still pushing
Trans-Paciic Partnership — a
for a vote on the deal — perhaps
12-nation, 6,000-page behemoth
awaiting a vote in Congress — could after the election and before the
inauguration, when everyone will be
be the worst.
Clinton once called TPP the “gold protected from the voters.
That’s a little sleazy. But, better
standard” of trade deals, but last fall
to have a deal in hand for the next
after the deal was written Clinton
president to tweak than allow
said it didn’t meet her standard.
our competitors months — and
Sen. Tim Kaine, her running mate,
potentially years — to exploit
was for it as recently as a week
our lack of favored standing with
before being nominated for the vice
established customers.
president slot, when he promptly
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
Governor Brown’s union ties cloud
judgment on economic issues
The (La Grande) Observer
D
iscouraging.
That is the most apt word
to describe Gov. Kate Brown’s
announcement Thursday she supports
a ballot measure designed to tax irms
in Oregon that generate more than $25
million a year.
The initiative
is now known
collectively as IP 28
but when it reaches
the ballot for voter
consideration in
November it will be
dubbed Measure 97.
The rationale
behind Measure 97
is a simple one and
also one that casts a wide populist net.
The measure will change the current
minimum tax on C-corporations in
Oregon. The plan would levy a 2.5
percent tax on corporations that generate
sales in excess of $25 million a year.
Advocates of the proposal assert
— among a host of things — a kind of
self-styled populist rhetoric whereby
only huge, out-of-state owned irms will
be forced to pay. After all, the theory
goes, these megalithic irms are out-of-
state intruders anyway, and they don’t
pay enough to begin with. So let’s tax
them and make them pay their fair share.
Sounds like a pretty good populist
argument. The only problem with
this theory is that it fails to take into
consideration several important factors
that have nothing to do with rhetoric but
are actually based on reality.
First, supporters of the measure
contend that the money accumulated
by it will be directed toward education,
health care and senior services. Again,
that sounds pretty good. Yet, again,
that isn’t necessarily true because the
Legislature could rework the law to
spend the money somewhere else.
Unless the governor has somehow
forgotten that we live in a democracy,
what the Legislature
does or does not do is
something she has no
control over.
The very way the
tax initiative is being
sold should also be
troubling to legislators
and those who
actually believe in the
three-tiered American
system — legislative,
judicial and executive branches — as a
viable method. That’s because this tax
hike — conigured to hit big business —
isn’t going through a legislative vetting
process. It isn’t going to face debate in
the House or the Senate.
Most troubling, though, is that the
proposed tax boost most likely will
not be a hit big irms will simply shrug
off. Nope, they will either leave the
state, lay off workers or — and this is
more likely — pass the extra costs onto
consumers. That is, you and me. Plus,
in an economically struggling area such
as Eastern Oregon, such a measure will
simply be one more reason for a large
corporation to go somewhere else.
Brown made a bad judgment on
this one. It is a discouraging move and
unfortunately shows that the governor
may regard her ties to public unions as
more important than the future economic
health of the state.
The way the tax
initiative is being
sold should be
troubling to
legislators.
OTHER VIEWS
The great afluence fallacy
I
suffer depression by as much as
n 18th-century America, colonial
eight times the rate as people in poor
society and Native American
countries.
society sat side by side. The former
There might be a Great Afluence
was buddingly commercial; the latter
Fallacy going on — we want privacy
was communal and tribal. As time
in individual instances, but often this
went by, the settlers from Europe
makes life generally worse.
noticed something: No Indians were
Every generation faces the
defecting to join colonial society, but
many whites were defecting to live in
challenge of how to reconcile freedom
David
the Native American one.
Brooks and community — “On the Road”
This struck them as strange.
versus “It’s a Wonderful Life.” But
Comment
Colonial society was richer and more
I’m not sure any generation has faced
advanced. And yet people were voting
it as acutely as millennials.
with their feet the other way.
In the great American tradition, millennials
The colonials occasionally tried to
would like to have their cake and eat it, too. A
welcome Native American children into their
few years ago, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
midst, but they couldn’t persuade them to stay. came out with a song called “Can’t Hold Us,”
Benjamin Franklin observed the phenomenon
which contained the couplet: “We came here
in 1753, writing, “When an Indian child has
to live life like nobody was watching/I got
been brought up among us,
my city right behind me, if
taught our language and
I fall, they got me.” In the
habituated to our customs,
irst line they want complete
yet if he goes to see his
autonomy; in the second,
relations and make one
complete community.
Indian ramble with them,
But, of course, you
there is no persuading him
can’t really have both in
ever to return.”
pure form. If millennials
During the wars with the
are heading anywhere, it
Indians, many European
seems to be in the direction
settlers were taken prisoner
of community. Politically,
and held within Indian
millennials have been drawn
tribes. After a while, they
to the class solidarity of the
had plenty of chances to
Bernie Sanders campaign.
escape and return, and yet
Hillary Clinton — secretive
they did not. In fact, when
and a wall-builder — is the
they were “rescued,” they
quintessence of boomer
led and hid from their rescuers.
autonomy. She has trouble with younger
Sometimes the Indians tried to forcibly
voters.
return the colonials in a prisoner swap, and
Professionally, millennials are famous for
still the colonials refused to go. In one case,
bringing their whole self to work: turning the
the Shawanese Indians were compelled to
ofice into a source of friendships, meaning
tie up some European women in order to
and social occasions.
ship them back. After they were returned, the
I’m meeting more millennials who embrace
women escaped the colonial towns and ran
the mentality expressed in the book “The
back to the Indians.
Abundant Community,” by John McKnight
Even as late as 1782, the pattern was still
and Peter Block. The authors are notably
going strong. Hector de Crèvecoeur wrote,
hostile to consumerism.
“Thousands of Europeans are Indians, and
They are anti-institutional and anti-systems.
we have no examples of even one of those
“Our institutions can offer only service
aborigines having from choice become
— not care — for care is the freely given
European.”
commitment from the heart of one to another,”
I irst read about this history several months they write.
ago in Sebastian Junger’s excellent book
Millennials are oriented around
“Tribe.” It has haunted me since. It raises the
neighborhood hospitality, rather than national
possibility that our culture is built on some
identity or the borderless digital world. “A
fundamental error about what makes people
neighborhood is the place where you live and
happy and fulilled.
sleep.” How many of your physical neighbors
The native cultures were more communal.
know your name?
As Junger writes, “They would have practiced
Maybe we’re on the cusp of some great
extremely close and involved child care. And
cracking. Instead of just paying lip service to
they would have done almost everything in the community while living for autonomy, I get
company of others. They would have almost
the sense a lot of people are actually about
never been alone.”
to make the break and immerse themselves
If Colonial culture was relatively atomized, in demanding local community movements.
imagine American culture of today. As we’ve
It wouldn’t surprise me if the big change in
gotten richer, we’ve used wealth to buy
the coming decades were this: an end to the
space: bigger homes, bigger yards, separate
apotheosis of freedom; more people making
bedrooms, private cars, autonomous lifestyles. the modern equivalent of the Native American
Each individual choice makes sense, but the
leap.
overall atomizing trajectory sometimes seems
■
to backire. According to the World Health
David Brooks became a New York Times
Organization, people in wealthy countries
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003.
No Indians were
defecting to join
colonial society,
but many
whites were
defecting to live
in the Native
American one.
YOUR VIEWS
EOTEC project should be
praised, not criticized
In its Saturday editorial, the East
Oregonian editors lament this will be the
last Umatilla County Fair held at the old
fairgrounds in the middle of Hermiston.
Although acknowledging the fair is too big
for its downtown location, the editors then
excoriate EOTEC for “mismanagement,
missed deadlines and cost overruns.”
As usual, the EO editors sadly miss the
mark. Rather than damning EOTEC, they
should praise it, Umatilla County and the city
of Hermiston for their vision, guts and hard
work to provide a new home for the fair and
rodeo and a new events center. While there
have been delays and money shortages, that is
to be expected with a project of this scope and
complexity. They are going where no one has
gone before. It’s dificult and there are no road
maps.
To build the facility, EOTEC has
assembled $16 million for the build — largely
state and federal money and private donations.
In fact they raised almost $2 million in private
money in the four months immediately after a
long East Oregonian editorial dissing EOTEC
and ridiculed its fundraising effort as begging
for charity. Apparently no one heeded the
editorial.
The editors conveniently overlook the
county study that found it would have
taken $8 million of basic infrastructure
improvements to keep the fair at its present
location — money the county did not have
and that, if expended, would have still left
us with decrepit, unsafe and code-violating
buildings, no parking and no room.
And if you question the need for
improvements to the existing fair
infrastructure, you should go to the
fairgrounds early in the morning this week.
Each day a sewage pumper truck arrives to
pump the sewage lines under the fairgrounds.
They don’t drain.
While we will all miss the old fairgrounds
and the memories, its time has passed, and
we are fortunate for the vision and work of
the EOTEC board, Umatilla County and the
city of Hermiston to move the fair and build
EOTEC.
Shame on the East Oregonian editors for
not once acknowledging or praising these
visionaries or their efforts. Not once in six
years.
George Anderson
Hermiston
LETTERS POLICY
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right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or
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211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.