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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, September 16, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN DANIEL WATTENBURGER Publisher Managing Editor JANNA HEIMGARTNER TIM TRAINOR Business Ofice Manager Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Tip of the hat; kick in the pants A tip of the hat to the remarkable network of volunteers who have made the Round-Up work each and every year for more than a century. It’s kind of incredible when you think about it. For generations, individuals and families have given hours and hours and hours to the cause, with little remuneration other than the knowledge that they are helping thousands of people learn Pendleton is a great place to be. Both Happy Canyon and Round-Up directors spend every waking hour on their feet this week. And they’ve sacriiced their time at countless meetings and work parties all year long. Volunteers have painted signs, mopped loors, done complicated electrical work and driven clear across the West to promote Pendleton. Members of service clubs are spending a few hours — during the most exciting time to be in Pendleton — cooking burgers or pouring beers. Pendleton teachers, gifted with a week off school, are spending long days serving hot dogs and raising money for the school’s sports teams and extracurricular clubs. Generations of families have perfected the same parts in a night variety show that goes as far back as they can trace their bloodlines. Pendleton residents buy tickets, open their homes to countless friends and relatives, and sing and dance and whoop and holler — all in the name of a good time. They are the reason we have a hat to tip in the irst place. Yet we must administer a harsh kick in the pants to the Main Street Cowboys for allowing blatant racist garbage to be sold downtown, sullying the reputation of their organization, the city of Pendleton and the Round-Up. The vendor is selling plenty of radical political items, including versions of the Confederate lag. And for those who lack all subtlety, there are Confederate lags for sale with “redneck” emblazoned on them — as if you didn’t already know. After multiple complaints, the Main Street Cowboys doubled down on the nastiness and division, festooning one of their golf carts with the merchandise and driving it up and down the street. That lag, irst lown in 1861 by the Confederate army during war against the United States, is a mockery of what this country stands for. It is part of our nation’s history, as are Klu Klux Klan hoods, the Dawes Act and signs declaring “Whites Only.” None of which should be celebrated in front of a children’s museum, in sight of music and magic shows geared to families. But it’s not just anti-American, racist memorabilia on display. The booth also has all kinds of politically motivated lags — but none in support of Black Lives Matter. That’s because the owners of the shop said “only black people destroy their own neighborhoods” and compared the organization to the Islamic State. There’s nothing illegal about selling the lags and the couple has every right to display and hawk them online and in their store. But Pendleton and the Main Street Cowboys have every right — and the obligation — to say they aren’t appropriate at a free, supposedly family-friendly festival. You’d think the Round-Up and the city of Pendleton would have something to say about it, since the presence of the high-lying symbol of hate relects poorly on them, too. The Main Street Cowboys are old white men who have seen their numbers decline precipitously in recent years. Where the Round-Up and Happy Canyon have adapted and re-energized, expanding the Pendleton experience, the Cowboys have failed. “We’re dying off and there’s nobody to replace us,” member Paul Gadaire told this newspaper last year. There’s little wonder why. 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 How Trump can win L often lead it, and when he does, his ike a star-crossed baseball team leads are in roughly the same territory trying to close out a pennant, as the four-way scenario just sketched Hillary Clinton holds an above: Trump 44, Clinton 43; Trump advantage in the race for president 45, Clinton 42 ... that feels real yet not at all reassuring Which points to the third key to a — for her partisans or for Trump Trump victory: He needs Clinton’s fearers worldwide. “She just has to potential support to be depressed, hang on” seems like the dominant which means he needs outside events emotion among her backers, and Ross for that matter among her staff, who Douthat to raise constant doubts about her leadership, and beyond that about handled her ground zero meltdown Comment the entire political establishment like a front ofice desperately trying that she embodies. Earlier this year I to minimize the seriousness of a star pitcher’s injury. “Just a bruise ... OK, a muscle called Trump’s ideal event a “gray swan,” as pull ... we just took him out as a precautionary opposed to a black one — meaning that he wants a constant drippage of stuff that makes measure ... he’ll make his next start ... OK, ine, he’s on the disabled list.” both Clinton and the larger elite seem clueless, Unlike the 1978 Red Sox or the 1951 feckless or corrupt, but not the kind of huge Dodgers, Clinton is still a crisis that would change the good bet to hang on. basic shape of the campaign But last month, amid or make him seem like an the Khan affair, it seemed untenable risk. as if Trump might simply The weeks before the plunge permanently into Republican convention McGovern-Goldwater were illed with gray territory, leaving the actual swans — terror attacks in election as a mere formality. Europe, cop killings here at Instead he has stayed alive, home, FBI Director James closing back to within a few Comey’s rebuke of the points in the polling average. Democratic nominee — and His odds are still poor, in the most plausible not surprisingly they were weeks when Trump scenarios he loses — but he still has a path, sometimes led the polls (by, again, 44-43 or and here’s what he needs to walk it. 43-42). First, Trump wants this to stay a four-way There have been fewer such events since, race. In national polling, his ceiling is close but Clinton’s hidden-then-acknowledged to Hillary’s loor — he peaks in the low 40s, pneumonia is a perfect example of what she peaks close to 50 percent. This suggests Trump needs. It’s not a black swan, not that there are more true #NeverTrump than a devastating illness that would force the #NeverHillary voters, and that a section of Democrats to turn to the more electable voters (especially millennials) have rejected Joe Biden. Instead, it just feeds into two him pre-emptively but are still considering of Trump’s narratives: alpha-male power non-Clinton options. In which case not only versus actual physical weakness (people with Jill Stein but also probably Gary Johnson are pneumonia are even more low-energy than Jeb likely to take more votes from Clinton than Bush, after all), and bold outsider truth-telling from Trump. versus relexive elite cover-up. If they drop — as third party candidates We’ll see how the national polls look when tend to do — toward statistical insigniicance, the pneumonia incident is baked in. But I then Trump will need to win over a lot of wouldn’t be shocked to see a few tied at, say, undecideds who plainly don’t want to vote 43-43. for him. But this is a weird year, and they Now let me turn the screw a little further. may not drop. If Johnson can equal John The Electoral College is an unusual system, Anderson in 1980 and Stein can equal Ralph and Trump is an unusual candidate. He’s likely Nader’s fateful 2000 run (and they’re polling to underperform among normal Republicans at roughly those levels today), then you can in many red states, where the white working imagine a inal line like Trump 44, Clinton class is already very Republican, by losing 43.5, Johnson 7, Stein 3 — the stuff of white suburban professionals who voted Democratic nightmares, but for the Trump for John McCain and Mitt Romney. But he campaign a still possible dream. might overperform in Rust Belt states where Second, Trump needs to turn out a lot of the white working class is still a residually people (working-class whites, in particular) liberal swing vote, and where there are a lot who rarely or almost never vote. In the of disaffected independents who sat out 2012. primary campaign, Trump didn’t usually (That’s probably how you can have state polls outperform his polls, and there was little showing strikingly close races in Republican evidence of “Shy Trumpers” telling pollsters strongholds like Georgia and Arizona, even they were for Rubio or Cruz and then pulling though Trump is quite competitive in swing the lever for Trump in secret. states like Ohio.) But pollsters can never be certain about the This unusual combination — composition of the electorate, and a November underperforming but still probably winning election throws up fewer obstacles to the Republican states, possibly overperforming casual voter than a primary campaign. (No in purple states — suggests a true black swan caucusing, no party-registration requirements, endgame: Not Trump 44, Clinton 43, but everybody knows when Election Day is, Clinton 45, Trump 43 ... except that Trump, etc.) Past celebrity candidates like Jesse with his Rust Belt strength, loses a lot of Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger probably reliable deep-red votes he doesn’t need and beneited from disaffected, usually apolitical turns out just enough nonvoters in a few key voters’ coming out for them, and there’s no swing states to take the Electoral College, reason to assume it couldn’t happen to some 270-268. extent for Trump. No, it’s not likely. No, don’t freak out. Here it’s noteworthy that the best poll for But for this race to end with a huge Electoral Trump in this cycle, the USC Dornsife/Los College crisis is the kind of outcome Angeles Times daily tracking poll, includes everything that’s happened in 2016 almost — a larger sample of people who didn’t cast a almost — leads one to expect. ballot in 2012 but plan to vote in 2016 — and ■ Trump is cleaning up with them. He’s not Ross Douthat joined The New York Times cleaning up in the poll as a whole, but he does as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. Trump needs to turn out a lot of people who rarely or almost never vote. YOUR VIEWS Confederate lag is a symbol of hate and oppression 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 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. Someone is displaying Confederate lags on Pendleton’s Main Street. Does this matter? Slavery is America’s original sin, and the treatment of other minority groups by this country has been equally atrocious. The Confederate lag is a potent symbol of this history, as well as white supremacy and advocacy for suppression — and worse — of all minorities. So now it is Round-Up week, a time we celebrate for hospitality, inclusiveness and community. And yet when we walk on Main Street we are compelled to see this deeply offensive symbol of hate. So yes, this display of hate does matter, a great deal. The vendors have cited their right of free speech to support their display and sale of Confederate lags. And they are, of course, correct. But this is the right answer to the wrong question. The vendor’s hosts — in this case the city of Pendleton and the nonpartisan and nonproit Main Street Cowboys -— have a responsibility to assure that their vendors do not intimidate the citizens and guests of this ine community. So because I don’t support hate, I will not buy a lag. And because I care about Pendleton and our guests, I respectfully request that the Main Street Cowboys consider having their vendor take down their display of this hateful symbol. The ‘Greatest Free Show in the West’ is better that the Confederate lag and should not facilitate its display on Main Street. Andrew Picken Pendleton
