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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, November 10, 2016 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Democracy will survive Trump Donald Trump will be the 45th Will he cut taxes for the rich? president of the United States. The possibilities are endless, A turn in the polls in the last few and because the media and voters days put the New York billionaire couldn’t nail down Trump’s positions on top of an election that caught on any of these matters, we’re all in pollsters and observers by surprise. the dark. But Trump has The nation must to do now grapple with “Let us realize doesn’t something, he? Will he a president-elect as mysterious and the arc of the build a wall along the undisciplined as our border — at moral universe is Mexican country has ever a cost of roughly $25 seen. He has no long, but it bends billion — a tab that strong bond to any all know Mexico towards justice. “ we political party, lacks is going to go concrete policies, — Martin Luther King, Jr. nowhere near. Will made campaign he raise taxes to pay promises that he can for its construction, never live up to and has a notoriously or will he just add the cost onto the short temper. He likely will lead our national debt? country for the next four years. So many questions with no apparent answers. Before we opine on just what a Trump presidency might look like, But one can be answered: How did we must take a moment to speak Democrats allow Trump to pull off the upset? for American democracy. This is a First, and most clearly, they strong, moral country with mature and entrenched democratic traditions. misunderstood just how deeply many Americans despise the Clintons. It is scary to elect an outsider And they misread the national pulse, candidate who flirts with America’s putting forward an establishment authoritarian enemies and seems to lack a basic code of decency. But this candidate after six years of total Washington gridlock and ineptitude. country is strong enough to weather Clinton’s weakest points — her it. Full stop. It might not be pretty, stance on trade, her ties to Wall but we can and will survive it. Street and her hawkishness — were So what will happen? Because Republicans held onto the open sores that left her vulnerable to Trump’s incessant pecking. And House and the Senate, Obamacare Clinton lacked the agility to pull the will disappear into the caverns rug out from under Trump at every of history — along with medical stage of the game. insurance for millions of Americans. Democrats also made gargantuan Trump will kick Merrick Garland campaign errors. Clinton never set to the curb and put forward his own foot in Wisconsin during the general nominee to the Supreme Court. campaign — a state she lost — and Trump says he will amend the their late scramble to hold onto Constitution in his first 100 days Michigan was too little, too late. in office, adding term limits to They misread the tea leaves so badly Congress. Republican-dominated they were caught gazing into their officeholders will certainly have own navels. nothing to do with that, setting up Barack Obama’s election made perhaps the first struggle between many Americans feel scared, Trump and party establishment. forgotten, confused and angry. Many Working class whites elected people who felt that way were white Trump and he must, somehow, people without college degrees, and improve their lives. Will building they voted for Trump in tremendous a wall do that? Will pulling out of numbers. The pendulum that brought NAFTA? Will rounding up and deporting undocumented immigrants Obama to power has swung back, and Donald Trump rose with it. satisfy them? Even if it doesn’t Trump’s presidency is a stumble improve the financial situation? for America, and this country What if it makes their life worse by will face serious dangers. But the increasing the cost of groceries and pendulum is always moving. Our consumer goods? nation has pushed it backward with Will Trump start a trade war with force, yet it will soon come forward China? Will he start an actual war? Will he try to overturn Roe v. Wade? at an equal speed. 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 East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and pub- lic policies for publication. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. Homeless in America I began election night writing a Trump’s obsession with “winning.” For column that started with words from him, life is always a zero-sum game: an immigrant, my friend Lesley I win, you lose. But when you’re Goldwasser, who came to America running the United States of America, from Zimbabwe in the 1980s. everything can’t be a zero-sum game. Surveying our political scene a few “The world only stays stable years ago, Lesley remarked to me: when countries are embedded in “You Americans kick around your win-win relationships, in healthy country like it’s a football. But it’s not Thomas interdependencies,” observed Dov a football. It’s a Fabergé egg. You can Friedman Seidman, the CEO of LRN, which break it.” advises companies on leadership, and Comment With Donald Trump now elected the author of the book “How.” president, I have more fear than For instance, America undertook I’ve ever had in my 63 years that we could the Marshall Plan after World War II — giving do just that — break our country, that we millions of dollars to Europe — to build it up could become so irreparably divided that our into a trading partner and into a relationship national government will not function. that turned out to be of great mutual benefit. From the moment Trump Does Trump understand that? emerged as a candidate, I’ve Do those who voted for him taken seriously the possibility understand how many of that he could win; this column their jobs depend on America never predicted otherwise, being embedded in healthy although it certainly wished interdependencies around the for it. That doesn’t mean the world? reality of it is not shocking to How do I explain Trump’s me. victory? Way too soon to say As much as I knew that it for sure, but my gut tells me was a possibility, the stark fact that it has much less to do with that a majority of Americans trade or income gaps and much wanted radical, disruptive more to do with culture and change so badly and simply did many Americans’ feeling of not care who the change agent “homelessness.” was, what sort of role model There is nothing that can he could be for our children, make people more angry or whether he really had any disoriented than feeling they ability to execute on his plan have lost their home. For — or even really had a plan to some it is because America is execute on — is profoundly disturbing. becoming a minority-majority country and Before I lay out all my fears, is there any this has threatened the sense of community of silver lining to be found in this vote? I’ve many middle-class whites, particularly those been searching for hours, and the only one living outside the more cosmopolitan urban I can find is this: I don’t think Trump was areas. truly committed to a single word or policy For others it is the dizzying whirlwind he offered during the campaign, except one of technological change we’re now caught phrase: “I want to win.” up in. It has either wiped out their job or But Donald Trump cannot be a winner transformed their workplace in ways they find unless he undergoes a radical change disorienting — or has put stressful demands in personality and politics and becomes on them for lifelong learning. When the two everything he was not in this campaign. most important things in your life are upended He has to become a healer instead of a — the workplace and community that anchor divider; a compulsive truth-teller rather you and give you identity — it’s not surprising than a compulsive liar; someone ready to that people are disoriented and reach for the study problems and make decisions based simplistic solutions touted by a would-be on evidence, not someone who just shoots strongman. from the hip; someone who tells people What I do know for certain is this: The what they need to hear, not what they want Republican Party and Donald Trump will have to hear; and someone who appreciates that control of all the levers of government, from an interdependent world can thrive only on the courts to the Congress to the White House. win-win relationships, not zero-sum ones. That is an awesome responsibility, and it is all I can only hope that he does. Because going to be on them. Do they understand that? if he doesn’t, all of you who voted for Personally, I will not wish them ill. Too him — overlooking all of his obvious flaws much is at stake for my country and my — because you wanted radical, disruptive children. Unlike the Republican Party for the change, well, you’re going to get it. last eight years, I am not going to try to make I assume that Trump will not want to go my president fail. If he fails, we all fail. So down as the worst president in history, let yes, I will hope that a better man emerges than alone the one who presided over the deepest we saw in this campaign. fracturing of our country since the Civil War. But at the moment I am in anguish, It would shake the whole world. Therefore, I frightened for my country and for our unity. can only hope that he will, as president, seek And for the first time, I feel homeless in to surround himself with the best people he America. can, which surely doesn’t include the likes ■ of Rudy Giuliani or Newt Gingrich, let alone Thomas L. Friedman won the 2002 Pulitzer the alt-right extremists who energized his Prize for commentary, his third Pulitzer for campaign. The New York Times. He became the paper’s But there is also a deeply worrying side to foreign-affairs Op-Ed columnist in 1995. There is nothing that can make people more angry or disoriented than feeling they have lost their home. Gritting our teeth and giving President Trump a chance ure, if you’re in the had been elected, Canada’s website approximately 52 percent for immigration crashed from too majority of voters who much traffic. supported someone other than It’s complicated, but let me offer a Donald Trump, go ahead and mourn. few reasons to hold off on your visa When a former Ku Klux Klan application: leader like David Duke is giddily ▪ Trump is inexperienced and celebrating a political triumph for his makes extreme statements, but values, how can we not ache for our Nicholas he’s not ideological. He used to own? Kristof be pro-choice, then suggested that Yet, like it or not, we Americans women should be punished for Comment have a new president-elect, and getting an abortion, but neither it’s time to buck up. I’ve seen past is a core view — because Trump elections that were regarded as the end of doesn’t have a core. He is an opportunist. He the world — including, in many Democratic blustered about building a wall and banning circles, the Reagan triumph of 1980 — and Muslims but won’t do either, because they the republic survived. This time as well, our are unworkable. institutions are stronger than any one man. The area where Trump would be most We are not Weimar Germany. dangerous is foreign affairs, because there he It was disgraceful that many Republicans can act largely at will, unconstrained by law. eight years ago tried to make President Yet it is perfectly possible that Trump will Barack Obama fail. That’s not the path to appoint as secretary of state an experienced emulate. Today, having lost, we owe it to our Republican like Richard Haass, with nation to grit our teeth and give President- Stephen Hadley as secretary of defense, thus elect Trump a chance. signaling that adults are in charge of foreign policy. Having said that, Trump has talked about The thought of Trump with the nuclear repealing Obamacare, deporting millions codes is terrifying, but if Trump were to give of our neighbors, instituting religious tests, a crazy order, no one knows if aides would overturning Obama’s actions on climate circumvent it. In 1974, when President change, and moving the Supreme Court Richard Nixon was drinking heavily during far to the right. How can progressives the Watergate crisis, his defense secretary, respond with anything but resistance — or emigration? As it became clear that Trump James Schlesinger, ordered the military not S to obey any presidential instruction for a nuclear attack without checking further. ▪ Democrats are too quick to caricature Trump supporters as deplorables. Sure, some are racists or misogynists, but many are good people who had voted for Obama in the past. My rural hometown, Yamhill, Oregon, is pro-Trump, and I can tell you: The voters there are not all bigoted monsters, but well-meaning people upended by economic changes such as the disappearance of good manufacturing jobs. They feel betrayed by the Democratic and Republican establishments, and finally a candidate spoke to them. Liberals condemn the stereotyping of Latinos or Muslims, but have been too quick to stereotype Trump voters. Look, ordinary Americans have not somehow lurched into bigotry, even if they have backed a man I consider a bigot. A Bloomberg poll found that if Obama had been allowed to seek a third term, he would have defeated Trump in a landslide, 53 to 41 percent. And just four years ago, the presidential election was between the African-American son of a single mom and a Mormon. ▪ Trump was absolutely right that the economic system is broken for ordinary Americans, especially working-class men. Since 1979, real hourly wages for men have essentially been unchanged for the bottom half of Americans by income. Today, we’re a country divided not only by ideology but also by identity. Whites voted for Trump by 21 percentage points; blacks for Clinton by 80 percentage points. If it had been only women voting, Clinton would have won in a landslide. (Thank God for women and people of color!) Unfortunately, Trump’s proposed policies would exacerbate the inequity that he campaigned on. And normal checks and balances will not apply, for he will be working with a Republican Senate, a Republican House and a majority Republican Supreme Court. One crucial check could be the news media — if we are up to it. I’ve been very critical this year of the role that we in the media, especially cable television, played in Trump’s rise. We need to be watchdogs, not lap dogs. The time for ranting is over, and it’s time to accept the inevitable. Trump has surprised us in many ways this year, and let’s hope and pray that he will stun us once again by repairing the tears he made in our social fabric. Let’s give him a chance — for those are our democratic values. And if he falls short, let’s hold him accountable — for the sake of those same values. ■ Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
