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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
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
In defense of the
Electoral College
For the second time in the last five many disparate Americans. It does
presidential elections, the candidate
make things unfair — swing state
who won the most votes will not win voters get more attention and more
the election.
helpful policies. It also means that
This has turned the Electoral
rural and suburban voters have a
College — the mechanism by
larger voice, when compared to
the packed population centers of
which this country chooses its
leader — into the punching bag of
the coast. But it also means that
the moment. It appears especially
fly-over states have their say and that
detrimental to democracy right
geographically limited majorities
now, after it enabled
cannot dominate the
a candidate widely
country at large.
As the
agreed to be unqualified
President-elect
for the job to land
Trump is a proponent
Founders
it. Acting on that
of the current system.
intended,
feeling Tuesday, U.S.
He tweeted Tuesday:
Senator Barbara Boxer
“The Electoral College
the
Electoral
is actually genius
(D-Calif.) filed a long
College
in that it brings all
shot bill to abolish
including the
the college and have
remains a states,
smaller ones, into play.
elections decided solely
great evener. Campaigning is much
by a popular vote.
different!”
We’re taking a step
That’s what he thinks
back and the long
right now, because the college was
view. Despite the results of 2016,
vital to his victory. Trump had a
we remain in favor of the Electoral
College and think it is an appropriate completely opposite opinion just
four years ago after Barack Obama’s
way to choose the nation’s leader.
First, a quick history lesson: Laid win. Trump tweeted: “The electoral
college is a disaster for democracy.”
out in Article II of the Constitution,
That flip-flop only goes to show
our means of electing a president
that our president-elect is a man
(not called the Electoral College
without core beliefs or ideals. The
until roughly a century later) was
only principle he espouses is that
designed by the Founding Fathers.
what is good for Trump is good and
It mixed the power of electing
what is bad for Trump is bad.
a president between states and
For those of us with a more
individual voters.
nuanced and less self-centered view
Back in 1787, the country was
of our democracy, we see the pros
dealing with that whole slavery
and cons of our election process. It’s
thing. The South had lots of people
not perfect. Republicans in Eastern
living there, but many of them were
not citizens and not allowed to vote. Oregon have every right to dislike
the system. In a solidly blue state,
That means more individual ballots
your presidential vote has been
could be cast in the Northeast,
entirely meaningless for decades,
overwhelming what those in the
South wanted. The Electoral College and likely will be for the foreseeable
future. Knowing your vote will
was a compromise — individual
votes mattered, but those votes were have no impact on the election is
slotted by state. The system roughly no way to increase turnout and your
investment in democracy.
evened out the electoral power
But on the whole, the college
between regions.
is a way to balance the needs
It does much the same today,
of the entire country, avoid an
though thankfully the scourge of
overwhelming and ensconced
slavery is long overturned.
political majority and make our
The system requires that a man
or woman convince a wide swath of elections legitimately competitive.
The Electoral College remains, just
this country of their fitness for the
as the Founders intended, a great
job, to campaign in out-of-the-way
evener. No person or party has an
places and to listen and be aware
inherent advantage.
of the issues, needs and beliefs of
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
Racism has no place in Oregon
The (Coos Bay) World
S
eems it is the sad nature of human
beings that hate and suspicion find
rich fuel to burn, while embers of
siblinghood starve for lack of oxygen.
A spark of hate ignited last week on
our own school grounds: taunts that
come only from the naïve cruelty of
children.
“Go back to Mexico!” students at
North Bend Middle School shouted
at their darker-skinned schoolmate.
This came a day after a historic
American election gave us a president
who campaigned, in part, on stricter
immigration policies.
The story that we published on our
website brought forth an explosion of
reaction on social media, both from
families who’ve suffered similar
experiences and from others who still
don’t understand what the problem is.
For those who don’t understand,
here’s the problem: It’s sad to see that
tiny spark quickly ignite into a raging
inferno of grief-filled emotion — hatred
for others unlike ourselves, anguish
about the future for ourselves and our
loved ones, suspicion of individuals
based on, well, just plain fear.
Yes, fiery rhetoric suggesting such
sentiments was spewed during the
campaign. That’s hardball politics. But
is this what we believe is a reality that
rational adults should teach to their
children?
No, it isn’t. It needs to stop — now!
Parents, we’re not going to tell you
how to raise your kids or what values to
teach them. What we will say is that if
those values involve bigotry and racial
hate, those values need to be kept off the
school grounds.
The reasons should be obvious.
First, our educators have their hands
full just trying to teach school every day.
These kinds of ignorant confrontational
behaviors on school grounds just get
in the way, stealing time and resources
from academics.
Second, spreading racial hate —
especially through your children — is an
affront to other Donald Trump supporters
who never meant for this presidential
election to be a validation of bigotry. You
demean Mr. Trump’s victory and insult
his supporters when you make it appear
that the candidate meant to incite mobs
to taunt, jeer at and discriminate against
others based on race and ethnicity.
In fact, few if any of us have the right
to tell anyone to “Go home.” Where did
your ancestors come from? You came
from somewhere else, and would not
be who you are otherwise. You have no
claim strong enough to tell anyone else
to “Go home.”
Unfortunately, this kind of trashy
behavior is breaking out across our
country, as Neanderthalistic-minded
bigots feel they have new license to
spew their venom.
But the editorial board of The World
demands that this behavior stops now
here on the South Coast. We oppose the
idea of “build a wall.” We oppose the
notion of deporting mass numbers of any
group of people based on their racial or
ethnic heritage.
We all must follow the rule of
law, whatever path that rule takes
us — and the omni-theistic teachings of
compassion.
We encourage you to follow the
same. And teach your children well.
OTHER VIEWS
The life and example of Gwen Ifill
S
martphones change death. When I
But she was not ambitious the way
heard that Gwen Ifill had died on
some other TV people are. Gwen was
Monday, I pulled out my phone
adored wherever she went, but she let
and scrolled through the photo album.
the adoration roll off her, without it
There were pictures of Gwen and her
affecting her understanding of what was
“NewsHour” colleague Judy Woodruff
real.
laughing uproariously together, doing
She was ambitious for quality. She
little exploding fist-bumps, which I
worked for low money at PBS. She
sneakily took while she was heroically
worked doggedly on her programs, and
David
covering the political conventions this
whenever I did anything that diminished
Brooks
year.
the “NewsHour” she let me know
Comment
There was a picture of her joyously
directly.
driving a boat full tilt during a
She loved her country, too. She
relentlessly promoted female and African-
“NewsHour” party a few summers ago, the
American journalists. She
wind blasting into her clothes
had a strong affinity for
and face. There were pictures
badass women of all types.
of her posing with friends of
She kept her journalistic
mine who had come to visit
distance from the Obamas,
the set. Everybody who came
but she knew what a step
wanted a picture with Gwen.
it was to have an African-
Every reminiscence
American president.
you read about Gwen will
describe her smile. It was not
The night before Obama’s
subtle. It shone from her face
inauguration in 2009, a group
like some sort of spiritual
of journalists met in David
explosion.
and Katherine Bradley’s
Once, during a walk
house. At the end of the
through Rock Creek Park, she told me that if
evening they gathered around the piano and
she didn’t go to church on Sunday she felt a
sang civil rights anthems and some hymns.
little flatter for the whole week. A spirit as deep
Everybody knew the first stanza to “Amazing
and ebullient as hers needed nourishment and
Grace,” but only Gwen knew the last three,
care, and when it came out it came out in her
which she sang alone, in honor of the past
smile, which was totalistic and unrestrained.
labors and future promise.
Gwen worked in a tough business, and
By 2012 she sensed that racial ugliness was
being an African-American woman in that
coming out into the open. She began getting
business brought its own hardships and scars,
more racist reactions on social media and she
but Gwen’s smile did not hold back. Her whole moved to support her friend Jeffrey Goldberg
personality was the opposite of reticent, and
of The Atlantic, who was getting anti-Semitic
timidity was a stranger to her. When the Ifill
ones. Keep your head down and keep writing,
incandescence came at you, you were getting
she urged Goldberg; it’s what they don’t want
human connection full-bore.
you to do. Gwen knew what was coming.
And you had better honor it. After the
These days it is normal to bash Washington,
photos, I searched Monday through our email
to want to “drain the swamp” and to attack the
exchanges. I don’t know how Gwen was
mainstream media. The populists are in and the
with her other friends, but she’d send me
establishment is out.
short, sometimes cryptic emails every couple
But I confess, when I looked at the front of
of weeks. Sometimes it was a compliment,
The Times website on Monday and saw a photo
sometimes a bit of gossip, sometimes it was
of Stephen K. Bannon, on leave from Breitbart
a jokey offer to rub out someone who’d been
as chairman and rising in power, and then
nasty to me, and sometimes she was just the
underneath it a photo of Gwen, who is passing
sort of friend who checks in: “For some reason
from this world, I wanted to throw up. This is
you have been on my mind. Are you well?”
not progress and this is not good news.
Gwen was ebullient, as I’ve mentioned,
Gwen’s death merits a bit of the reaction that
but she was not soft. She was authoritative, an
greeted the death of the writer Samuel Johnson
executive and confident.
centuries ago: She has left a chasm, which
I suppose every profession has a few people
nobody else can fill up and which nobody has a
like this, people who love the whole profession, tendency to fill.
who pay compliments when its standards are
Now that Gwen is dead, who is the next
met and who are tough when they are not.
best thing? There’s nobody. There are many
Gwen talked a lot about her extended family,
great people who will follow her example. But
but also a lot about newsrooms and who were
nobody quite reminds you of Gwen.
the great colleagues in them.
■
I would say she was an ambitious person.
David Brooks became a New York Times
She liked moderating the big debates, even
Op-Ed columnist 2003. He was a commentator
though she was a bundle of nerves just before.
on “NewsHour” with Gwen Ifill.
A spirit as deep
and ebullient
as hers needed
nourishment and
care.
YOUR VIEWS
Murdock aggressively against
many county residents
As a liberal living in Umatilla County,
I am concerned about the tone of the
op-ed presented by George Murdock (East
Oregonian, Nov. 12).
As a county commissioner, I thought that
Mr. Murdock was sworn to represent all of his
constituents in the county, regardless of their
political viewpoint. As you giddily celebrate
the election of Donald Trump as president-
elect, you seem to imply that anyone who
does not fall into lockstep with the Republican
Party will suffer the consequences. You seem
to think that the entire state of Oregon — a
“political backwater” — will be snubbed by
the Trump regime. I thought that soon-to-be
President Trump promised to serve all
Americans? Is Oregon set up to be punished
for the political stance of the majority of its
inhabitants?
I find the falsehoods that you put forward
regarding the initial stages of the term of
President Obama very offensive. Barack
Obama is a man of exceptional moral
integrity. When he took office, he understood
the divide in America and attempted to bridge
that divide by appointing Republicans to his
cabinet (note: Robert Gates, secretary of state;
James Comey, FBI director).
President Obama’s reward for his actions
were protests by the Tea Party and threats
from individuals like Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, as he publicly declared that
his only goal was to “make Barack Obama a
one-term president.”
Contrast this with Donald Trump, a man of
questionable moral character. Investigate some
of the individuals on his transition team. Two
examples: Edwin Meese (management/budget
head) and Ken Blackwell (domestic issues
head). You should find these appointments
very unsettling,
Regarding your vilification of Hillary
Clinton: Hillary Clinton has spent the majority
of her life serving her country as First Lady,
U.S. senator from New York and Secretary
of State. I challenge you, Mr. Murdock,
to explain to me in some detail the crimes
that you perceive that Hillary Clinton has
committed. If you take this challenge, I
want detail, not simple catchphrases such as
“Benghazi,” “emails,” or “private server.”
Mr. Murdock, this is the second op-ed that
you have published expressing your political
views. I feel that it is inappropriate for you to
use your position as a county commissioner to
mount the bully pulpit in order to express your
personal political philosophy. I think in the
future you should submit your viewpoints as a
private citizen in the letters to the editor space.
Mark Petersen
Pendleton
LETTERS POLICY
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues
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reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and
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OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.