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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, January 12, 2017
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
Ceding social
media to the trolls
There was a time we
to be the case.
thought that social media
Our calls for respect
could be a beneficial,
have turned to demands for
progressive influence on the
agreement. The shouting and
world.
shaming have increased and
In 2010, it helped Tunisian
made nuanced discussion
protesters organize and
in an open venue nearly
overthrow an oppressive
impossible. We keep our real
Tim
regime. In Egypt and other
Trainor opinions to our virtual chest
places where governments
for fear of a mud fight.
Comment
controlled information and
That has made social
restricted freedom, online
networks decidedly less
networks crowed about their ability
human — largely the domain of
to organize people in pursuit of a
hackers and scammers, and the trolls
greater good.
who latch themselves onto each
That thought trickled through all
and every online conversation. The
of us — that Twitter could overthrow internet is where complainers and
oppressive governments, Facebook
insult-hurlers feel most comfortable,
could strengthen human rights and
and those eager to tear down rather
Weibo could promote freedom and
than build support are given wide
self-expression. In short, that social
berth.
media was the
The technology
key for spreading
that was supposed
The technology that to bring us
Western,
democratic values
is now
was supposed to together
across the world
a vehicle for
— this country’s
bring us together outrage and
aim for much of
incomprehension.
is now a vehicle
the past century.
Nihilism is in
vogue. Our nation
We considered
for outrage and
the worldwide
a reality
incomprehension. elected
implications, but
television star and
also the personal
his supporters ask
ones.
the majority of
Americans to find the humor in it.
Many opinions about gay people
A caring person is now a
changed rapidly for the better, thanks
snowflake. An autocrat is now looked
in no small part to social media. For
on with admiration.
millenia, homosexuals had been
Social media has failed to make
hidden from view and away from
our online selves as caring and
the mainstream. But as our online
neighborly as we are in real life. It
networks expanded, we found out
has become nothing more than a
we knew and loved gay people,
worldwide mob that warps reality
or we knew and loved someone
and attacks people and institutions.
who knew and loved a gay person.
Mob mentality is a studied
Understanding and respect grew, and
people who posted hurtful and hateful phenomenon — how a crowd can
get the people who comprise it to
things were quickly confronted by
act in opposition to how they would
newly emboldened online crowds.
as individuals. Social media has
The impact was immediate, and
increased the herd factor by the
many Americans quickly changed
billions, and at the same time it has
their minds about the issue, both
decreased the human interaction and
politically and personally.
Perhaps this portended a world
empathy that have long been the core
with more personal connections, and of a civilized world.
an increase in compassion and maybe
Its potential to damage to our
someday a decrease in conflict.
world is currently much larger than
its potential to help.
Yet that has clearly turned out not
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
Raise pay of Oregon legislators
The (Albany) Democrat-Herald
A pair of legislators from central
Oregon recently made a bit of news when
they said they would not accept the pay
raises for legislators that were included in
Gov. Kate Brown’s proposed budget.
The legislators, Rep. Knute Buehler
and Sen. Tim Knopp, said it sent the
wrong message to accept the pay raises at
a time when the state is facing a budget
deficit that’s closing in on $2 billion for
the next two-year budget cycle. They said
the law doesn’t allow them to actually
decline the raises, so they planned to
donate the extra money (the 2.75 percent
increase works out to about $648) to
charities.
OK, that’s fair enough. We have
considerable respect for the work that
Buehler and Knopp are doing in the
Legislature, and they’re free to do what
they like with their money.
Still, this raises a couple of points that
are worth additional discussion.
First, although it’s tempting to take a
political slap at Gov. Brown, she included
the increase for legislative pay because
that’s what was in state statutes; the
governor doesn’t decide unilaterally what
legislators should be paid. (Although it
would make for interesting news stories
if the governor did get to make that call,
say at the end of each session.)
If Buehler and Knopp want to make
an issue of how much legislators get
paid, they should launch an effort to
change the law. (To be completely fair,
the two have said they plan to do that in
the 2017 session.)
Legislative salaries are computed
using the state’s Management Service
Compensation Plan. Effective Dec. 1,
the plan was increased by 2.75 percent
for a cost of living adjustment. Before
the adjustment, a legislator pulled down
$1,964 a month. Now, beginning with
their Jan. 1 checks, they’re being paid
$2,018 a month. The total annual salary
is $24,216.
The total added cost to the state works
out to $58,320 a year. Now, we don’t
claim any particular skills at math, but
a quick run with a calculator says that
amount works out to be about 0.003
percent of the state budget shortfall.
It’ll take a lot more than that to fill this
particular hole.
And let’s run a little mental
calculation of our own. The Legislature
this year is scheduled to meet for 160
days, about 22 weeks. Let’s assume
for the sake of argument that a typical
legislator works 60 hours a week while
in session (we suspect that this is way
low). That’s 1,320 hours. Let’s assume
that legislators work 10 hours a week on
state business even when the Legislature
isn’t in session (again, this likely is way
low). That adds another 300 hours to the
total. If you divide 1,620 hours by what
we pay them, it works out to $14.95 an
hour, and that rate is almost certainly
high.
Oregonians pride themselves on
having a citizen Legislature; by 2022,
after the last few increases in Oregon’s
minimum wage, we’ll have something
very close to a minimum-wage
Legislature.
We understand where Knopp and
Buehler are coming from; the timing of
this particular raise, as small as it is, is
unfortunate at best. But there’s a larger
issue here: Considering what we ask
from them and the complexity of the
issues that they must grapple with, you
can make a strong case that we don’t
pay our legislators nearly enough —
especially if we want to attract younger
legislators who must also juggle families
and other jobs. This probably isn’t the
session to address this issue. But that
doesn’t mean the problem is going away.
OTHER VIEWS
Bannon vs. Trump
t’s becoming clear that for the next
Dugin has written, “of which the core
few years U.S. foreign policy will
could be described as human rights,
be shaped by the struggle among
anti-hierarchy and political correctness
Republican regulars, populist ethno-
— everything that is the face of the
nationalists and the forces of perpetual
Beast, the Antichrist.”
chaos unleashed by President-elect
“We, the Judeo-Christian West,
Donald Trump’s attention span.
really have to look at what (Putin) is
The Republican regulars build
talking about as far as traditionalism
their grand strategies upon the
goes,” Bannon said, “particularly
David
post-World War II international order
Brooks the sense of where it supports the
— the U.S.-led alliances, norms and
underpinnings of nationalism.”
Comment
organizations that bind democracies
Last week’s intelligence report
and preserve global peace. The
on Russian hacking brought the
regulars seek to preserve and extend this order, Republican regulars, like Sens. John McCain
and see President Vladimir Putin of Russia as
of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South
a wolf who tears away at it.
Carolina, into direct conflict with the ethno-
The populist ethno-
nationalist populists. Trump
nationalists in the Trump
planted himself firmly in
White House do not believe
the latter camp, and dragged
in this order. Their critique
Fox News and a surprising
— which is simultaneously
number of congressional
moral, religious, economic,
Republicans with him.
political and racial — is
If Trump were as
nicely summarized in the
effective as Putin, we’d
remarks Steve Bannon, the
probably see a radical shift
incoming senior counsel for
in U.S. grand strategy, a
Trump, made to a Vatican
shift away from the postwar
conference in 2014.
global consensus and
Once there was a
toward an alliance with
collection of Judeo-
various right-wing populist
Christian nation-states,
movements simmering
Bannon argued, that
around the globe.
practiced a humane form of biblical capitalism
But Trump is no Putin. Putin is theological
and fostered culturally coherent communities.
and cynical, disciplined and calculating,
But in the past few decades, the party of
experienced and knowledgeable. When
Davos — with its globalism, relativism,
Bannon, Michael Flynn and others try to
pluralism and diversity — has sapped away
make Trump into a revolutionary foreign
the moral foundations of this Judeo-Christian
policy president, they will be taking on the
way of life.
entire foreign policy establishment under a
Humane capitalism has been replaced
leader who may sympathize with them, but
by the savage capitalism that brought us
is inattentive, unpredictable and basically
the financial crisis. National democracy has
uninterested in anything but his own status at
been replaced by a crony-capitalist network
the moment.
of global elites. Traditional virtue has been
I’m personally betting the foreign policy
replaced by abortion and gay marriage.
apparatus, including the secretaries of state
Sovereign nation-states are being replaced by
and defense, will grind down the populists
hapless multilateral organizations like the EU. around Trump. Frictions will explode within
Decadent and enervated, the West lies
the insanely confusing lines of authority in
vulnerable in the face of a confident and
the White House. Trump will find he likes
convicted Islamofascism, which is the cosmic
hanging around the global establishment
threat of our time.
the way he liked having the Clintons at his
In this view, Putin is a valuable ally
wedding. In office he won’t be able to fixate
precisely because he also seeks to replace the
on the Islamic State group but will face a
multiracial, multilingual global order with
blizzard of problems, and thus be dependent
strong nation-states. Putin ardently defends
on the established institutions.
traditional values. He knows how to take the
The result may be a million astounding
fight to radical Islam.
tweets, but substantively no fundamental
It’s actually interesting to read Trump’s
strategic shift — not terrible policy-making,
ideologist, Bannon, next to Putin’s ideologist,
but not good policy-making, either.
Alexander Dugin. It’s like going back to the
The larger battle is over ideas, whether
20th century and reading two versions of
the Republican Party as a whole will become
Marxism.
an ethno-populist party like the National
One is American Christian and the other
Front or the U.K. Independence Party. In this
orthodox Russian, but both have grandiose,
fight the populists might do better. There’s
sweeping theories of world history, both
something malevolently forceful about their
believe we’re in an apocalyptic clash of
ideology, which does remind you of Marxism
civilizations, both seamlessly combine
in its early days. There’s something flaccid
economic, moral and political analysis. Both
about globalism, which is de-spiritualized and
self-consciously see themselves as part of
which doesn’t really have an answer for our
a loosely affiliated international populist
economic and cultural problems.
movement, including the National Front in
In short, I suspect Steve Bannon is going
France, Nigel Farage in Britain and many
to fail to corral the peripatetic brain of Trump.
others. Dugin wrote positively about Trump
But he may have more influence on the next
last winter, and Bannon referred to Dugin in
generation.
his Vatican remarks.
■
“We must create strategic alliances to
David Brooks became a New York Times
overthrow the present order of things,”
Op-Ed columnist in 2003.
I
Putin is
theological
and cynical,
disciplined and
calculating,
experienced and
knowledgeable.
YOUR VIEWS
Corporations should warn
customers of scammers
They hit again: A very sophisticated group
claiming to be from DirecTV said I needed
new software on my receiver and, since my
warranty had expired, there would be a charge.
I asked many questions, insulted them, and
they kept on for a half hour before they got
around to asking for my credit card number,
at which point I said “We’re done here” and
hung up.
I called DirecTV to verify and they said
it was a fraud and they’d heard of it before.
Then, as my wife asked, ‘Why weren’t we
warned?’
Steven Janke, Pilot Rock
Uninformed electorate poses
a danger to democracy
“A properly functioning democracy
depends on an informed electorate.” Thomas
Jefferson wrote about the importance of a
well-informed electorate many times.
Unfortunately, we have apparently
dismissed Jefferson’s ideal. The recent
election presented us with the specter of
victory of the uninformed over the informed.
The Electoral College victor, though losing
the popular vote, was the candidate who
lied throughout his campaign, and then lied
to deny his lies. Fake news and conspiracy
hoaxes were the cornerstone of his campaign.
Now, as president-elect, he even claims he
is too smart to need intelligence briefings.
But this is not new; the GOP has long
suppressed research as a way to further their
goals: They denied the CDC authority to
investigate gun violence (research could
suggest guns are hazardous.) They denied the
Pentagon authority to explore climate change
as a threat to the nation (presumably it’s better
not to know what threats climate change might
pose).
And now, in consort with the incoming
administration, they plan to suppress climate
science research occurring in NASA even
though this agency provides much of the best
climate research in the world.
Jefferson would be appalled: The worship
of anti-democratic ignorance has become the
hallmark of government.
Alan Journet
Jacksonville