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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, January 18, 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
Owyhee Canyonlands
monument plan shelved?
Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley told
of Malheur County voters opposed
the monument proposal.
OPB Sunday that Secretary of the
We don’t know why the proposal
Interior Sally Jewel told him the
has been shelved, or if it really
proposed Owyhee Canyonlands
has been shelved. It could be the
National Monument in Eastern
administration thinks the designation
Oregon’s Malheur County has been
would be too
shelved.
inflammatory, given
Merkley says he
area’s proximity
doubts President
If Obama doesn’t the
to the Malheur
Obama will make
proclaim Owyhee National Wildlife
the proclamation
Refuge, the site of
before leaving
Canyonlands
last year’s armed
office Friday.
a national
occupation by
That’s
of the
encouraging, but
monument, it’s followers
Bundy clan.
at this writing
It could be
Obama still has
a near certainty
Obama chose
time to make the
that Trump won’t. an easier target,
proclamation.
instead expanding
Backed by the
the Cascade-
Oregon Natural
Siskiyou National Monument in
Desert Association and Portland’s
Southern Oregon earlier this month.
Keen Shoes, the proposed Owyhee
If the president doesn’t proclaim
Canyonlands wilderness and
the Owyhee Canyonlands a national
conservation area would cover 40
percent of Malheur County — about monument, it’s a near certainty that
such a designation won’t be made
2.5 million acres of what is now
during the Trump administration.
controlled by the Bureau of Land
The president has the sole
Management.
Residents believe the designation authority under the Antiquities Act
of 1906 to designate land owned by
would be accompanied by
the federal government as a national
restrictions and regulations
monument.
that would prohibit or severely
We are encouraged that Congress
complicate grazing, mining, hunting
is considering curbing executive
and recreation.
authority under the Antiquities Act,
While proponents say traditional
if not repealing the law outright.
uses of the land will be allowed,
Congress, the affected states and
local opponents don’t believe
local residents should have more
them. When the locals put it to a
say over such designations and the
non-binding vote — because locals
really don’t get a vote — 90 percent restrictions that accompany them.
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
New cabinet must go
through proper vetting
Tahlequah (Okla.) Daily Press
A
ll U.S. presidents have the right
to appoint members of their
cabinets, and they should be able
to do so without partisan harassment and
preconceived notions. But congressional
oversight is also part of the process,
and regardless of
which party holds
sway, the nominees
of one president
should be treated the
same as those of his
predecessors.
In theory, most
Americans would
agree. But theory
has been turned on
its head during this
election cycle, and
some of Donald
Trump’s most ardent
supporters are saying
outright that his
nominees shouldn’t
be subjected to the
same scrutiny as those
of Barack Obama or
George Bush.
One of the officials
operating on a revolving set of standards
is U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla. When
recently asked by a reporter whether
Trump should be required to disclose
income from foreign sources — the
same information demanded in 2013 for
Obama Secretary of Defense pick Chuck
Hagel — Inhofe said no.
Asked whether the difference in
opinion is “because it’s Trump,” Inhofe
said, “That’s just right.” Those who err
on the side of justice for all might keep
hoping Inhofe will at least pretend to
curb his hyper-partisan ways, but his
long history inside the Beltway suggests
that’s not going to happen.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who
unsuccessfully challenged Trump for
the presidential nomination last year,
in 2013 led the charge for “full and
complete answers” from Hagel to the
question of whether he had “received
compensation, directly or indirectly,
from foreign sources.” Inhofe was a
signatory of the letter, and Cruz was
absolutely right to make this demand.
Congress rightly ran all Obama
nominees through the wringer. One
might suggest racism is at the root of
the stark change in attitude, had not the
same been done for Bush’s picks.
Why are so many eager to avoid
taking too close a look at Trump’s
nominees? If these folks have no
potential conflicts or skeletons in their
closet and they appear qualified, Trump
and his supporters will be justified in
calling foul if they’re not approved.
But claiming Trump
nominees should be
given a pass suggests
Inhofe and others like
him are either afraid
of the president-elect,
or they hope to
benefit personally
from those in his
lineup. Whatever
the case, the attitude
doesn’t bode well for
the country.
Inhofe’s press
secretary tried later
to walk back what
her boss said, but
it’s still out there,
so it’s a good thing
a few others on
the selection panel
are willing to do
their jobs. And in
a subsequent interview with NPR,
Inhofe did acknowledge Russia is an
adversary rather than a friend, but in
his mind, Trump’s business connection
with Russia — and those of others
among his nominees — could mean a
more productive and safer relationship
between the two countries.
He may be right, but that’s
presupposing neither Trump nor any
of his nominees are more intent on
personal gain than improving America’s
economy and security. There’s no way
we can get a handle on the nominees’
thinking without investigation, and that’s
why everyone charged with grilling the
Cabinet appointments must do so with
zeal.
On NPR, Inhofe expressed a
wistfulness for the days of the Cold
War, when “we had two super powers...
with mutually assured destruction.”
He believes the U.S. is in more danger
of full-scale war than we have been
in many years. If he’s right, Congress
can’t afford to put party over country,
and neither can the rest of us. We need
experienced, nuanced people running the
show, and that’s why the vetting process
is so important.
Claiming Trump’s
nominees should
be given a pass
suggests those
people are either
afraid of the
president-elect,
or they hope to
benefit personally
from those in his
lineup.
OTHER VIEWS
The lord of misrule
K
ing David was most compelling
holy fools, hapless fools, vicious
when he danced. Overcome by
fools. Fools were rude and frequently
gratitude to God, he stripped
unabashed liars. They were willing to
down to his linens and whirled about
make idiots of themselves. The point
before the ark of the covenant — his
of the fool was not to be admirable in
love and joy spilling beyond the
himself, but to be the class clown who
boundaries of normal decorum.
had the guts to talk back to the teacher.
His wife, Michal, the daughter
People enjoyed carnival culture, the
of King Saul, was repulsed by his
feast of fools, as a way to take a whack
David
behavior, especially because he was
Brooks at the status quo.
doing it in front of the commoners.
You can see where I’m going with
Comment
She snarked at him when he got home
this. We live at a time of wide social
for exposing himself in front of the
inequality. The intellectual straitjackets
have been getting tighter. The universities
servants’ slave girls like some scurrilous
have become modern cathedrals, where social
fellow.
hierarchies are defined and
The early Christians
reinforced.
seem to have worshipped
the way David did, with
We’re living with exactly
ecstatic dancing, communal
the kinds of injustices that
joy and what Emile
lead to carnival culture,
Durkheim called “collective
and we’ve crowned a fool
effervescence.” In her book
king. President-elect Donald
“Dancing in the Streets,”
Trump exists on two levels:
Barbara Ehrenreich argues
the presidential level and the
that in the first centuries
fool level. On one level he
of Christianity, worship
makes personnel and other
of Jesus overlapped with
decisions. On the other he
worship of Dionysus, the
tweets. (I honestly don’t
Greek god of revelry. Both
know which level is more
Jesus and Dionysus upended
important to him.)
class categories. Both turned water into wine.
His tweets are classic fool behavior.
Second- and third-century statuettes show
They are raw, ridiculous and frequently
Dionysus hanging on a cross.
self-destructive. He takes on an icon of the
But when the church became more
official culture and he throws mud at it.
hierarchical, the Michals took over. Somber
The point is not the message of the tweet.
priest-led rituals began to replace direct access It’s to symbolically upend hierarchy, to be
to the divine. In the fourth century, Gregory of oppositional.
Nazianzus urged, “Let us sing hymns instead
The assault on Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.,
of striking drums, have psalms instead of
was classic. He picked one of the most
frivolous music and song, … modesty instead
officially admired people in the country
of laughter, wise contemplation instead of
and he leveled the most ridiculous possible
intoxication, seriousness instead of delirium.”
charge (all talk and no action). It was a tweet
When elites try to quash the manners and
devilishly well crafted to create the maximum
impulses of the people, those impulses are
official uproar. Anybody who writes for a
bound to spill out in some other way. By
living knows how to manipulate an outraged
the Middle Ages the cathedrals were strictly
response, and Trump is a fool puppet master.
hierarchical, so the people created carnivals
The sad part is that so many people treat
where everything was turned on its head.
Trump’s tweets as if they are arguments when
During carnival (Purim is the Jewish version), in fact they are carnival. With their conniption
men dressed like women, the people could
fits, Trump’s responders feed into the dynamic
insult the king and bishops, drunkenness and
he needs. They contribute to carnival culture.
ribaldry was prized over sober propriety.
The first problem with today’s carnival
As Ehrenreich puts it, “Whatever social
culture is that there’s an ocean of sadism
category you had been boxed into — male or
lurking just below the surface. The second
female, rich or poor — carnival was a chance
is that it’s not real. It doesn’t really address
to escape from it.”
the inequalities that give rise to it. It’s just
Sometimes the celebration took on an
combative display.
enthusiasm that is hard for us to fathom. In
This is a resolution I’m probably going to
1278, 200 people kept dancing on a bridge
break, but I resolve to write about Trump only
in Utrecht until it collapsed and all were
on the presidential level, not on the carnival
drowned.
level. I’m going to try to respond only to what
The carnivals were partly a way to blow
he does, not what he says or tweets. I really
off steam, but in hard times they served as
wish some of my media confrères would do
occasions for genuine populist revolts. In
the same.
1511, a carnival in Udine, Italy, turned into a
■
riot that led to the murder of 50 nobles and the
David Brooks became a New York Times
sacking of more than 20 palaces.
Op-Ed columnist in September 2003. He
Carnival culture was raw, lascivious and
has been a senior editor at The Weekly
disgraceful, and it elevated a certain social
Standard, a contributing editor at Newsweek
type, the fool.
and the Atlantic Monthly, and is currently a
There were many different kinds of fools:
commentator on PBS.
Carnival culture
was raw,
lascivious and
disgraceful,
and it elevated
a certain social
type, the fool.
YOUR VIEWS
Hard to be optimistic about
an America led by Trump
To use Trump’s own words: “I think it’s
disgraceful!”
What I think is disgraceful is that our
nation is expected to support a leader who
deserves no respect as shown by his behavior
in the past campaign.
He, himself, is a disservice to the values of
democracy.
We are instructed to have a sense of
optimism. A sense of optimism? Where is
that supposed to be coming from? Even his
billionaire nominees for cabinet posts can’t
agree with him. He is so secretive and erratic
he can’t commit to making any plans.
Although Trump hammers away with the
same old song and dance “we must all come
together ... make America great again,” that
has only accomplished the opposite — driving
the population apart with hatred and bigotry
inflamed by his choice of vocabulary and
negative rhetoric.
With the world in such a dangerously
fragile situation as it is, the election of
an unstable and conflicted individual for
president of a world power is taking a risk we
can’t afford.
As one commentator said: “Tweeting
flattery to Putin isn’t foreign policy.”
Are we just one temper tantrum away from
World War III? And it may be a nuclear war.
Janet F. Langton
Sonora, Calif.
(formerly of Pendleton)
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
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letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
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