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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2018)
Page 4A East Oregonian Tuesday, July 24, 2018 CHRISTOPHER RUSH Publisher KATHRYN B. BROWN Owner DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor Founded October 16, 1875 OUR VIEW Out of Bounds R yan Bounds’ career on the federal judiciary likely came to a sudden end last week, just minutes before it was set to begin. On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abruptly pulled President Donald Trump’s appellate nominee — who was born and raised in Hermiston and graduated from Hermiston High School — when it became apparent that Bounds did not have enough votes to pass the Senate. Enough Republican senators — it only takes two in the closely divided body — voiced concerns about writings Bounds authored while an undergrad at Stanford. The New York Times reported that Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) had been attempting to persuade Republicans in their cloakroom directly off the Senate floor that Bounds’ writing was disqualifying and he should be rejected. “His crusade seemed unlikely to succeed, given that disciplined Senate Republicans have been pushing through Trump administration judicial picks with assembly-line efficiency over the heated complaints of Democrats,” wrote Carl Hulse in the newspaper. Oregon’s other senator, Jeff Merkley, was equally strident in the cause of defeating Bounds’ nomination. Neither senator returned a “blue slip,” which had been required for a federal court nomination to proceed. By now you are familiar with those deeply immature columns, for which Bounds apologized and claimed — convincingly, we’d argue — that they do not represent who he is as a person or a jurist. But when you have the razor-thin margins that Republicans are dealing with in the Senate — and a Democratic bloc that has remained steadfast in opposition to many of Trump’s nominees — even the smallest issue can grind the whole process to a halt. “After talking with the nominee last night and meeting with him today, I had unanswered questions that led to me being unable to support him,” said Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — one of the Republicans Wyden had been working on earlier in the day. McConnell arranged that hasty face-to-face meeting between Scott and Bounds, but it did not sway the senator’s vote. And thus the gears were ground. It’s unfortunate to see Ryan Bounds’ nomination crash and burn because of a few opinion pieces he wrote more than AP Photo/J. David Ake Lights shine inside the U.S. Capitol Building as night falls in Washington. 20 years ago. We argued previously that while the columns were boneheaded and dumb, most all of us have done boneheaded things when we’re 21 years old, and we don’t think anyone should be judged for all eternity on immature mistakes. But we also realize the power — and the responsibility — of the blue slip. As we go through this political movement of anarchic upheaval, we must hold onto our time-honored norms and protect them at all costs. The ability of home-state senators to have outsized sway is an important one, and should be respected by everyone who supports local control in federal decisions. Sure, the process can be twisted to be partisan and petty — and that may be the case here. But the principle is crucial. When a bird has flown or a ship has sailed, it’s important to take stock of what we still have. In this case, the Senate can still rally behind the blue slip principle that no one should get a seat on a federal court unless at least one senator from their home state gives their approval. That’s good. Still, we remain of the opinion that Bounds should have received that home-state approval. OTHER VIEWS Libertarians in the age of Trump A YOUR VIEWS Appreciate everyone who helped free Hammonds I support Greg Walden for his efforts and success in which he lobbied the White House for the pardon of Dwight and Steven Hammond. Thank you also to the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who also supported the Hammonds. It seems that the Obama administration was overzealous in going after the Hammonds. The Hammonds are not terrorists, they’re ranchers. They know how to take care of the land because it’s their livelihood. That administration obviously did not understand ranching or even the West, for that matter. The Trump administration knows and appreciates ranching communities and what they can provide. I also agree with what Greg Walden said about President Trump’s decision for the pardon. He said the decision was “a win for justice, and an acknowledgment of our unique way of life in the high desert, rural West.” Patty Trost Unity McLeod-Skinner would benefit rural Oregon a healthy economy. But action must happen now to minimize the impact of global warming. Rural communities like ours depend on agricultural and natural resources for our economic well-being and can be especially vulnerable to the impacts of global warming. The droughts, storms, fires and heat waves we are having now are only the beginning. We have already wasted opportunities to minimize global warming effects on the environment. Unfortunately Mr. Walden’s voting record for the past 20 years has shown little concern for this — the biggest threat to life as we know it. The League of Conservation Voters gives Mr. Walden a 9 percent score for 2017 and a 9 percent lifetime score for his 20 years. He votes for actions benefiting corporations over actions that would protect our air and water from pollution and reduce the amounts of methane and carbon into the atmosphere. A vote for Jamie McLeod-Skinner is a vote for a hopeful sustainable future for farmers, ranchers, and real people who actually live and work in Congressional District 2. McLeod-Skinner has works hard to meet and listen to people in all walks of life in our District 2. She represents the concerns of people — not just corporations — and understands how global warming threatens our way of life. When our farmers and ranchers have a hopeful future we all benefit from Diane Bungum The Dalles CONTACT YOUR U.S. SENATORS Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 202-224-5244 La Grande office: 541-962-7691 Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753 Pendleton office: 541-278-1129 little over a week ago, On foreign policy, for instance, in the brief historical Trump ran as hard against the entr’acte between the Brett Iraq War and neoconservatism Kavanaugh nomination and our as the Kentucky senator or his president’s Helsinki rendezvous, father. Trump’s skepticism about I was in Las Vegas for the annual international institutions and U.S. libertarian convention known as intelligence agencies is also in tune with common libertarian assumptions FreedomFest. Ross (and paranoias). It says something Like most interesting Douthat about the strange congruence churches, libertarianism is a Comment between the libertarian moment and diverse and fractious faith, and the politics of 2018 that the CIA chief FreedomFest brings together Paul filibustered years ago, John Brennan, all its different sects: The think-tankers is now a Trump critic. with their regulatory-reform blueprints, Meanwhile, on economic policy, you the muckraking journalists taking on could argue that Trump has debased government abuses, the charter city libertarianism rather than disavowing it, backers and Burning Man attendees, following many prior Republicans in using the Ayn Rand fans wearing dollar signs the rhetoric of capitalism to champion on their lapels, the eccentric-genius businessmen rather than markets. And businessmen and pot legalizers — and the where libertarianism has been shadowed converts eager to tell you how everything by bigotry (as in Ron Paul’s infamous changed when I got really into gold. 1990s newsletters), Trump simply adopted In principle I am not a libertarian: the identity politics and left the limited- The teenage nerd enters conservatism government principle behind. through either “Atlas Shrugged” or “Lord Wandering and arguing at FreedomFest of the Rings,” and between Tolkienists offered grist for both understandings of like myself and the Randians a great gulf how libertarianism relates, or doesn’t, is often fixed. But even if libertarianism seems an insufficient philosophy of human to Trumpism. Plenty of attendees were fiercely #NeverTrump and regarded him flourishing, its defense of individuals as an enemy of their ideals. But there and markets can be a crucial practical were also plenty of people, like one of my corrective to all manner of liberal and sparring partners, former Libertarian Party conservative mistakes. VP nominee Wayne Allyn Root, ready to So it was interesting to be among the defend Trump with a true believer’s gusto. libertarians in a time when, like other You can see this same division among right-of-center faiths, they have seen their political ideals swallowed up by the rule of libertarian’s political champions in Washington, D.C. Michigan Congressman Donald Trump Justin Amash has been a frequent thorn Just a little while ago journalists were in Trump’s side, and he reacted to the talking about a “libertarian moment” in Helsinki business with a tweetstorm American politics, with Rand Paul as its criticizing Trump’s servile attitude toward avatar — an entitlement-cutting, prison- Putin as something that even foreign reforming, drug-legalizing, intervention- policy doves should find disturbing. opposing, drone-strike-filibustering While that was happening, though, politics that was supposed to build bridges Rand Paul was taking a very different between Republicans and millennials. But tack in the Senate — running interference then Paul, like other Republicans, was steamrolled by Trumpism in 2016. So what for our Putin-besotted president, and defending his weird Russia diplomacy as exactly happened to his moment? the best alternative to war. One answer is that the libertarian Amash’s approach is admirable; Paul’s spirit was overextended and vulnerable is probably more in tune with what a lot of to a backlash. Confident free-traders self-described libertarian voters currently underestimated how much outsourcing want. Which leaves libertarianism in much had cost the Western working class. the same difficult position as other forms Entitlement reformers overestimated the of conservatism under Trump. political practicality of their proposals. His ascent has a lot to teach purists Cultural laissez-faire weakened about the political limits of their theories, social solidarity, with opioid-driven the need to temper dogma with more disintegration the symptom of decay. contingent wisdom. But learning those In this account Trumpism, with its lessons without surrendering to Trumpian tariffs and walls and family-separating whims requires a discipline that even cruelties, is simply a rejection of the Ayn Rand’s supermen might struggle to politics of liberty, an anti-libertarian maintain. And libertarians, alas, are as moment. But there’s also a different story, fallen as the rest of us. in which Trump didn’t as much defeat ■ Rand Paul’s worldview as co-opt its more Ross Douthat, The New York Times effective messages. 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. 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 managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
