Page 4A
East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OTHER VIEW
Five measures
headed to ballot
Corvallis Gazette-Times
regon voters will face just five
statewide ballot issues in the
November election, the lowest
number in nearly four decades and a
surprising development in a state that in
recent years hasn’t been shy about pushing
initiatives onto the ballot.
All five measures take on hot-button
issues in Oregon, and at least four of them
likely will draw plenty of attention in the
fall campaign. (The exception likely will
be Measure 102, which would allow local
governments to issue bonds to pay for
affordable housing projects that involve
nonprofits or other nongovernmental
entities. Our guess is that measure is
unlikely to be particularly controversial.)
That won’t be the case for the other
ballot measures. Consider these:
• Measure 103 is a constitutional
amendment that would bar new taxes on
groceries, including food and soda, as well
as freeze the state’s corporate minimum tax
for supermarkets.
• Measure 104 is a constitutional
amendment that would require a three-fifths
supermajority for legislation that raises
revenue through changes in tax exemptions,
credits and deductions.
O
• Measure 105 would overturn the 1987
sanctuary law that prohibits state and local
police from enforcing immigration law if
a person’s only violation is being in the
country illegally.
• Measure 106 is a constitutional
amendment that would ban public funds
from being spent on abortions in Oregon.
These all are questions that voters will
need to consider carefully. But, still, it’s
easier to do that for five state measures
than it is for, say, 26 measures, the load that
voters faced in the 2000 election.
Since our initial editorial appeared, other
political observers have weighed in on the
reasons why this Oregon ballot is so light on
initiatives. Some have mentioned, as we did,
the various changes in signature-gathering
procedures that have tended to make it more
difficult to get initiatives on the ballot. We
don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing:
It should be hard to get an initiative on the
ballot, just like it should be hard to get a bill
passed by the Legislature. (We often forget
that a vital role for the Legislature is to
stop bad ideas from becoming law; you can
assess for yourself how successful Oregon’s
Legislature has been at that task.)
Other longtime political observers, such
as former Secretary of State Phil Keisling,
argue that voters are simply burned out on
AP file photo
initiatives. “The biggest thing, I think, is
fatigue,” Keisling told The Oregonian, and
we suspect there’s a measure of truth to that.
The Oregonian story pointed to another
factor we hadn’t considered: Money that
used to be spent on ballot measures is
flowing instead to legislative candidates. In
2016, the newspaper noted, more than $11
million was spent on legislative races. (It
works out to about $150,000 per race, a lot
of cash for a state that prides itself on its
citizen Legislature.)
The Oregonian also noted that some
of the conservative activists who helped
spearhead initiative campaigns have been on
the political sidelines in recent years.
The relatively small number of initiatives
on the ballot isn’t a bad thing: For one thing,
it gives voters a fighting chance to consider
each of the measures with greater care.
And, truth be told, many of the more
complicated matters that used to be
presented as ballot measures should be the
province of legislators, who have the time
and resources to more carefully examine
complex issues during their sessions in
Salem.
But there’s a flip side to that: If the
Legislature fails to act on the vital questions
facing Oregon, this current ebb tide in
statewide ballot measures likely will be
short-lived.
OTHER VIEWS
Here’s what makes
America great
T
OTHER VIEWS
Economic issues may not
factor in governor’s race
Albany Democrat-Herald
I
t is among the most common of
modern-day political advice, so much
so that it’s been enshrined in its own
four-word mantra: “It’s the economy,
stupid.”
The phrase was originally coined by
James Carville, one of the architects of Bill
Clinton’s successful 1992 run against the
incumbent, George H.W. Bush.
The idea behind the words is pretty
simple: If the economy is doing well, that’s
a big advantage for an incumbent. If the
economy is not doing well — and it had
slipped into recession under Bush — that’s
potentially an opening for a challenger, as
Bush learned after losing to Clinton.
The booming economy in the United
States is one reason why a second Donald
Trump term isn’t at all out of the question,
despite the president’s relatively high
disapproval numbers.
A similar dynamic is at work among
the nation’s governors, even though
state economies are affected by factors
considerably outside a governor’s control.
So consider the case of Gov. Kate
Brown: Oregon’s economy is in the midst
of a sustained economic boom, although
the rural parts of the state have not enjoyed
the full benefits of the recovery. The state
Department of Employment reported last
week that unemployment rates in the state
were 3.9 percent in July; it marked the
lowest such rate since comparable records
were started in 1976.
Oregon’s economy, the department
reported, is growing faster than previously
thought: In June and July, Oregon’s
nonfarm payroll employment rose by
12,000 jobs. Employment is up 2.4 percent
in the last 12 months.
The construction sector of the economy,
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.
which was hit hard during the Great
Recession, is leading the economic
expansion in Oregon, the state reported:
Employment in the sector is up 11.2
percent in the last year, about 11,000 jobs.
Brown has other advantages as well
as she seeks re-election. The biggest
one: She’s a Democrat in a state where
Democrats holds a substantial advantage in
registered voters.
So, you would think, the conventional
wisdom would have her hitting the
campaign trail after Labor Day with a
substantial lead over her Republican
opponent, Knute Buehler, and the
Independent Party nominee, Patrick Starnes.
But that’s not what some of the early
polls suggest.
Now, granted, it’s early in the election
season, and there’s plenty of time for new
developments to emerge. But two recent
polls (both, to be fair, to be taken with a
grain of salt) suggest that the race at this
point is essentially even. That’s a far cry
from an Oregon Public Broadcasting poll
taken in January, which suggested that
Brown enjoyed a 17-point lead.
That poll was taken well before the
May primary election, and before Buehler
endured what turned out to be contentious
challenges from a pair of candidates
to his right. Buehler’s statewide name
recognition undoubtedly has increased
since then, so it’s not as if Brown has
frittered away that early lead.
But, still, the suggestion that the
gubernatorial race is a tight one in a
Democratic-leaning state with a booming
economy is enough to make one suggest
that Oregon voters are not particularly
focused right now on economic issues;
other issues may be more top of mind. The
race could go to the candidate who speaks
most effectively to those other issues.
hough Bill Clinton was a
sins, most of them real but very
few of them all that particular to us,
far better talker than he was
including slavery, ethnic cleansing,
an orator, at least one of
territorial conquest, racism and
his sentences should be carved in
misogyny.
stone: “There is nothing wrong
But the consistent theme of
with America,” he said in his 1993
American history has been one of
Inaugural Address, “that cannot
continual overcoming by way of
be cured by what is right with
Bret
recourse to first principles
America.” That’s a line Andrew
Stephens direct
—
principles
that are timeless
Cuomo might want to commit to
Comment
and universal, even if they were
memory.
laid down by hypocrites. It’s how
The New York governor is in
Lincoln resolved the crisis of the house
the news for saying that America “was
divided. It’s how the 13th, 14th, and 15th
never that great.” He went on to explain
Amendments were ratified — along with
that the U.S. “will reach greatness when
the 19th. It is the basis for Martin Luther
every American is fully engaged” —
King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. It’s
while complaining that Donald Trump’s
how the Obergefell case on marriage
Make America Great Again slogan was
equality was decided.
“retrospective” and intended to return the
It’s also why a record number of
country to darker times past.
Americans — 75 percent, according to
As political gifts to the Trump 2020
a Gallup poll from June — continue to
campaign go, it’s hard to think of one
believe in the benefits of immigration,
so perfectly wrapped. Fox News was
despite the Trumpian assault. The
all over it. So was Stephen Colbert. For
American birthright belongs, potentially,
conservatives, the remark is proof of
to everyone. This is unprecedented. Other
moral ignominy; for liberals, of political
countries accept migrants on the basis of
stupidity. And it was particularly rich
economic necessity or as a humanitarian
coming from someone whose own
gesture. Only in America is it the direct
campaign slogan, from 2010, was,
consequence of our foundational ideals.
“Together, we can make New York great
It’s easy to deprecate some of the
again.”
puffery and jingoism that often go with
But it’s also a statement more than a
affirmations of “American greatness.”
few people agree with, not least among
It’s also easy to confuse greatness
progressives Cuomo is trying to woo in
with perfection, as if evidence of our
his primary campaign against challenger
shortcomings is proof of our mediocrity.
Cynthia Nixon. So it’s worth reminding
But greatness, like happiness, lies less
ourselves of just what it is that really
in the achievement than in the striving —
makes America great.
and in the question of what we are striving
It’s in that Clinton line: A capacity
for. Another foundational phrase: “A more
for adjustment, self-correction and
perfect Union.” What does that mean?
renewal, unequaled among the nations,
It is both purely subjective and highly
and inscribed in our founding charter.
“Unalienable Rights.” “The consent of the purposeful, a recognition of imperfection
and the necessity of change.
governed.” “The pursuit of Happiness.”
By coincidence, Cuomo’s remark came
“Created equal.”
just a few days after the death of Nobel
Other countries rise on strengths
Prize-winning novelist V.S. Naipaul,
that ultimately become their failings,
whose 1990 speech, “Our Universal
sometimes their downfall. Conquest made
Civilization,” has since been widely
Rome vast, proud — and overstretched.
shared. It concludes with Naipaul’s tribute
Militarism united Germany in the late
to “this idea of the pursuit of happiness.”
19th century only to become the source
“It is an elastic idea; it fits all men,” he
of its catastrophes in the next century.
said. “So much is contained in it: the idea
Top-down authoritarian directives built
of the individual, responsibility, choice,
China’s factory floors and high-speed
the life of the intellect, the idea of vocation
rail networks. But they also impede the
and perfectibility and achievement. It is an
bottom-up flow of information and ideas
immense human idea. It cannot be reduced
that makes economies adaptive and
to a fixed system. It cannot generate
creative.
fanaticism. But it is known to exist, and
The U.S. has also endured reversals,
crises and malaise, and committed its share because of that, other more rigid systems
in the end blow away.”
of crimes. There is an extensive literature,
Want to know what makes America
dating to the 1780s and continuing through
great, governor? Look no further.
the present, predicting imminent doom
■
or long-term decline. There’s an equally
Bret Stephens writes for the New York Times.
long literature cataloging America’s many
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.