VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 3, 2021
East Oregonian
A5
ANDREW
CUTLER
FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK
New
product
aims to
get you
to ‘Go’
S
tarting in July, EO Media Group
is launching Go! Magazine, a
weekly arts and entertainment
publication designed to do exactly what
it says — get readers to “go” out and
experience all of what Eastern Oregon
has to offer. For readers in Union,
Baker, Umatilla and Morrow counties,
Go! will be in your Thursday newspa-
per. For readers in Wallowa and Grant
counties, you will receive the magazine
every Wednesday.
Go! is designed to be a solid plat-
form to connect our readers in more
diverse — and I hope, interesting —
ways. The magazine gives you plenty
of options to know what is going on
where and in what town, with a calen-
dar of event dates and times for a
host of weekly entertainment venues
throughout the region. The accompa-
nying website, goeasternoregon.com,
will offer a mobile-friendly digital
version of the magazine and calendar
to take with you as you explore Eastern
Oregon again. After more than a year
of staying home, we are all ready to
take to the roads and start celebrating
at festivals, rodeos, concerts and events
throughout the region.
After trying to find ways to work
more efficiently and working on joint
projects such as Northeast Oregon
Artisans and AgriBusiness, the six
papers that make up EO Media Group’s
eastside publications are launching Go!
Magazine as another shared venture for
our readers.
La Grande and Baker City readers
are more than familiar with the prod-
uct, since it has been a staple of those
papers for more than a decade.
Our six papers — The Observer,
Baker City Herald, East Oregonian,
Wallowa County Chieftain, Blue
Mountain Eagle and Hermiston Herald
— are combining resources to expand
the reach of the magazine.
Ultimately, what we do — all we do
— is centered on our readers. We are a
news product, sure, but all six newspa-
pers also provide a vehicle for readers
to know what is going on in the towns
that dot our great region of Oregon.
That kind of reach is something we
take some pride in. Eastern Oregon is
a big chunk of real estate. But we have
managed to provide a comprehensive
news package at our newspapers on a
consistent basis for a long time. While
we are proud of that, we are most proud
of the fact that we can furnish our read-
ers with complete coverage in a remote
part of our great state.
Finding a way to work more effi-
ciently by designing and then execut-
ing joint programs between our
newspapers is a way to “work smarter”
and the payoff — which is what really
matters — is that our readers will gain
a wealth of new information.
Our six papers provide unprece-
dented reach across our region, and
the addition of Go! will ensure that our
readers continue to receive the bene-
fit of our combined newspaper team
strength.
I am especially pleased that we will
be able to give you, the reader, more
resources to make decisions and to go
and see places and events that are part
of our common heritage.
While it is great that we are expand-
ing the product to new areas of the
region, none of it would mean anything
if we didn’t have someone to be a
“champion” for the product, someone
to see it through from beginning to end
week after week. For us, that some-
one is Lisa Britton, who is based at the
Baker City Herald and can be reached
by phone (541-406-5274) or by email
(lbritton@bakercityherald.com). If
you have an event that you’d like to let
readers know about, she is the person
to contact. We need information at
least a week in advance of publica-
tion, so the sooner you can submit an
event, the better. We welcome news
about concerts, art shows, festivals,
community events, museum exhibits
and more.
———
Andrew Cutler is the publisher/editor
of the East Oregonian and the regional
editorial director for the EO Media Group,
overseeing the East Oregonian and five
more newspapers in Eastern Oregon.
America is not as woke as it appears
TYLER
COWEN
COMMENTARY
I
t is sometimes called “Conquest’s
Second Law of Politics”: “Any organi-
zation not explicitly and constitution-
ally right-wing will sooner or later become
left-wing.” I am hearing this more and more
lately, leading me to wonder if it is actually
true.
And if so, why?
It is easy enough to find anecdotal
evidence in support of it. Numerous foun-
dations that arose from the fortunes of
right-leaning founders, such as Pew or Ford
or Hewlett, have morphed into left-wing
institutions. I can’t think of a major foun-
dation that came from a left-wing founder
and then moved to the right. In the broader
sweep of American history, universities
have not been explicitly left-wing — but
they are today.
And the law is not necessarily confined
to nonprofit institutions, which are vulner-
able to capture by left-leaning educated
elites. This doesn’t explain the advent of
“Woke Capital” — corporations pushing
for explicitly Democratic or left-leaning
policies, such as voting reform in Georgia.
America’s professional sports leagues have
to varying degrees endorsed conceptions of
racial politics closer to that of the Demo-
cratic Party.
Therein lies a clue as to the nature of the
ideological shift. Those same sports leagues
are not in every way woke. Football, for
instance, remains a violent sport, imposing
injuries on many relatively disadvantaged
young men, while the NBA allows itself
to be bullied by China on issues of human
rights.
One possibility is that institutions
respond to whichever groups make the
biggest stink about a given issue. On many
political issues, the left cares more than
the right, and so those left-wing prefer-
ences end up imprinted not only on public
opinion-sensitive nonprofits but also on
profit-maximizing corporations. Yet when
it comes to statements about Hong Kong,
China cares a great deal and most Amer-
icans do not, and so the NBA responds to
that pressure.
Additional forces strengthen Conquest’s
Second Law. Educational polarization
increasingly characterizes U.S. politics,
with more educated Americans more likely
to vote Democratic. Those same Americans
are also likely to run nonprofits or major
corporations, which would partially explain
the ideological migration of those institu-
tions.
There are, of course, numerous U.S.
institutions that have maintained or even
extended a largely right-wing slant, includ-
ing many police forces, significant parts of
the military, and many Protestant Evangeli-
cal churches. Those institutions tend to have
lower educational requirements, and so they
are not always so influential in the media,
compared to many left-wing institutions.
Furthermore, the military and police are
supposed to keep out of politics, and so their
slant to the right is less noticeable, although
no less real. The left is simply more promi-
nent in mass media, so Conquest’s Second
Law appears to be truer than it really is.
(Note that by definition the law excludes
explicitly right-wing media.)
Left-wing views, at least on some issues,
might have more of a “least common
denominator” element than do many right-
wing views. On average, the intellectual
right is more likely to insist on biologi-
cal differences between men and women,
whereas the intellectual left is more likely to
insist on equality of capabilities.
No matter your view, the left approach
is easier to incorporate into mission state-
ments, company slogans, and corporate
human-resource policies.
Egalitarian slogans require less explana-
tion, are less likely to get an institution into
trouble with the law, and are more compat-
ible with a desire to attract a broad range of
workers and customers.
So as nonprofit institutions have become
larger and big business has risen in relative
importance, those trends also will instan-
tiate Conquest’s Law. As large organiza-
tions adopt a more egalitarian tone in their
rhetoric, explicit right-wing views will tend
to become less prominent in those organi-
zations.
The common thread to these explana-
tions is that left-wing views find it easier to
win in spheres of reporting, talk and rheto-
ric — and that those tendencies strengthen
over time.
It follows that, if Conquest’s Second
Law is true, societies are more right-wing
than they appear. Furthermore, it is the
intelligentsia itself that is most likely to be
deluded about this, living as it does in the
world of statements and proclamations. It is
destined to be repeatedly surprised at how
“barbarian” American society is.
There is also a significant strand of right-
wing thought, most notably in opposition
to Marxism, that stresses the immutable
realities of human nature, and that people
change only so much in response to their
environments. So all that left-wing talk
doesn’t have to result in an entirely left-wing
society.
Conservatives thus should be able to take
some comfort in Conquest’s Second Law.
They may find the discourse suffocating at
times. But there is more to life than just talk
— and that, for liberals as well as conser-
vatives, should be counted as one of life’s
saving graces.
———
Tyler Cowen is a Bloomberg columnist. He
is a professor of economics at George Mason
University and writes for the blog Marginal
Revolution.
Behind the scenes with first-time legislators
DICK
HUGHES
OTHER VIEWS
uzanne Weber recalls when the
Oregon Capitol hallways were so
crowded with lawmakers, lobbyists
and other folks that she had to edge her way
through sideways.
That was when she was a local govern-
ment official coming from the coast to talk
with lawmakers. The former mayor of
Tillamook now is a legislator herself, but
is working in a quiet, uncrowded Capitol.
For health protocols, the Capitol remained
closed to the public as the 2021 Legisla-
ture toddled toward adjournment over the
weekend.
To take readers behind the scenes of this
year’s session, I interviewed five first-time
legislators this week: Rep. Weber, R-Tilla-
mook; Democratic Reps. Maxine Dexter
and Lisa Reynolds, of Portland; Republican
Rep. Bobby Levy, of Echo; and Republi-
can Sen. Dick Anderson, of Lincoln City.
I also requested interviews with several
other Democrats and Republicans. I hope
to write a future column or two with their
stories.
During previous legislative sessions,
issues frequently got resolved when lobby-
ists and others talked and walked alongside
legislators who were scurrying between
meetings. In contrast, 2021’s Capitol atmo-
sphere is strange.
“It’s quiet and lonely,” Anderson said.
S
Good staffs, constant learning
“This has been a really exhilarating
experience,” Weber said. “I hadn’t realized
all the work that went on behind the scenes
and all the people who were involved in
what goes on behind the scenes.
“I have learned so much about the
process of government. It’s challenging. It’s
mind-boggling — but not in a bad way.”
Said Anderson: “I’ve been impressed.
The people are well-intended. In the most
cases, good staffs, very cooperative. … I’ve
felt good about how I’ve been treated and
the intent of people.”
New legislators face an enormous
learning curve. “I have been inspired and
humbled by the process,” Dexter said.
“What I realized is truly we have enormous
capacity to make real change.”
Anderson was surprised by how often
the party caucuses lock up legislators’
votes, so outcomes were determined along
party lines. As mayors, he and Weber were
used to operating on a nonpartisan basis.
Reynolds noted that the vast majority of
bills pass with strong bipartisan majorities.
For the most part, she said, Democrats and
Republicans have more in common than
they do differences.
“People show up every day ready to
work hard to do what they think is the best
thing overall for Oregonians,” she said.
“People really put their heart and soul into
making Oregon a better place.”
Of these five new legislators, Dexter is
the most experienced. She was appointed a
year ago to fill the vacancy created by the
death of Rep. Mitch Greenlick, and was
elected last fall to a full two-year term.
Dexter said last year’s special-session
legislation on police reforms provided
insights into bipartisanship. She cited the
collaborative work of Rep. Janelle Bynum,
D-Happy Valley, and two Republicans who
are former police chiefs, Ron Noble, of
McMinnville, and Rick Lewis, of Silverton.
Closed Capitol
Getting to know colleagues and their
staffs was challenging this year without
the impromptu conversations in hallways
and elsewhere. Committee meetings were
conducted via videoconference, and some
personal interactions were restricted by the
COVID-19 protocols.
“I’m a one-on-one kind of person —
smaller groups — and I knew that was
going to be a handicap, getting to know
senators on a one-on-one basis,” Anderson
said.
Still, connections get made.
“There are colleagues that I wasn’t
expecting to have so much interpersonal
trust and relationship-building time with,”
Dexter said. “That’s been really important
to the work that we’ve had to do in these
extraordinary times.”
As for House Republicans, Levy
described them as a tight-knit caucus that
was inclusive of newcomers: “I have never
felt better about a group of people — and
I’ve worked with lots of groups of people —
and more welcome.”
She has made lifelong friends, including
some Democrats.
Levy believes the session would have
played out differently if the public had been
in the Capitol, enabling more conversa-
tions that find middle ground. “We all love
our district. We all want something for our
district. We just can’t seem to find some-
place in the middle,” she said.
It’s difficult being in the minority party
and not from an urban area. Republicans
say urban Democrats don’t understand rural
life but assume they do. “If we talk about
our side of the state — so I’m in Eastern
Oregon — they don’t get it and they don’t
try to get it,” Levy said.
Public involvement
Weber’s early morning routine includes
perusing her emails to see what trends have
emerged in how people feel about issues.
Some topics draw hundreds of comments.
For Dexter, one surprise was that many
people don’t realize the capacity that
legislators have to help constituents with
government issues and that legislators have
staff — paid with taxpayer dollars — to do
so.
When some Oregonians are unhappy
with her, Dexter tries to heed Geenlick’s
advice about not taking things personally:
“Nothing is personal as far as how it comes
at me, but everything is personal in how
people engage as far as from their perspec-
tive.”
And as Levy said: “It’s a learning expe-
rience every single day for me. And I enjoy
it because I think it’s really important that
the people in my district have somebody to
speak for them.”
———
Dick Hughes has been covering the
Oregon political scene since 1976.