Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/815280
ChipThompson, Editor How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Who'swinning? During last year's campaign, Donald Trump promised cheering throngs that they'd eventually be so tired of winning that they'd beg for a respite from all those victo- ries. ButasPresidentTrump's 100th day in office closes in this week, the Republican is woefully short of major leg- islative victo- ries and time is running short. And as a pos- sible (if entirely avoidable) gov- ernment shut- down looms, the White House is frantically pressing for wins on some of its key campaign promises. That includes authoriza- tion of a border wall (which is running into resistance from Democrats and Republi- cans alike) and an Obamacare repeal vote, which House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., has said may not happen this week. And there's still tax reform to go yet — the broad out- lines of which are expected to emerge Wednesday. And, yes, there have been some bright spots: Trump got plaudits for a missile strike in Syria. And he did see the suc- cessful confirmation of Su- preme Court Justice Neil Gor- such. And that's not to mention a series of executive orders and smaller pieces of legislation that have inflicted major dam- age on the regulatory state. Yet, there was still bad news beyond Capitol Hill. A Gallup poll released over the weekend showed Trump with the lowest approval rat- ing of any modern president. And while his base remains unshakable, a majority of Americans in that Gallup poll said they don't believe Trump keeps his promises. In fact, that metric plunged, from 62 percent in February to 45 per- cent in April. But you know who is win- ning? That'd be the self-styled "Resistance" that's driven the president so batty. In the ruins of defeat, the left found its mojo. And it's run with with it. From the Women's March in Washington in January, protests over the thwarted travel bans and packed Con- gressional town halls, to this weekend's March for Sci- ence, the White House's critics have emerged with some ma- jor wins as the first 100 days draws to a close. And that's only a good thing for the Republic: Like it or not, a swath of the Ameri- can electorate is engaged with their government in a real and tangible way. And it's getting results. While Trump and his allies may dismiss them as "paid protesters" put to work by George Soros and others, this is still the kind of vigorous de- bate that we want out of our politics. After all, it wasn't too long ago — in the wild, free-for- all days of 2010, that a simi- lar group of self-styled rabble- rousers descended on Wash- ington to demand change out of their government. And, fueled by geysers of cash from such astro-turf groups as the Dick Armey- headed FreedomWorks and the Koch Brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, they got results. The ascendancy of the Tea Party movement in 2009 marked a watershed moment in American politics: It in- spired the Republican wave of 2010 that handed control over both chambers of Congress to the GOP. And in the seven years since, thanks in no small part to the incompetence of na- tional Democrats, they've con- solidated their control. But Trump's election last November was the moment when the pendulum began to swing in the opposite direc- tion. And it looked like the American left — which mar- ginalizes the Trump base at its peril — got the one thing it had been looking for: A Tea Party movement to call its own. Yet in major tests in Kansas and Georgia, the resistance hasn't shown that has the force to win elections — which is all that matters in the end. But in two key metrics: Democrats have reason to take heart. In Georgia, Democratic hopeful Jon Ossoff, who sur- vived to compete in a June 20 run-off for the seat vacated by now Health Secretary Tom Price, took 48.1 percent of the vote. That's 10 percentage points better than Rodney Stooks- bury, who lost to Price by 23 percent (61.7-38.3 percent) in November. And Stooksbury did the best of any challenger since Price's election in 2004, USA Today reported. In Kansas, where Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by 27 points, the Republican can- didate in that state's spe- cial election prevailed by just 7 percentage points, as Fox News' Chad Pergram reported recently. True, the GOP got the win in Kansas. And it will more than likely hang on in Geor- gia. But the narrowness of the margins is enough to sug- gest that Republicans can't take the 2018 mid-terms for granted, even if Trump did re- write the rule book in 2016. Nor can the resistance rest on its well-earned laurels so far. Anaward-winningpolitical journalist, John Micek is the Opinion Editor and Political Columnist for PennLive/The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. Readers may follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek and email him at jmicek@ pennlive.com. JohnMicek 100 days in, who's winning again? Cartoonist's take Republican Doug LaMalfa's Redding Town Hall slightly im- proved on the rather low expec- tations we have seen displayed by the Democrat "Re- sistance" — their term harkens back to WWII France, inferring Trump equals Hitler. They seem dedicated to un- dermining, sabotaging, subvert- ing and — at public events like LaMalfa's — reducing discourse to that of undisciplined mobs. Hence, the shouting, hectoring, and interruptions in Oroville drowned out much of the Con- gressman's efforts to communi- cate in a civil manner with his constituents. Redding attend- ees came across as somewhat less vitriolic and uncivil but ad- amant in liberal advocacy; the local electorate that voted over- whelmingly for Donald Trump and Doug LaMalfa disagrees. As reported by CBS Sacra- mento (sacramento.cbslocal. com), and duplicated to a lesser extent at Sequoia Middle School last Wednesday, "The boos and shouts of displeasure started during the introduction of Rep. Doug LaMalfa at his town hall meeting in Oroville. For nearly two hours, the crowd at the State Theater shouted down re- sponses by the congressman." He couldn't even talk about the Oroville Dam disaster, as "LaMalfa's answer was cut short by the crowd." His presen- tation on health care was like- wise rudely interrupted: "His narration was hard to follow as shouts continued from the crowd… "As the crowd yelled through each response, a 16-year-old high school student offered his perspective: 'I think the imma- turity is astounding,' said Grey- son Reynolds. He was at Mon- day's meeting to thank La- Malfa for holding a similar Q & A at his high school. The at- mosphere according to Reyn- olds was much different. "Night and day. It's hard to believe that these people are grown adults and those people, the people at my high school, are children. You'd think it was the oppo- site.'" LaMalfa upbraided the rude- ness on display, "Do you yell at church?" Supporter Linda Agee simply said, "I'm appalled…You can disagree, but you can be de- cent to each other." A Redding LaMalfa supporter expressed dismay that, due to the shout- ing and rudeness of his oppo- nents, the respectful demeanor of his supporters failed to regis- ter how solid was his support. Denise Culley, at her first town hall in Oroville, said, "It's very enlightening and disturb- ing." Ironically, however, Cul- ley's unease stemmed partly from her perception of La- Malfa: "He really didn't care what everyone thought. He had a closed mind." That might sug- gest the kind of "confirmation bias" written about elsewhere — when LaMalfa failed to echo and agree with his critics, his "closed mind," rather than his principles, was the only expla- nation. "Epistemic closure" (the refusal to consider objective in- formation not already part of one's beliefs) might also account for their rabid animosity to any- thing LaMalfa said. A similar quote from a non- LaMalfa person at the Red- ding event made it clear that her beef was that the Congress- man didn't advocate liberal po- sitions and that he supported Trump. She said that LaMalfa wasn't listening to his constit- uents, who are "here and they are really angry…I would love for him to come around and support the things that are im- portant to us." Hey, Democrats, we get that you are and remain angry over losing elections and power; and that ginning up your negative emotions over not getting your way — otherwise known as the "tantrum" response — pro- vides a venting for your frustra- tion. Just bear in mind that the conservative Republican prin- ciples adhered to by most vot- ers, Mr. LaMalfa and President Trump are incompatible — can- not coexist — with what you want. Socialized, single payer medicine won't ever work at the same time as people are free to choose their own health insur- ance and medical providers us- ing their own money. As with so many other is- sues, the problem with liberal solutions is that they inherently force people to give up their freedom to choose, buy, con- tract and participate, in a head- long pursuit of grand schemes. Their solution is that — if we all just hold hands and agree to be one big, single-minded, con- forming blob — the collective state can wisely order our deci- sions and meet our needs. Not in America as long as individ- ual freedom and responsibility remain our cornerstones. A critic's letter attempted to discredit this column and the positions herein advocated; what came across will not per- suade voters or readers who overwhelming stand for and agree with my views. For in- stance, castigating the Center for Medical Progress for their release of secretly recorded con- versations with Planned Par- enthood leaders over lunch; for how they edited those record- ings; and how that has brought about highly politicized pros- ecution in California — none of that changes the words and practices those tapes revealed. They made money selling baby parts. I guess that when 60 Min- utes, Katie Couric or network news agencies selectively edit everything from interviews with gun rights supporters, to George Zimmerman's taped po- lice phone call, to deleting the "Allahu Akbar" Islamic procla- mation of home-grown Muslim terrorists, and scrubbing the ev- idence of black racism against whites from crime reports — that kind of editing serving the progressive, social justice cause is ok. Exposing infanticide is not. The narrative against this column has morphed over the years. When my opinion is of- fered alone, they say I have no qualifications or expertise to support my statements; when I offer authoritative analysis from qualified experts, well, then I'm unoriginal. Foreign con- nections of Trump and his peo- ple are ipso facto damning; the endless financial conflicts and scandalous contributions to the Clinton Foundation, however — ho hum. Hillary's guy John Po- desta can be in bed with Rus- sians, Iranians, Turkey or who- ever — never mind. If my critics had no double standards, they'd have no standards at all. "Fact checks" are just liberals being disagreeable. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@ yahoo.com. The way I see it Partisans gotta vent over losing And while his base remains unshakable, a majority of Americans in that Gallup poll said they don't believe Trump keeps his promises. In fact, that metric plunged, from 62 percent in February to 45 percent in April. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. I didn't even know there was an airport in Red Bluff. I would love more information. Norma Henry: On planned additions at the Red Bluff Airport, including an aviation museum I feel we need to make stiffer sentences for the and robberies to stop it and if they know that it is going to be longer then they might not go around steeling from everyone. Edward Lucas : On a man sentenced to six years in prison for a series of burglaries. Don Polson John L. Micek OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, April 25, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6