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GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD 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: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS We just adopted a rescue dog; it has been over twenty years since we owned a dog, and we are learning anew the responsibili- ties and joy of sharing our lives with a pet. With fewer travel plans, we felt it was time. Whenourdaughterwas about three we got a stan- dard poodle; I still remem- ber the happiness in the room when she and the puppy danced around the room in true excitement upon meet- ing each other. The dog had been named Josephine, but we called her Josie. The three children enjoyed the dog, swam with her in the pool, took her for walks, and played fetch. They learned the rou- tines and responsibilities of cleaning up after her and feeding her. She was a good companion for all five of us. When our daughter was in college Josie began to fail and became less reliable, so we had her sleep in the ga- rage in a comfortable bed. She could use the dog door to come and go to the backyard when necessary. In the last couple of weeks of her life a large bobtailed tom cat would come through the dog flap, and literally usher Josie into her bed, and then curl up be- tween her legs to sleep with her through the entire night. After Josie passed away, we never saw that cat again. Our new dog was named Bogart by the rescue opera- tion who found him wander- ing around in Salinas, all 11 pounds of him. After good foster care they got him up to about 16 pounds and felt he was ready for permanent home. They estimated he was between two and three years old, were not sure if he was housebroken, but knew he was crate trained. He is a black miniature poodle mix. We had previously checked with a rescue shelter in the Bay Area, but the dogs there were in greater need than we felt comfortable about. We fell in love with Bogart im- mediately. We decided to call him Bo or Beau, but soon learned that name sounded too much like "no" a word we had to use far too often in the first two weeks. So we call him Bogie. Bogie has taught us some responsibility as we have cre- ated new patterns in our day to accommodate his needs, patched holes in our fences, and enjoyed walks, thankful for the plastic bags that the Daily News provides. In some ways having a new dog reminds me about life as a citizen; dogs require care and lots of reinforcement; it is hard to be an "absentee" dog owner. To make democracy work we must avoid being absentee citizens. Sometimes it seems like we live in a spectator so- ciety, walking around with a "smart" phone in front of our face, listening to "mean stream media" complain about everything, staying away from the polls or even failing to register to vote. Democracy requires partic- ipation and an informed elec- torate to succeed. Citizens are required to get off their hind quarters and pay atten- tion to what is happening. Part of the current malaise in our country is that the void of true citizen participation has been filled by moneyed interests, dark money, super PACS, and such. We have a country where the Supreme Court has declared money is speech. I am not sure such voices as Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders will arouse our citi- zens to wake up, but they do touch a common sentiment of discontent among us. Hope- fully, after the circus of the primaries and the Presiden- tial election is over, we will learn our lesson and pay at- tention and participate. Dogs, like our government, require constant attention and positive reinforcement if we want to develop good be- haviors and be loyal compan- ions. Neglected dogs will seek affection elsewhere, abused dogs become a problem. This applies to governments as well. In some ways our new dog has created a less passive life for us, and we will be better people because of Bogie. For that we are thankful. We recently lost a good friend, Leo Sackett; Leo was a dog lover. When Leo met Bogie, he told us he wished he could be half the person his dog thought he was. Leo far exceeded his dog's expec- tations. We will strive to fol- low his example. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Joe Harrop A new dog, and old tricks Cartoonist's take As I write this, it is only days until the Iowa Caucuses that will begin the selection process for whom the Repub- lican and Democratic par- ties will choose to represent them in November. Through- out all the scandals, all the candidates ending and the twists and turns we see in ev- ery election cycle, one ques- tion remains: why does Donald Trump remain so popular? Truthfully, this can boggle the mind. He has said one ex- traordinarily foolish, bombas- tic statement after another. He has gotten into feuds with news reporters for often triv- ial slights against him, and throughout his life, his politi- cal positions have changed al- most moment to moment. He has gone back and forth be- tween being a Republican and Democrat throughout his life, switching positions regularly. Every week, pundits have predicted the beginning of the end for his campaign. Af- ter each outrageous, offensive statement, it was predicted that voters would soon turn against him, would weary of his speeches, get tired of what is frequently seen as a lack of substance. Yet he had suc- ceeded in staying in the race. Trump continues to be the frontrunner with the prima- ries about to begin. His sup- port has sometimes wavered but always remained strong and at the moment I write this, looks like he has a very real chance of becoming the Republican nominee. Why? The biggest reason is that the public is angry and Trump is channeling those feelings. People feel betrayed, people feel screwed over, they feel fu- rious at both parties, and the Republicans especially are looking for an "outsider" al- ternative. Outsiders are a fre- quent theme in politics, but es- pecially so in this election cy- cle. It's a perfect environment for Trump to defy the odds and stay the frontrunner for all these months. Often, establishment can- didates are being seen as too weak and passive, unwill- ing to truly fight back in the wake of Obama and Hillary's relentless assault. Trump, on the other hand, is willing to tear into anyone who criti- cizes him regardless of party, and does not care how outra- geous the statement might be. In a time where great anger is felt towards the establishment and out of a loathing of politi- cal correctness, this has given Trump a great boost. The media has focused con- stantly on him. Trump has re- ceived more air time than the rest of the Republican field combined, approximately 70 percent of it. He's among the only ones who most people can claim they have heard of him. The other 10 candidates have considerably less name rec- ognition because, well, until right about now, the majority of individuals do not pay at- tention to politics. They have their own lives to live and are not political junkies the way I happen to be. While four years ago, strong media attention on a Republi- can candidate often led to his downfall, being that the cover- age was often highly negative. Face it, the media is pretty overwhelmingly liberal. For Trump, no matter how nega- tively they covered him, it has not seemed to hurt him at all. Quite the contrary; it has ac- tually strengthened the sup- port he receives. GOP voters are furious at the media, and I would say with good reason, meaning that certain people within the media who would have wanted to discredit Trump have had the exact op- posite effect. Attacking him in the media just makes his sup- porters love him more. I personally consider him a rather atrocious candidate, but having watched him in the de- bates, I can understand why a sizeable chunk of the GOP sup- ports him. I've seen the crowds he has drawn, and he knows how to capture attention. He knows how to take advantage of the anger and the frustration that Republican voters feel. He thrives on attention. Whether you love him or hate him, odds are you're listening to him. Another trait that has en- deared him, at least to a cer- tain percentage of registered Republicans, is that Trump says exactly what is on his mind at any given time. Now he's often incorrect and many of his claims are dubious to utter nonsense, but he comes right out and says it with no hemming and hawing. Trump has simple answers to ques- tions, which is what a lot of people like to hear. Not only has he proven him- self to be rather offensive, Trump has also shown him- self to be rather ignorant. In a previous debate, he had no clue of what the Nuclear Triad was — our nuclear bomber force, ICBMs and SLBMs. Now I would not expect the aver- age person to know what the Triad is, but it's very different when this is shown by a man running for president and one who is currently the frontrun- ner days away from Iowa. Or his idea about building a giant wall on our border and forc- ing Mexico to pay for it. Gee, I wonder who'd end up actually building that wall. Nevertheless, he has proven himself to be a strong con- tender. Trump has electrified the field and has gotten many to pay attention to the GOP race, whether they are his sup- porters or not. Nearly twice as many people watched the GOP debates in contrast to the Dem- ocratic ones, at least partially because of Trump's presence. In spite of all of this, does he really have a realistic chance of becoming the nominee? I still consider it rather unlikely, but not nearly as unlikely as I would have a couple of months ago. We're getting to the point where voters are paying attention, even if many have not yet made up their minds. People in Iowa and New Hampshire are becom- ing bombarded with political adds on a daily basis — perhaps there is an advantage to living in an area where the direction the state goes is already known. After Iowa, New Hampshire, and certainly South Carolina, the GOP field is likely to have been narrowed to only a few individuals — as I write this, it stands at 11. I expect the field by that point to consist of Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Bush, and possibly Christie. Admittedly, another candidate may have a last minute surge or unex- pectedly crash, but with so lit- tle time until voting, I am in- clined to doubt it. Polls honestly have lit- tle meaning and frequently get the actual election results wrong. A not-insignificant per- centage of voters in the pri- maries have still not made up their minds even as they enter the voting booths. While pundits have been in- famously wrong during every single election, I am going to attempt to make my own pre- diction. I believe that either Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz will ultimately end up being the Republican nominee. It's quite possible that I could end up being en- tirely wrong due to unforeseen circumstances — one of these three may fall, there could be an unexpected surge — but as it stands now, I would expect one of them. Let's see what happens after the primaries actually begin. Whatever you think of Don- ald Trump, he has made the race much more interesting. The Democratic race, seems rather obvious that this is a coronation for Hillary, un- less Sanders wins — I hope not; I lose twenty dollars if she fails. Sanders is also a sign of the massive discontent that the public has with the sta- tus quo. Even if he is unlikely to win the nomination and nearly certain to lose in a gen- eral election if he does, his rise to prominence should send a message. Trevor Bacquet lives in Tehama. Trevor Bacquet Trump and the looming primaries StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916 445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug La- Malfa, 507 Cannon House Of- fice Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Fran- cisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervisors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamblin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Garton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Rich- ard Crabtree, 527-2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, John Brewer, 824-7033 Your officials Bogie has taught us some responsibility as we have created new patterns in our day to accommodate his needs, patched holes in our fences, and enjoyed walks, thankful for the plastic bags that the Daily News provides. After each outrageous, offensive statement, it was predicted that voters would soon turn against him, would weary of his speeches, get tired of what is frequently seen as a lack of substance. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, January 30, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6