Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/638181
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 Oneofthegreatthings about the winnowing of the 2016 presidential field over the last week is that it's mak- ing it much easier to figure out which candidate is sup- posed to scare voters the most. If you listen to Republicans Donald Trump, Marco Ru- bio and Ted Cruz, the putative front-runners of the GOP field, each claim that they're the candidates Democrats should fear most. And no less a person- age than former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who knows from frightening peo- ple, says Republicans should be worry less about Hillary Clinton and more about feel- ing "The Bern." So many choices — so many candidates for Re- publicans and Democrats to tremble before if one of them, Heaven forfend, actu- ally wins their party's respec- tive nomination and then... horrors... the White House in November. And while a lot of this rhet- oric is clearly aimed at ener- gizing the Republican and Democratic bases against the gladiatorial background of the primary season, its net effect on our politics is incredibly corrosive. Think about it: How many times over the last 10 years have you heard someone you know shake their heads and disgust and proclaim, "He's not my president... I didn't vote for him." It happened among Dem- ocrats under the adminis- tration of George W. Bush and more viscerally among Republicans under Barack Obama. But heck, there were proba- bly Virginia planters who said the same thing about George Washington. And opposition to Abra- ham Lincoln was deep-seated as well. Regardless of who wins in November, Democrat or Re- publican, he or she will be the president of the entire United States — and not just what- ever percentage of party loyal- ists who cast ballots on their behalf. But to hear the debate, both on the campaign trail and around the dinner table, that's hardly the case. Unfortunately, Americans are more entrenched than ever — as some sobering Pew Re- search Center data makes clear. For instance, the aver- age partisan gap in presiden- tial approval ratings since the Eisenhower administration has leaped from an average of 39 points to a staggering 67 points under Obama, the Pew research found. In 1952, a plurality of Dem- ocrats (49 percent) liked Ike, compared to 88 percent of Re- publicans. By the time of Obama, 81 percent of Democrats ap- proved of the nation's first black president, compared to a mere 14 percent of Republi- cans in 2010. As a result, it's now not enough to merely disagree with a candidate and where he or she stands on the is- sues. One must certifiably loathe them and want to work actively to see their ideas defeated and de- stroyed. "Many in each party now deny the other's facts, dis- approve of each other's life- styles, avoid each other's neighborhoods, impugn each other's motives, doubt each other's patriotism, can't stomach each other's news sources, and bring different value systems to such core social institutions as reli- gion, marriage and parent- hood. It's as if they belong not to rival parties but alien tribes," says researcher Paul Taylor. What's driving all this change? One of the biggest factors is changing demo- graphics. As Taylor notes, America will be majority non-white (probably by 2050), and "at the same time, a record share of Americans are going gray. To- gether, these overhauls have led to stark demographic, ide- ological and cultural differ- ences between the parties' bases." And the political parties re- flect that, he notes, with each becoming more ideologically entrenched and increasingly influenced by their ideological extremes. In the meantime, those two camps are increasingly likely to seek out media that reflects their specific worldview. Forty-seven percent of those who identify themselves as "consistently conservative," say their main source of infor- mation is Fox News, while 15 percent of those who identify as "consistently liberal" get their news from a close mix of CNN, NPR and MSNBC —15, 13 and 12 percent, respec- tively. What we lose as a result of this bunker mentality is that one thing that's absolutely es- sential to a well-function- ing democracy: The ability to reach common ground and to compromise to solve our prob- lems. Fear and loathing on the campaign trail might be the path to the nomi- nation. But as any politi- cal pro will tell you, there's a big difference between campaigning and actually governing. There, fear loses — every single time. An award-winning political journalist, 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. John Micek Fear and loathing in New Hampshire Cartoonist's take As I write, the news broke that Tehama County Superin- tendent of Schools Charles Al- len "will be leav- ing his office be- fore his term is up because he is facing having his credentials re- voked." A well- written and very authoritative let- ter by Lou Bo- setti, with sup- port and endorsements by other respected former educators and administrators, appeared on this page advocating the im- mediate appointment of Harley North to the position. The controversy surround- ing Allen's questionable creden- tials arose in the election that he won against North. This column concurred with the position of Allen's oppo- nents and North's supporters. Some insisted that questions regarding Allen's credentials were overblown; the money and persuasive power of the teachers' union supported Al- len. The union was playing typi- cal union politics, using our col- lective taxes that pay the sala- ries of educators, from whose forced union dues are derived the very monies used—in a thinly-veiled special interest campaign—to support their pre- ferred candidate. I agree with F.D. Roosevelt and union leader George Meany that public em- ployees have no business union- izing, and certainly no business swaying elections. "Obama visits US mosque," by AP reporter Darlene Super- ville, appeared in last Thurs- day's Daily News. BHO decried the "hugely distorted impres- sion" of Muslim-Americans and cited the fears of "young Muslims worried they'll be rounded up and kicked out of the country…Muslims are concerned about terrorism but are too often blamed as a group 'for the violent acts of the very few.'" Obama cited "bullied chil- dren," "vandalized mosques" and other instances of "un- equal treatment." He implies that Americans are failing to 1) differentiate between good Muslims and bad Muslims and 2) defer to the proper Muslim authorities and orga- nizations in forming our atti- tudes about Islam and Islamic terrorism (BHO: it's not Is- lamic). Has Barack Obama spoken out in similar forceful fashion condemning anti-Semitic vio- lence and hate crimes (also, not Islamic anti-Jewish hate)? How about the violence and terror- ism inflicted on Christians by Muslims across the world (just coincidental and un-Islamic)? AP and the rest of the Main- stream Media provided sloppy stenography for the "correct" version of the issue. No ques- tioning of the president's narra- tive appeared; no insight to the complex-but-troubling practices and beliefs of Islam. For that, one has to find ar- ticles like "Obama's Islamo- phobia," by Roger L. Simon (searchable by title). "Barack Obama suffers from a serious case of the real Islamophobia— fear of telling the truth about Islam. Even though a 'progres- sive,' he says nary a word about the rampant misogyny and ho- mophobia in Islam or about sharia law whose medieval strictures are preferred by 51 percent of American Muslims. Nor does he seem to care that so few of these same American Muslims actively oppose radi- cal Islam. The president prefers the Hamas-linked CAIR (Coun- cil on American Islamic Rela- tions) to courageous reform- ers like Dr. Zuhdi Jasser. But that's no surprise. For Obama, radical Islam doesn't even ex- ist. "Instead, he claims Amer- ican citizens are mistreating their Muslim brothers and sis- ters when anyone with a web browser can see that simply isn't true and is yet another Obama lie. In fact, anti-Mus- lim acts in the USA are few and far less than those against Jews. According to the FBI in 2014, 57 % of hate crimes tar- geted Jews, only 16 % Mus- lims." Also, look up "Obama De- fends the Faith," by Scott John- son (Powerlineblog.com). "Pres- ident Obama seems to believe in nothing more than he does the defense of Islam. He spe- cializes in pronouncements on what is truly Islamic and what is not [which always] preserve the good name of Islam." Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the San Bernardino jihadis—not Is- lamic. Not only Obama's words but his deeds—as in the Baltimore mosque (Islamic Center of Bal- timore) he chose to visit—il- lustrate the quandary he finds himself immersed in without any apparent self-awareness. Zuhdi Jasser of the Islamic Fo- rum for Democracy said this: "As a Muslim American I'm just insulted, this is disgraceful that this is one of the mosques—or the mosque—that he's chosen to visit." Investor's Business Daily editorialized: "President Obama is conferring legiti- macy on a Baltimore mosque the FBI just a few years ago was monitoring as a breed- ing ground for terrorists, af- ter arresting a member for plotting to blow up a federal building…According to the criminal complaint, (25-year- old Muslim convert) Anto- nio Martinez, aka Muham- mad Hussain," conversed with other Muslims who worshiped there. "He indicated that if the military continued to kill their Muslim brothers and sisters, they would need to expand their operations by killing U.S. Army personnel where they live. He said that in the Quran he learned that Islam counsels Muslims to 'fight those who fight against you.'" Well, not surprisingly, CAIR (an unindicted co-conspira- tor in the Holy Land Foun- dation prosecution) report- edly chose the ISB mosque for Obama. ISB is affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America "which federal pros- ecutors in 2007 named a rad- ical Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front, and an unin- dicted terrorist co-conspira- tor in a scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas suicide bombers—and ISB has helped organize the terror-tied ISNA's conferences. The Sha- riah-compliant mosque was led for 15 years by a radical cleric—Imam Mohamad Adam el-Sheikh—who once repre- sented a federally designated al-Qaida front group." (go to Donpolson.blogspot.com, click the "Islam" link, for these and more). "Ye shall know them by their fruits," as Jesus said. 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 Islam is as Islamists do What we lose as a result of this bunker mentality is that one thing that's absolutely essential to a well-functioning democracy: The ability to reach common ground and to compromise to solve our problems. Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 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@gover- nor.ca.gov U.S. Representative D ou g L a Ma l fa , 50 7 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225- 3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393-0707, fax 415 393- 0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286-8537, fax 202 224-0454 Local Tehama County Supervi- sors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Chamb- lin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carlson, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Gar- ton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Williams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Man- ager, R ichard Crab - tree, 527-2605, E x t. 3061 Corning City Man- ager, John Brewer, 824- 7033. Your officials Obama cited "bullied children," "vandalized mosques" and other instances of "unequal treatment." OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, February 9, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6