Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/658783
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 EveryterroristattackthreatenstoputDonald Trump one step closer to the White House. Fear is a potent political weapon — especially at times like this, with Brussels in the news — and Trump is a master at going for the gut. Ifmoreattacksoccurinthe West between now and elec- tion day, he may be well posi- tioned to exploit that fear. He doesn't know much of anything about policy — this is hideously clear by now (on Monday, he even suggested that we scale down America's commitment to NATO). But he instinctively understands the visceral power of simplistic language. Trump and Hillary Clinton are still the likeliest fall con- tenders, and here's what the Republican front-runner is currently saying about poten- tial general election opponent: "She's weak on anything hav- ing to do with strength." Yes, it's simplistic. It's the kind of line that's written with a crayon. But there's a method to his madness. He's working to own the word strong and equate her with the word weak. He's been doing this for months, like when he blitzed the Sunday TV shows in early January and said, "I think that my words represent tough- ness and strength. Hillary's not strong. Hillary's weak." Which mirrors what he's saying now: "We have to be tough. We can't be soft and weak." He's saying this stuff over and over; do not underestimate the power of repetition. As Re- publican consultant and word- meister Frank Luntz has re- putedly said, "There's a simple rule (for candidates). You say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and you say it again, and then again and again and again and again, and about the first time that you're absolutely sick of saying it, is about the time that your target audience has heard it for the first time." Maybe you think this is just a crock, that Trump's primal scream and gift for repetition can't possibly prevail, even if autumn swing voters are quak- ing their boots about terrorism. Maybe you scoff at the notion that swing voters would listen to Trump when he says Clinton is "weak on borders." (As he did this week.) Maybe you find it funny that Trump has been as- piring to own the strong word since at least 1990 — when he told Playboy magazine that if he were president, he "would believe very strongly in ex- treme military strength." But academics who have studied the impact of terrorism on public opinion — they're not laughing. New research points to the fact that in times of fear, vot- ers become more supportive of candidates who support posi- tions such as hostility to per- ceived outsiders, tightened borders and fewer foreign en- tanglements. In other words, Donald Trump. "All of these issues are, in fact, pillars of the aggressive response we have seen by Don- ald Trump in response to the news today," Elizabeth J. Zech- meister, a political science pro- fessor at Vanderbilt University, told Politico. She is the co-au- thor, along with University of California Riverside professor Jennifer L. Merolla, of the book "Democracy at Risk: How Ter- rorist Threats Affect the Pub- lic."' Merolla told Politico their re- search showed frightened vot- ers do not necessarily look for traditional leadership qualities, such as Clinton's long tenure in government. She added that fe- male politicians "are typically at a disadvantage" when terror- ism is a dominant issue. It's quite possible that Trump's baggage will ulti- mately defeat him, that fear of his ascent will trump his at- tempts to exploit fear of terror- ism. Distaste for the guy still runs high, even in Republican circles. After Trump threat- ened to smear Ted Cruz's wife (don't ask), former George W. Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson posted this appeal to his GOP brethren: "How could anyone, anyone, support this vile man....If Trump were somehow, God forbid, to be elected president, he would im- mediately defile the office, and surely abuse it." Fine. But never underesti- mate the power of fear as a vot- ing motivation — especially in a climate like ours. History has taught us, all too often, what can happen when the basest in- stincts of human nature lead people astray. I'm reminded of something that Bill Clinton said in De- cember 2002, during a speech I covered in New York. He framed it as a warning to his fellow Democrats: "If we look weak at a time when people are scared, we lose. Insecure peo- ple would rather have someone who is strong and wrong." DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@gmail.com. Dick Polman The politics of terror in a climate of fear Cartoonist's take A few things may have slipped by your awareness over the last week, as news media have obsessed over the Repub- lican food/mud fight, which I pri- marily lay at the feet of Mr. Trump and the conduct of his (non-presi- dential, at least in tone) campaign. By the way, would it surprise you to know that, of all the cov- erage of Republicans for the month of February, a 50.4 per- cent majority of ABC, CBS and NBC evening news time went to Donald Trump, with Rubio, Cruz, Bush and Kasich receiv- ing about 18, 17, 8 and 3 percent respectively? That amounts to over 3 hours for Trump and 171 minutes for the next 3 com- bined. I ascribe it to equal parts me- dia agenda—they might con- sider nominee Trump to be a sure-fire future gusher for at- tack journalism in service to the Democrat candidate (ap- parently Hillary Clinton)—and crafty, successful manipulation by the media-savvy Trump, of the nearly-unquenchable thirst for low-ball, low hanging news feeds. "Ask yourself whether you think the media's lopsided coverage of Donald Trump has the Republican Party's best in- terests in mind." (Steven Hay- ward) I see it all as thinly veiled, in- kind contributions to Obama's third term. Consider the impli- cations of the fact that "Net- work News Loves Covering Trump but Not His Liberal Past," (Rich Noyes, 03/04). Has the mainstream news media given Republicans an excusable motive for supporting someone who, if his past positions, affil- iations and contributions were to stand alone, would not get even a second look as a stan- dard-bearer? Of those 187 min- utes of Trump coverage, only 4 minutes from all three net- works focused on Trump's ide- ology. Hmm. Among the news items given relative short shrift by the Trump "reality show" cam- paign coverage are: new as- pects of Hillary Clinton's email scandal showing that conve- nience and secrecy drove her choices, Obamacare's ongoing crash-and-burn, and Emperor Obama's cozying up to Cuban and South American dictators. We had knee-jerk descriptions of Juan Castro as a (fill-in-the- blank-title) non-dictator; we heard apologies for the CIA's in- volvement with the overthrow of Chile's communist dictator- in-the-making, Salvador Al- lende, by General Pinochet. It was a top-to-bottom "sympa- thy for the (leftist) devils" trip by Obama. From Wikipedia (under Sal- vador Allende): "As president, Allende adopted a policy of na- tionalization of industries and collectivization; due to these and other factors, increasingly strained relations between him and the legislative and ju- dicial branches of the Chil- ean government—who did not share his enthusiasm for social- ization—including the Chris- tian Democrats, whose support had enabled Allende's election, denounced his rule as unconsti- tutional and called for his over throw by force." (Hence, Gen. Pinochet) There is not one ex- ample of successfully imple- mented widespread prosper- ity under socialism—only pov- erty, economic devastation and death. Allende's policies were and are the hallmarks of dictatorial communist/socialist rule, just like Chavez's/Maduro's Venezu- ela. Only brute force and armed might can 1) take from private ownership that which the pri- vate sector has built (Chile's in- dustries and Venezuela's oil companies) and 2) impose des- potic collective economic mod- els on a nation's populace. Cuba's sad, impoverished state exists solely due to com- munist rule by the Castro brothers, whose jails have held, and continue to hold, politi- cal prisoner populations pro- portionally rivaling any other dictatorial socialist worker's "utopia." Obama's attitude? By observation, it can only be de- scribed as mildly bothered, if at all. "Cuban dissident leader An- tonio Rodiles spoke to Mike Gonzalez about President Obama's trip to Castro's social- ist paradise: 'Even if Obama's speech galvanizes some brave Cubans to demand their rights, the Castro Praetorian guard will crush them with impu- nity. We know this because that happened while Obama was in Cuba. Sources on the island said some Cubans gathered spontaneously after the speech to demand the rights enumer- ated in it, only to be brutally repressed by the Castro secu- rity forces. Yet the president not only did not leave in protest, but he failed to voice any objec- tions or even mention it, at least publicly. "'Indeed, during the three days of the Obama visit, dis- sidents were beaten, arrested, dragged through streets, stripped naked, and threatened with the rape of their daugh- ters. Dissident leader Antonio Rodiles, himself beaten and de- tained on Monday along with his wife, told me the Obama visit had occasioned a festival of repression.'" If this moves you, look up "Carlos Eire: The Speech Never Given," Powerlineblog.com. Re- jected by the New York Times and the Washington Post, the Yale history professor's piece is a devastating refutation of Obama's happy talk and mild support for the Castros' Marx- ist rule. Also at Powerlineblog.com and well worth your time, is "Obama on Freedom vs. Total- itarianism—Whatever Works," under the "Communism" label. In addition to a much-photo- graphed tango dance, Obama had some words of encour- agement for a Young Lead- ers of the Americas Initiative meeting. "During his remarks, Obama stumbled through an embarrassing discourse on 'capitalism vs. communism.' The would-be leader of what used to be called the Free World treated the issue as just another false choice… "Obama instructed his young listeners that the question isn't this system vs. that system, but rather 'what works.' In Cuba, he claimed (falsely), communism is working great when it comes to health care…(free) markets tend to generate wealth, though they must be heavily regulated." To Obama-crat leftists, how- ever, there are no limiting prin- ciples to any regulations. Prob- lems stemming from regulation always necessitate further oner- ous rule-making. And so on. 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 Media and non-Trump stories New research points to the fact that in times of fear, voters become more supportive of candidates who support positions such as hostility to perceived outsiders, tightened borders and fewer foreign entanglements. In other words, Donald Trump. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. While I hate that Charles Allen is no longer our superintendent, I think the county chose his replacement wisely. Kendi Botts Merlo: On Rich DuVarney being named Superintendent of Schools You don't need a lot of cans to make oil, lol. The more they decriminalize this stuff, the more people wouldn't be scared to do it outside where it is safe. People are scared so they do it in their homes which is dangerous. Alyssa Tenter: On Corning moving to ban large quantities of butane used for making honey oil Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Gallagher, 2060Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530895-4217, http://ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530879-7424, senator. nielsen@senate.ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown, State Capital Building, Sacramento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916 558-3160, governor@governor. ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa, 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415393- 0707, fax 415393-0710 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, March 29, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6