Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/745335
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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS MikePence hit thestumpinUtahon Wednesday. Yes, Utah. The Trumpster fire is so out of control that it has now become necessary to waste precious time shoring up a state that has gone overwhelmingly red in ev- ery election since 1968. All because of a guy we'd never heard of two months ago. Put your hands together for Evan McMullin, who, in addition to becoming the first shaved-head presiden- tial candidate, is a serious threat to deprive the Trump- Pence ticket of six electoral votes that it can ill afford to lose. An ex-CIA counterterror- ism officer, ex-House policy aide, and investment banker with a conservative "small government" platform, and a spot on the ballot in 11 states, McMullin is giving his fellow Utah Mormons a potential home on Election Day. Unlike the spineless Re- publican leaders in Washing- ton, McMullin is merciless about Trump — and that's a big reason why he's on top in a new Utah poll (at 31 per- cent; Trump, 27; Hillary Clinton, 24). Stats like that in Utah, on the eve of an election, are unprecedented. Utah's top elected Repub- licans have all bailed on Trump, essentially signaling to Republican voters that it's OK to back McMullin. Which boosts the odds that he could become the first inde- pendent to win a state since segregationist George Wal- lace scored in the South 48 years ago. Actually, Trump was in trouble in Utah long before he was outed on tape boast- ing about sexual assault; long before he was hit with 11 sexual assault accusers. Lest we forget, he lost the state's Republican primary by 55 points. Sixty percent of Utah's voters are Mormon, and they take seriously the church's doctrinal opposition to "any type of unclean or vulgar language and behavior." They're also, on average, highly educated, and we know from crunching the numbers all year that Trump does worst with people who are educated. And as heirs to a perse- cuted faith, they've long been cool to Trump's attacks on Muslims. McMullin has no money — reportedly, he had $4,300 in the campaign kitty at Sep- tember's end — but he does have a message. "Right now you have a Re- publican Party that turns away people of different races, turns away people of different religions," he said last Sunday on ABC News, critical of the party's sup- port of Trump. "The vast majority of Republican lead- ers are putting party ahead of principle and putting party ahead of the interests of their own country." McMullin is the kind of conventional conservative who has been sidelined this year. He shares a few Trump priorities — repeal Obam- acare, buttress the military — but he's pro-path to citi- zenship and pro-free trade. He appears to be in sync with Trump on cutting reg- ulations and lowering taxes, but, like many other con- servatives, he suspects that Trump is a closet liberal who doesn't believe what he espouses. And he's clearly draw- ing Utah conservatives who view Trump's repugnant rac- ism and sexism as a deal- breaker. In the end, McMullin him- self may be nothing more than a footnote, but his cur- rent warnings about the GOP may prove prescient. As the ashes of defeat are sifted, it's quite conceiv- able that the white nativist Trumpkin wing and the es- tablishment pro-outreach wing could be incompatible. "It's unlikely that the Republican Party will be able to make the kinds of changes it needs to make af- ter the election. These are generational problems...but the reality is, the conserva- tive movement doesn't have time for that," McMullin said on Sunday. "If the Re- publican party can't make the changes, as it wasn't able to do after 2012, the conser- vative movement will need a new political vehicle ... It may mean a new conserva- tive party." That GOP crackup could happen regardless of the outcome in Utah. But for now, the state's conservative voters are po- tentially the point of the spear. Even Trump seems to re- alize it. At a recent rally he declared "We're leading in North Carolina. (Lie.) We're leading all over the place. (Lie.) Having a tremendous problem in Utah." Bingo. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. DickPolmanisthenational political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks. org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Pennsylvania. Email him at dickpolman7@ gmail.com. Dick Polman Wait, we're talking about Utah? Cartoonist's take My, and Doug LaMalfa's, bal- lot recommendations are sum- marized at the end of the col- umn. For anyone wanting to help with some phone surveying to help the Trump cam- paign, stop by Republican HQ at 710 Main St., at the corner of Pine. It's easy; you'll feel good about it. Before being challenged to make a positive case for Don- ald Trump, it was my plan to do so today. It is not hard to do for anyone who has availed them- selves of available material. Look up https://assets.donald- jtrump.com/CONTRACT_FOR_ THE_VOTER.pdf and you can satisfy your own curiosity. It in- cludes "6 measures to clean up the corruption and special in- terest collusion in Washington, DC," an additional "7 actions to protect American workers," and "5 actions to restore security and the constitutional rule of law," for his first day in office. He intends to work with Con- gress to enact legislation for: Middle Class Tax Relief and Simplification, End Offshoring, American Energy & Infrastruc- ture, School Choice And Educa- tion Opportunity, Replace and Repeal Obamacare, Affordable Childcare and Eldercare, End Illegal Immigration, Restore Community Safety, Restore Na- tional Security and Clean up Corruption in Washington—all in his first 100 days. Roger L. Simon summed it thusly: "If the Election Were about Trump's Gettysburg Pol- icies, He Would Win in a Land- slide" (10/22). Trump's economic, tax and regulatory goals will accom- plish what both Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy did to pro- duce booming economies and growing revenues from said growth. The largest Keynesian eco- nomic experiment since the Great Depression—which was extended by 7 years due to FDR's policies—has shown over the last 7 years of supposedly stimulative deficit spending that you cannot tax and spend your way to prosperity. Trump's business tax reductions will move America back to its right- ful place as the world's business and economic leader. Either Trump or Clinton will bring 3,000 appointees, multi- ple Supreme Court justices and a multitude of lower federal court nominees. I trust that Trump's choices will reflect pro-American, pro- freedom, pro-Constitution and stronger military policies and decisions. This brings us back to Clin- ton corruption, scandal and lawlessness—well, laws that ap- ply to everyone else, anyway. Events of the last several days fill me with cautious optimism that a majority of voters may ul- timately see clearly the predict- able potential crisis to come from electing Hillary Clin- ton under the greatest cloud of criminal suspicion America has seen since Nixon. Just to clearly state the crim- inal culpability involved in compromising national secu- rity documents and communi- cations: Military, National Se- curity Administration mem- bers and contractors have been accused, prosecuted, tried and jailed for doing far less than sending literally hundreds of classified emails as was done by Hillary Clinton over her unse- cured private server. Now James Comey has re- vealed that thousands of ".gov" e-mails were on a laptop shared by Hillary aide Huma Abedien and Anthony Weiner. This is from the FBI Director James Comey that arbitrarily absolved Clinton of wrongdoing based on the specious claim that she had no "intent" to compro- mise America's security proto- cols. "Intent" is irrelevant in the criminal justice investigation, says former federal prosecutor Andrew C. McCarthy, who just wrote "Comey Is Not the One Whose Unorthodox Actions Are Casting a Cloud over the Elec- tion." Here's a roundup of outrages: The Department of Justice has attempted to interfere with a multiple-city FBI investigation of the Clinton Foundation in a thinly-veiled attempt to weaken efforts to get to the bottom of corrupt "pay to play" schemes. Almost half of those polled by Morning Consult said the Clin- ton email scandal is "worse than the Watergate scandal." Headline: "Colorado Dems Complain Clintons 'Sold Coun- try Down River'." Also, "Democrats should ask Clinton to step aside" (John Kass, Chicago Tribune re- porter). Kass asks, "Has Amer- ica become so numb by the de- cades of lies and cynicism ooz- ing from Clinton Inc. that it could elect Hillary Clinton as president, even after Friday's FBI announcement that it had reopened an investigation of her emails while secretary of state?" "What happens when a for- mer Democrat congressman makes sexual Twitter advances to a minor causing the FBI to seize the computer of his wife, the Democrat presidential can- didate's aide and a woman with ties to radical Islam, and the said computer is found to con- tain emails that potentially ex- posed classified information to our enemies so that said can- didate could hide her likely in- fluence peddling?" (Andrew Klaven, pjmedia.com) What happens, indeed? Defeat? "The truth is, neither one of our leading candidates for president is a paragon of vir- tue. But only one of them has already made a habit of flout- ing the law while in office, sell- ing favors and escaping the consequences, and only one of them is likely to be able to pull it off from the White House. And that's the problem. If Sec- retary of State Clinton, serving under a president and with an eye on winning a second term in the White House, wasn't con- strained by the rules, who will constrain her if she's presi- dent?" (Glenn Reynolds, USA Today) Howie Carr nailed it: "Nice try, Democrats, but this thing ain't really over yet, is it?" My voting choices—explained in prior column—are: "No" to both school bond measures (J for RB High School, and H for Shasta College); "Yes" to in- creasing the Supervisors' sala- ries (County M); "No" to 51, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65 and 67—all are one iteration or another of liberal tax, spend, debt, soft-on-crime, anti-gun, pro-pot and anti-rural environ- mental agendas. "Yes" on 52, 53, 54 and "Yes" on 66 for timelier implementation of the death penalty. 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 Trump's plan; Hillary's scandals He appears to be in sync with Trump on cutting regulations and lowering taxes, but, like many other conservatives, he suspects that Trump is a closet liberal who doesn't believe what he espouses. And he's clearly drawing Utah conservatives who view Trump's repugnant racism and sexism as a deal-breaker. In the end, McMullin himself may be nothing more than a footnote, but his current warnings about the GOP may prove prescient. Don Polson StateandNational Assemblyman James Galla- gher, 2060 Talbert Drive, Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 895-4217, http:// ad03.asmrc.org/ Senator Jim Nielsen, 2634 For- est 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 Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202 225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Fran- cisco 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, Kris- tina Miller, 824-7033 YOUR OFFICIALS OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 1, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6