Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/754143
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 Dick Polman We'reall sofixatedon what's happening right now in Washington — where Team Trump, shocked by its own vic- tory, is scrambling to form a government with predictable incompe- tence — that it's easy to ignore what's happening in the states beyond the Beltway. That's where the Dem- ocrats are getting their butts kicked in ways not seen since the 1920s. When the dust settles, they'll control a mere 30 of the 98 partisan state legislative chambers. Their incessant losses at the grassroots level have put the Republicans fully in charge of both leg- islative chambers in 32 states. That's a record high for the GOP. Most state legisla- tures — at last check, 36 — draw the congressio- nal boundaries for 336 of the 435 House dis- tricts. If Republicans can sustain their state dom- inance in the 2018 mid- terms (bet on it), they'll keep drawing those boundaries in ways that maximize their vot- ers and minimize the clout of Democratic vot- ers — thus perpetuat- ing their majorities in the House of Represen- tatives. And if Republi- cans in the years ahead can raise their state leg- islative dominance from 32 to 38 states, while re- taining their congressio- nal power, they'll be able to ratify their dream amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This is one of the most underreported stories of our era: Barack Obama's two wins at the top of the Democratic ticket have masked the party's down-ballot disasters. In fact, Democrats have been hemorrhaging seats in the hinterlands ever since the 2010 midterms. Since Obama was sworn in, Democrats have lost roughly 900 state legis- lative seats and control of more than half the state chambers they ran at the dawn of 2009. One year ago, a promi- nent Democratic activist said, "There's a growing realization that we've got to get more serious at the state level." Gee, ya think? The party ap- parently had "a growing realization," years after it should have been ob- vious that Obama's per- sonal successes weren't translating to the grass- roots. And despite Obama's current poll- ing popularity, and de- spite his recent unprec- edented endorsement of 150 state legislative can- didates, Democrats got nowhere last week. They targeted the Florida Sen- ate for takeover — didn't get it. They targeted the Michigan House and the North Carolina House — didn't get them. They targeted the Pennsylva- nia House — didn't get it. A party can't build a solid bench if its legs are weak. Hillary Clin- ton acknowledged this in a 2015 interview: "You see the problems, when we don't have a pipeline from county commis- sions and school boards and state legislatures all the way up to governors. And it has really hurt us...we have just been decimated." So what's the prob- lem? Why have Dem- ocrats coughed up so many states — where anti-abortion laws and voter ID laws and so many other pet conser- vative causes have flour- ished during the last six years? Clinton, in that inter- view, offered one rea- son: "Democrats are re- ally personality-driven." In other words, they're focused on the presi- dential nominee, they're top-down instead of bot- tom-up. A related rea- son is that many of the party's core constituents (minorities, young peo- ple, diehard liberals) ha- bitually skip the mid- term elections where down-ballot candidates take prominence; by contrast, the GOP's die- hards turn out for the midterms, and the par- ty's D.C. headquarters has long prioritized state legislative elections, rou- tinely outspending their Democratic counterparts by roughly 2-1. And since many (or most) voters don't know much about their state legislators, party ID is arguably the most deter- minative factor. That's where Republicans have built a big advan- tage; at the local level, their party brand is bet- ter. Fairly or not, they're viewed as the party of "low taxes" and "pro- business." Working-class whites view the GOP as the party of the little guy, even though Repub- licans haven't done jack for the little guy and job- exodus due to factory shutdowns were endemic under Ronald Reagan. But nobody ever said that politics is fair. Dem- ocrats have long paid in- sufficient attention to their grassroots races, failing time and again to find the "language that real voters speak in." So says Democratic activ- ist Jessica Post, who had the thankless task of helming the party's 2016 plan to win back state legislatures. In her words, "We have a lot of learning to do about how to go back to our roots...I think Democrats are in for a long period of introspec- tion." Can't argue with that. DickPolmanisthe national 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 Beyondthe Beltway Dems even worse off Cartoonist's take It is the week of Thanksgiving that gives us all cause for reflection on gratitude in our lives—if such sen- timents fit into the routines of shopping, food and games. Fam- ily ranks high on that list; unless, of course, thanks arise over not having to endure their company for a while. I'm just saying it's not always a "Norman Rockwell" tableau. Ironically, anecdotes are circu- lating of invitations including "let's just not discuss the election" adviso- ries. As with numerous other cases of double standards, such preventa- tive requests were not much seen in the last two elections. Perhaps it was presumed that only ideological retro- grades would voice objection to the nation's first black president, or even express disappointment that our candidates lost. In fact, it did not require gross re- straint to leave politics at the door- way for those of us nursing our "how could we lose?" hangovers. Unless we were among fellow conserva- tives, propriety and politeness dic- tated "no politics or religion" at the table. Amongst ourselves, however, if someone overheard our thoughts and took exception, they weren't forced to listen. There is, however, a tongue-in- cheek case for mildly upsetting the gathered, disappointed Hillary vot- ers with seemingly innocent offer- ings like "She might have won if" 1) she hadn't set up that unprecedented private server with the expressed in- tent to hide her emails and "official" communications from scrutiny; 2) she hadn't rejected the proven polit- ical advice of her husband to get out into the working class counties and make believe she cared about their jobs more than the deep pockets of leftist, environmental donors; 3) She hadn't kept her multi-hun- dred-thousand-dollar speeches un- der wraps, or at least 4) never talked about believing in "open borders and open markets," let alone 5) having one set of "public positions" and an- other set of "private positions." That surfaced from a speech she gave to big bank/financial/investment house grandees forking over said exorbi- tant speaking fees just to hear how she would cut them in on friendly terms. One could point out that the sym- pathetic voice and persona we saw in her concession was strangely lacking throughout a campaign in which she morphed into a harridan, practically shrieking at her rallies and to the world a message of…well, what re- ally was her message? I'm only inter- ested in assuaging the bruised hopes of Clinton devotees with a message of what could have been; how it was really much closer than the Electoral College suggested. An emailed message, "Excellent analysis! And nice job of not crow- ing" in last week's column struck me as a fair response. I truly wasn't rubbing it in the noses of the 28% of county voters that went for Hillary. It was just a fair view of what the numbers said to me. Hence, it was surprising to read Mr. Minch describe it as gloat- ing (def: "to show malicious plea- sure"). It could be fairly said that Trump supporters were treated to some of the most blatant pre-elec- tion gloating in our collective polit- ical memories. When I wrote, "The constant triumphal-ism from Demo- crats was fed by their certainty over perpetual electoral victories," it was a non-gloating way of pointing out the near-celebratory proclaiming of Clinton's winning the progressive throne of the presidency. Obama's third term and all. If I were to gloat, with malice, it would go something like this: Are we finally done with the Clinton's and their traveling circus of corruption, self-dealing, influence peddling and grifter/grafter mentality? The voters said as much. They proclaimed the end of the progressive experiment in running our lives, families and busi- nesses from the far-off elite towers of authoritarian rule by regulatory and academic overlords. The people mandated that all things liberal and Democrat-inspired be cast into the ash heap of history. Those who've presumed their own superiority by virtue of their adored liberal leaders and supremely-correct ideological conclusions—they shall henceforth keep silent, bow before our electoral win and sheepishly accede to our policy prescriptions, laws and judg- ments. Be humbled, losers! Schaden- freude (def: enjoying the misfortune of others) is good! Winning progressives would have made such noises. However, I wouldn't say such things with sin- cerity—partly due to the lack of mal- ice in my heart, mostly because the election results supported no such "gloating." Trump losing by about 1,700,000 votes constitutes not so much a mandate as permission to try to implement what he ran on, just like if the reverse happened and Clinton won 300+ electoral votes but lost the popular vote. There was no sense of accommo- dation with Republicans by Barack Obama, who gloated that he won, they lost, "elections have conse- quences," and that they should go to "the back" of the bus or line or whatever. He said we should make our case and win elections, so we have a Republican Congress and a President-elect Donald J. Trump. I don't believe for a moment that Hillary would have given more than a superficial nod to her de- feated foes as she charged ahead with what Obama's and Hillary's supporters openly proclaimed to be Obama 3.0. Online readers are owed the knowledge that the commenter us- ing the pseudonym "Another Bob" is actually Chico Democrat, super delegate and practitioner of politi- cal skullduggery, Bob Mulholland. I have posted on my blog a half dozen links (sources: krcrtv.com, demo- craticunderground.com, wordpress. com and topix.com forum threads) that readers can access to decide for themselves. The post is titled: "An- other_Bob is Bob Mulholland using fake name to slime his foes." I dis- courage no comments; I only decry someone anonymously casting as- persions on my motives and charac- ter without the accountability of us- ing their real name. 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 Give thanks, no political gloating Working-class whites view the GOP as the party of the little guy, even though Republicans haven't done jack for the little guy and job-exodus due to factory shutdowns were endemic under Ronald Reagan. 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 Doug LaMalfa, 507 Can- non House Office Build- ing, 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 Super- visors, 527-4655 District 1, Steve Cham- blin, Ext. 3015 District 2, Candy Carl- son, Ext. 3014 District 3, Dennis Gar- ton, Ext. 3017 District 4, Bob Wil- liams, Ext. 3018 District 5, Burt Bundy, Ext. 3016 Red Bluff City Manager, Richard Crabtree, 527- 2605, Ext. 3061 Corning City Manager, Kristina Miller, 824-7033 Your officials OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 22, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6