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PAGE 4A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2017
Opinions
“Private opinion is weak, but public opinion is almost omnipotent. ”
~ Henry Ward Beecher ~
Lewis feud says
more about Trump
In this space last week, I wrote that hyper-parti
sanship had become the standard of the Barack
Obama era in Washington despite his ambitions
in 2008 to move Americans past the gridlock.
If last weekend’s indirect verbal spat between
President-elect Donald Trump, who will become
our 45th president Friday, and Congressman John
Lewis proves anything, it’s that the hyper-partisan-
ship will likely only thicken in the years to come.
As columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote last
week, the customary honeymoon previous pres
idents have enjoyed is over
for Trump before it gets start
ed. Actually, there never was
one.
There is still a demonstra
tive unwillingness on the
part of many to accept what
happened in November and
move forward.
Lewis kicked things off
in an interview with NBC’s
“Meet the Press” released
last Friday, in which he said
he would skip Trump’s inau
guration and said he does
not believe Trump is a “legitimate” president
because of U.S. intelligence findings that Russia
intervened in the 2016 election in an effort to
damage Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s
chances and give Trump’s chances a boost.
Lewis, who is an American hero as many
who have come to his defense have pointed
out, should not be free of criticism here. The
word “illegitimate” suggests vote rigging, of which
there has been no credible evidence presented.
Hacking emails is not the same thing as manipu
lating vote totals and Donald Trump won the elec
tion fair and square by the system that’s in place.
It’s blatantly hypocritical for those who decried
Trump’s suggestion last year that the election was
rigged as a grave threat to the republic to think
it’s OK now to say the same thing about Trump’s
electoral victory without proof.
It shows that there are a number of Democrats
prepared to engage in what they have repeatedly
accused congressional Republicans of the past
eight years — obstructionism.
But what this miniature feud — I say “miniature”
because another one will likely have surfaced by
the time this is published — also illuminated is
there is no grievance Trump’s stunning pettiness
will allow him to leave unaired.
The steam had barely lifted off his Twitter
charades with Meryl Streep (It must be so shock
ing to some out there that Hollywood is filled
with ultra-liberal opinions, or that someone
might take exception to a presidential candidate
mocking someone with a disability.) and Arnold
Schwarzenegger (Reminder: The man who will
be leader of the free world in less than 48 hours
is seemingly more concerned with a reality televi
sion show’s ratings than intelligence reports). But
Trump was ready at the keyboard again Saturday,
firing off a series of tweets aimed at Lewis. In the
first two Saturday morning, Trump said Lewis
“should spend more time on fixing and helping
his district, which is in horrible shape and falling
apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than
falsely complaining about the election results”
and then said he was “All talk, talk, talk — no
action or results. Sad!”
Then, as if he had left it stewing in his head all
day before reaching an epiphany, Trump came
back Saturday evening, opining, “Congressman
John Lewis should finally focus on the burning
and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can
use all the help I can get!”
Certainly, Trump has every right to defend him
self. And he didn’t call Lewis “a racist pig” like
one obtuse Gwinnett County commissioner did.
But were the shots he did take at Lewis even
remotely necessary? Does everything have to be
“an eye for an eye” in his world?
Lewis’ Fifth Congressional District of Georgia is
not unlike many other urban districts across the
country. It includes universities, sports arenas,
public parks, large company headquarters and
highly affluent neighborhoods. It also has eco
nomically-disadvantaged neighborhoods where
crime has been an issue.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
crime statistics aren’t broken down by congres
sional district but Atlanta ranks 14th nationally
among urban cities. The district’s unemployment
rate, according to the paper, is higher than the
national average as well.
How much of a role does Lewis play into that as
opposed to the policies of the city and state?
And while I in no way believe Trump intended
to denigrate Lewis’ personal character when it
comes to his involvement in the Civil Rights move
ment, his characterization of the congressman as
“all talk, no action” was irresponsible, especially
on the weekend where the nation was honoring
the memory and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lewis was there on the front lines with King,
marching for the rights of people who were treat
ed as second-class citizens solely because of their
skin color.
He has been a man of action throughout his life,
and I wish I had half the courage he has shown.
It is OK to acknowledge that both men were in
See Thompson on Page 5A
Obamacare’s repeal could put
Georgia on the ‘critical’ list
To get an understanding of the major
problem facing state legislators this
year, you have to have been watching
a town hall meeting televised on CNN
last week.
U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan of
Wisconsin was fielding ques
tions from the audience when
an Arizona businessman
named Jeff Jeans challenged
him about the move by congres
sional Republicans to repeal
the Affordable Care Act (ACA),
also known as Obamacare.
Jeans described himself as
a lifelong Republican who did
not like the ACA when it was
passed in 2010.
“I told my wife we would close
our business before I complied
with this law,” he said.
But then, reality intervened.
Jeans lost his health insurance when
his company filed for bankruptcy. He
was subsequently diagnosed with
throat cancer and was unable to get
cancer treatments because he didn’t
have health coverage.
His situation took a turn for the bet
ter when his wife was able to purchase
an insurance policy for both of them
through the ACA.
That enabled him to get badly need
ed cancer treatments.
“Thanks to the Affordable Care Act,
I’m standing here today alive,” Jeans
told Ryan. “Being both a small-busi
ness person and someone with
preexisting conditions, I rely on the
Affordable Care Act to be able to pur
chase my own insurance. Why would
you repeal the Affordable Care Act
without a replacement?”
Despite the objections of Jeans
and many others, the Republicans
who control the House and Senate
are already holding votes to kill
Obamacare, which has provided
health insurance coverage for more
than 20 million Americans.
Initial votes were taken last week in
both chambers to start the process of
repealing the ACA. Georgia senators
Johnny Isakson and David Perdue,
as well as all of the state’s Republican
House members, voted with their col
leagues to get the ball rolling.
Ryan and the GOP leadership claim
they will pass a replacement for
Obamacare that won’t cost anybody
their coverage, but they aren’t being
truthful. Congressional Republicans
have been unable to come up with
an Obamacare replacement for seven
years now, and even with a new pres
ident who won’t veto their bill, they
aren’t any closer to having a viable
replacement.
Whatever slapdash legislation they
pass after the repeal of Obamacare
is going to result in many millions of
Americans losing their health insur
ance coverage. You can count on that.
Quite a few of those who will be
stripped of their health insurance are
people who voted for Donald Trump.
It’s possible they won’t mind that.
They may even think that losing their
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coverage and dying from some dread
disease as a result will be the great
est thing since sliced bread because
Trump supported it.
But even so, there will be large
numbers of people who aren’t quite
so enthused about the
fact that they no longer
have access to health
care. Many of them will
be right here in Georgia.
Nearly half a million
Georgians have enrolled
for health coverage
through the insurance
exchange provided by
the ACA. That number
was 482,445 at the end
of December, to be pre
cise.
When Obamacare is
repealed, those enrollees lose their
coverage.
The total number of Georgians
who are uninsured could increase
by more than one million, according
to estimates by the Urban Institute.
That number includes those who are
pushed off Medicaid as a result of
expected cutbacks in that program.
All of this becomes a problem for
Georgia legislators because their con
stituents who no longer have health
insurance are going to demand that
the state do something about it.
Hospital emergency rooms will also
be flooded by uninsured patients seek
ing medical treatment.
The legislative leadership is well
aware of this problem. Lt. Gov. Casey
Cagle has already appointed a spe
cial committee in the state Senate to
recommend ways of dealing with the
fallout from Obamacare repeal.
I’m not sure how much good that
will do. If Georgia is suddenly forced
to take care of 500,000 or one mil
lion people who are stripped of their
health coverage, it could bust the
state’s budget.
For now, all we can do is wait and
see what happens in Washington. If
you are a legislator and you’re not
nervous about what lies ahead, you
haven’t been paying attention.
Tom Crawford is editor of The
Georgia Report, an internet news ser
vice at gareport.com that reports on
state government and politics. He can
be reached at tcrawford@gareport.
com.
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Winder, Barrow County, Ga.
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Trump has a
lot to prove
This Friday, Donald Trump will become
the U.S.A.’s 45th president. Despite the
fact that he lost the popular vote, he won
the Electoral College vote.
Some of his critics on the left have
sought to delegitimize his election
because of that quirk, but they are wrong.
For better or worse, Trump is legally our
next president.
But that is not
to say he should
be. Trump enters
the Oval Office
under a very dark
cloud of his own
making. Over the
last 12 months, he
has done more to
divide Americans
and polarize our
politics than any
other public figure
in recent history.
He is a demagogue who has over and
over appealed to our basest instincts.
Trump has also shown us that he is a
man of both low intelligence and a very
thin skin.
He doesn’t read. He has no sense of
history. He has no sense of America’s
role in the world. Trump is so ignorant
intellectually, he doesn’t know what he
doesn’t know.
But perhaps Trump’s greatest flaw is his
emotional instability. He has demeaned
a beauty queen, blasted the parents of
a fallen U.S. soldier, mocked a disabled
reporter, ripped comedians who mock
him and degraded anyone who dares to
criticize him. And he will lie, over and
over and over, if it suits his purpose.
That emotional instability — the inabil
ity to take criticism and a pattern of
lying — is a dangerous trait in someone
who holds the most powerful office in
the world.
But his hardcore supporters love him
all the more for his offensive outbursts.
Of course, some voted for Trump who
perceived him to be the lesser of two
evils. But others fully embraced his out
rageousness. That mob doesn’t want a
president. They want a dictator, a king, a
“strong man” to take control.
Some on the far religious right think
Trump is an instrument of God sent to
deliver America from heathens.
White Nationalist thugs see Trump as a
tool to further their ugly agenda.
Others simply want Trump to blow up
the system, whatever that may be in their
minds.
To a large extent, Trump’s extremism
is a reaction to the man whom he is
replacing in the White House. President
Obama has been the object of intense
criticism during his eight years in office.
Some of that was due to his policies —
Iran, Syria and Obamacare.
But a large part of the criticism Obama
got was due to his race and the percep
tion that he favored blacks over whites,
or was a secret Muslim.
Right-wing conspiracy nuts on radio,
television and in social media had a
field day with Obama. Many, including
Donald Trump, claimed Obama wasn’t
a legal U.S. citizen and was therefore an
illegitimate president.
They said he planned to declare mar
tial law.
They said he was setting up internment
camps to round up critics.
They said he would confiscate
Americans’ guns.
They said he was a secret Muslim
who was planning to let the Muslim
Brotherhood take over America.
Of course, none of that was true. Those
things were nothing more than propa
ganda spewed by right-wing nuts.
Shockingly, a lot of people believed it.
Fiction became reality; reality became
fiction.
Anyone who dared point out the absur
dity of these things got labeled as a “lib-
erturd” or MSM or worse.
There are some who think Trump rose
because of the economic insecurity
being felt by the white underclass in
rural America.
I reject that. While economic insecu
rity may have played a part in Trump’s
political success, it was not the dominant
reason.
More than insecurity, Trump rose to
the presidency by cultivating contempt
and fear among voters. He built his
political house on the foundation of
that anti-Obama hatred. From there, he
spread fear among white Americans that
immigrants and refugees are a danger to
the social order and that other nations,
See Buffington on Page 6A