About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2018)
4A OPINION Sttnes gainesvilletimes.com Tuesday, November 13, 2018 Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com Submit a letter: letters@gainesvilletimes.com The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. LETTERS Vote early next time to ensure Voters show up strong to midterms; quality of candidates still lacking equal opportunity I read with disbelief the “Black Georgia voters hear echoes of voter suppression” article from the Associated Press in Monday’s paper. I firmly believe everyone has the right to cast their ballots in an election. But I can’t see where the objections and accusations in this article are true. Many people stood in long lines to vote and in the rain. Some, perhaps many, were handicapped in some way but they waited their turns. Many others of us voted early to avoid some of these lines or voted absentee ballots. The people in Pittman Park could have and should have done the same. The voting hours were extended, more machines were brought in to accommodate them, a famous activist was allowed to meander through the crowd, food was prepared, a band played, etc. And they still complain! I wonder what the reaction would have been if similar antics had taken place in predominantly white districts. There would have been an uproar. If you want more people to vote, do it fairly. Get them to the polls early. The polls were open for two weeks, and the lines were not excessively long. Educate them so they know how they want to vote and lines move as quickly as possible. But it is not fair to wait until the last minute, let everyone line up, demand special treatment and then accuse the system of deliberately working against you. Lynn Miles Cleveland Forget party lines to cooperate and find solutions together Our nation has spoken. We now have a Dem- ocratic-controlled House and a Republican-con- trolled Senate. Our government also now has a choice. It can continue with gridlock, partisan divide, and anger and accusations, or it can decide it is time to put par tisan politics aside and work together for the com mon good. This will require people actually talking to each other, and, more importantly, listening to each other. I am old enough to remember when this was actually done in Washington! We are not red America or blue America. We are the United States of America. We all share many values. Most of us care about honesty, the value of hard work, caring for the vulnerable, loyalty, fair ness, family, faith, freedom, integrity and leaving a healthier, more prosperous America to future generations. Using those shared values, surely we can come together to act for the common good of our beloved country. We have many very important issues that need to be dealt with, and I hope and pray that bipartisan ship will pave the way for real solutions. One very important problem that already has some bipartisan support is climate change. A solu tion that finds support across the political spectrum is Carbon Fee and Dividend, whereby a steadily rising fee is placed on the heat-trapping emissions released by the burning of fossil fuels to account for their external damage. All revenue is returned to American households in a monthly dividend check. Economic studies show that about % of Americans come out ahead economically; it would add 2.8 million new Ameri can jobs and add $1,375 trillion to the economy over 20 years, and it would decrease greenhouse gases by 52 percent over that 20 year period. There is no other single plan that is that effective, and most economists agree that it is the best way to combat climate change. This plan has much that can appeal to both Dem ocrats and Republicans. Democrats can certainly support it as the most effective plan to combat climate change. From a conservative standpoint, there is much to like about this policy also, since it is a free market plan and actually grows the economy. The imperative to act now couldn’t be clearer. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently warned that we have little more than a decade to take the “unprecedented” actions needed to avoid the worst outcomes of climate change. This is a problem that can be solved, if our Con gress decides to put aside partisan politics and to work together to seek a solution for the common good. This is just one proposed solution, but, if both par ties work together and compromise, surely they can find a solution that all can live with and that will make America more prosperous. Perhaps this could then be a model for solving many of America’s other pressing problems. It is time for a new beginning of working together for the common good. Vernon Dixon Hiawassee To submit letters: Send by email to letters@ gainesvilletimes.com (no attached files) or use the contact form at gainesvilletimes. com. Include name, hometown and phone number; letters never appear anonymously. Letters are limited to one per writer in a month’s time on topics of public interest and may be edited for content and length (limit of 500 words). Letters may be rejected from readers with no ties to Northeast Georgia or that address personal, business or legal disputes. Letters not the work of the author listed or with material not properly attributed will be rejected. Submitted items may be published in print, electronic or other forms. Letters and other commentary express the opinions of the authors and not of The Times. Whatever other problems we may have faced with the 2018 midterm elections, voter apathy was not one of them. The electorate was on fire. Americans are painfully divided, and they often seem to live on different planets. But the good news is that nearly the whole solar system turned out to vote. More than 38 million Americans cast their ballots early or absentee, a huge jump from the more than 21 million who voted early or absentee in the 2014 midterm elections. You can credit President Trump — or blame him — depending on your politics. A poll taken before the election showed that Trump was on the minds of around 70 percent of those who planned to vote. Still, while voter participation was higher than normal, you did hear — in the days and weeks leading up to the vote — many of the usual jabs at non-voters. Even Oprah Winfrey piled on. While campaigning in Georgia for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, Winfrey told an audience: “For anybody here who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote and you are choos ing not to vote wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonor ing your family.” Ouch. That’s a heavy load to dump on someone. But I’ll allow it. Winfrey is absolutely right. All Americans should make an effort to vote. Our self-preservation depends on it. I’m a disciple of Alan Simpson, my friend and graduate school profes sor. The former Wyoming senator likes to say: “Politics is a contact sport. Take part, or get taken apart.” But while we’re on the sub ject of dishonor, let’s save a little indignation for the folks who’ve created a system that is dishonest, corrupt and self- serving. In this election cycle, I was especially attuned to efforts by candidates to deceive their own voters on hot-button issues like immi gration and health care. What upsets me in every election is that those who, for whatever reason, choose not to participate are held in such disdain by political junkies, journalists and every other elitist with an opinion. The non-participants are no small tribe. Many analysts agreed that turnout in this week’s elections could approach 50 percent. That would be the best show ing in midterms since the 1960s. But our expectations are so low that we applaud when only half of registered voters turn out to vote. And besides the no-shows, there are also the non-registered. Generally, only about half of eligible voters even bother to register. I follow Simpson’s law. I take part. As a journalist, my Election Day is busy. So, I make sure to vote in the morning. And yet, as a journalist, I also make it my business to understand the disgust of non-voters. In fact, in recent presidential elec tions, I have been so disappointed in the choices that I opted for “none of the above.” In 2012, with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each pretending to be some thing they weren’t, I urged readers to “skip the (top) line” — i.e., vote for every office and initiative on the ballot, but not for president. That’s what I did. In 2016,1 resolved not to be bullied into choosing between arsenic and cyanide. On Election Day, I entered the booth and wrote in a name. It’s liberating to not to have to defend your vote for the lesser evil — which, by definition, is still evil. This year, evil was back on the bal lot — along with incompetence. In recent months, both of the major par ties showed, at times, that they are not mature enough to handle unbridled power. Democrats hurt themselves with the disrespectful way they treated Brett Kavanaugh. And for what? A report released this past weekend from the Sen ate Judiciary Committee concluded that there was “no evidence to substantiate any of the claims” of sexual miscon duct leveled against the Supreme Court nominee. On immigration, Republicans like wise behaved atrociously. They went from misleading voters about whether there are “sanctuary cities” where ille gal immigrants live happily ever after to stoking fear over an “invasion” of migrants and refugees armed only with despair and desperation. Things are bad out there, folks. So, going forward, let’s cut the non-voters a break — and worry more about electing the kind of people who are worth voting for. Ruben Navarrette writes for The Washington Post Writers Group. RUBEN NAVARRETTE ruben@ rubennavarrette.com Trump loses — again — on DACA BY SCOn MARTELLE Los Angeles Times President Donald Trump just lost another one in the courts, with a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting the admin istration’s request to lift a nationwide injunction against his rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Get ready for a tweetstorm. The decision was essentially an incremental step in the legal fight over the Obama-era DACA program, which grants protections and work permits to some 700,000 people living here illegally after having arrived as chil dren. Obama crafted the policy after Congress failed to pass the Dream Act, which would have offered a reprieve from deportation and a path to citizen ship for people who have been raised and educated as Americans, and whose arrival here was no fault of their own. Granting relief to the so-called Dreamers (after the failed Dream Act, which passed the House in 2010 but received only 55 of the 60 Senate votes necessary to bring it to the floor) is widely popular with voters. But the congressional conservatives — includ ing some Democrats — have been able to bottle it up. DACA status does not grant a path to citizenship, but it grants a renewable two-year deferral from deportation and a work permit. Of course, such a good idea can’t last under Trump, who in September 2017 ordered the program rescinded, arguing a president does not have the authority under immigration laws to do what Obama had done. It’s an odd argument, a sitting president asking the courts to rule that he has less power than his predecessor had exercised, but that’s how Trump framed it. I suspect his decision had more to do with unrolling an Obama program than with any thought-out analysis of the lim its of executive power. But Trump also said he felt for the Dreamers’ predicament and wanted to do something good for them, and told Congress to fix the problem he created by ending the deferrals. Congress, of course, did not rise to the challenge, though in truth Trump sabotaged chances of advancing a bill by linking it to funding for his silly wall. DACA recipients and others affected by the rescission sued and won a nation wide injunction after lower courts ruled that they were likely to succeed in their challenge that rescinding DACA was an arbitrary and capricious act by the administration. So here we are, the injunction still in place, the legal challenge proceeding, and the DACA recipients still in limbo. Which brings up an idea for the incoming Democratic majority in the House. Call the president’s bluff and as soon as you convene, pass a humane and pragmatic bill granting legal status and a path to citizenship for Dreamers who meet the general requirements, includ ing a record clean of serious crimes. And then work with Trump to get it through the Senate. It may not fly, but starting off the session by passing a popular measure might signal that the political class can actually get something done that is in the nation’s interest, rather than sitting around grinding axes. She fumes EDITORIAL BOARD Founded Jan. 26,1947 345 Green St., Gainesville, GA 30501 gainesvilletimes.com General Manager Norman Baggs Editor in Chief Shannon Casas Community member Brent Hoffman
