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OPINION
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gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, November 15, 2018
Shannon Casas Editor in Chief | 770-718-3417 | scasas@gainesvilletimes.com
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LETTERS
Why stop opioid
treatments to
participate in
drug court?
Drug courts are progressively developing into
the prominent treatment choice for nonviolent
drug offenders.
Methadone is shown to be one of the most useful
treatments for opioid dependent patients. Given
the current opioid crisis the U.S. is currently fac
ing, the number of opioid dependent drug court
participants continues to grow.
Despite the mounting scholarly and peer-
reviewed evidence supporting the success of a
methadone prescription to treat opioid depen
dency, many drug courts continue to prevent par
ticipants from continuing methadone treatment
when they begin drug court.
This community problem could be improved
by drug court policies being modified to include
methadone medication-assisted treatment as an
option for participants.
As a community, we could bring much needed
awareness to this problem by advocating for
opioid-dependent patients by providing current
research and education to our policy makers,
local attorneys and judges.
Hall County drug court proposes goals for the
patient such as reducing their likelihood of recidi
vism and providing the necessary resources to
stop the use of illicit drugs.
According to the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, medicines such as methadone, buprenor-
phine and extended-release naltrexone have been
shown to reduce heroin use and should be made
available to individuals who could benefit from
them.
Medication-assisted treatment allows a patient
to learn the necessary behavioral changes while
alleviating powerful withdrawal symptoms that
make it very difficult for the patient to focus on
positive lifestyle changes.
If our community drug court will reconsider
the ban on methadone treatment for opioid
dependent drug court participants, we could see
improved outcomes for the participants and our
community, and help end the stigma for medica
tion-assisted treatment.
We would not require a diabetic to stop their
insulin treatment in order to participate in drug
court; therefore, it seems unreasonable to require
an opioid-dependent patient to stop taking their
methadone in order to participate, either.
Rachel Thomas
Gainesville
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Letters and other commentary express the
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Trump wont run for re-election
About six months ago, a
friend and I were talking
about the 2020 presidential
elections when he shared a
startling prediction: Presi
dent Trump would not seek
re-election.
Despite the fact that my
friend is politically con
nected, brilliant and often
right when others are wrong,
I thought, “no way, no how.”
Trump’s overweening ego
is too bloated for him to simply walk
away from the most powerful post on the
planet. And by all accounts, he’s master
fully redefined the office to suit all his
self-centered needs.
He works only when he wants to,
reportedly dedicating as few as three
hours a day to governing and devoting
the rest to “executive time,” or watching
television and tweeting.
He skips the traditional obligations
most presidents have fulfilled, from
holding regular press conferences to
honoring our veterans at Arlington
National Cemetery on Veterans Day. If
it’s not important to him, conventions be
damned.
And he’s managed to bend the will of
Republicans in Congress to his version
of politics, which often looks nothing like
theirs, getting easy cover for bad policies
like tariffs or a trillion-dollar spending
bill, as well as for his near-constant per
version of conservative values.
He’s earned not only forgiveness but
praise from many Republican lawmak
ers for subverting the rule of law, distort
ing the norms of basic human decency
and regularly scoffing at the primacy of
our founding document, the Constitution.
Why on earth would he leave all this
behind?
I’m now beginning to
understand what my friend
was imagining when he said
Trump wouldn’t run again.
And I think he may be right.
Here’s why.
He’s running out of
stooges
Life was easy when
Trump’s inner circle was
happy to protect him from
outside pressures. Republi
cans shielded him from investigations,
and his aides carried out his imprudent
ideas. But that’s all falling apart.
In a Hail Mary attempt to keep the
Robert Mueller investigation at bay, he’s
appointed Matthew Whitaker to head up
the Justice Department. But that is, even
by Trump’s own admission, temporary.
No one person can keep the investigation
from running its course. Democrats will
see to that, and then some. The investiga
tions, subpoenas and hearings coming
Trump’s way will be the equivalent of
a root canal, and there’s little he can do
about it.
He trusts no one
He’s reportedly preparing to fire
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen
Nielsen and Chief of Staff John Kelly,
and First Lady Melania Trump issued
her own unusual call for deputy national
security adviser Mira Ricardel to be
fired. As Washington Post White House
bureau chief Philip Rucker suggested on
Wednesday, “There are not particularly
the sort of close loyal friends that he
feels he can confide in with any regular
ity at a deep emotional level.”
The castle is crumbling from the
inside, and Trump is feeling like a ruler
under siege.
His base is shrinking
The midterm elections proved one
thing: Trump’s base is not as big as it
once was. He’s lost a considerable contin
gent in the suburbs, and he will not likely
have the turnout he did in 2016 by 2020.
Nor will he have as singularly horrible
an opponent.
The circuitous and uniquely favorable
path that led to his first win will have
vanished, leaving not even bread crumbs
behind.
It’s not ego that drives him
It’s easy to assume, as I said above,
that ego is Trump’s main motivator. But
it’s actually his irrational, impulsive,
insatiable id — the dominant part of his
brain that craves immediate gratifica
tion and self-soothing affirmation at all
times. He wants what he wants when he
wants it. As he gets less of what he wants,
and has fewer people willing to bend the
rules to help him get it, it’s quite easy to
imagine Trump impulsively deciding
someday in the next year or so that he’s
had enough.
The 2020 elections are light years
away by political standards. We know
Trump’s biggest brand is never running
away from a fight, and in the end that
might trump everything. Anything can
happen — but little of that is likely to
favor the president.
The next few months will be bloody
and exhausting for all of us, but for the
president they might just be too much to
take.
S.E. Cupp is the host of “S.E. Cupp
Unfiltered” on HLN and a columnist for
Tribune Media.
S.E. CUPP
secuppdailynews@
yahoo.com.
LISA BENSON I Washington Post Writers Group
Your government officials
U.S. government
President Donald Ihimp, The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20500,
202-456-1111,202-456-1414, fax, 202-456-
2461; www.whitehouse.gov
Sen. Johnny Isakson, 131 Russell Senate Office
Building, Washington, DC 20510,202-224-
3643, fax, 202-228-0724; One Overton Park,
3625 Cumberland Blvd., Suite 970, Atlanta
30339, 770-661 -0999, fax, 770-661 -0768;
isakson.senate.gov
Sen. David Perdue, 383 Russell Senate Office
Building, Washington, DC 20510,202-224-
3521, fax 202-228-1031; 3280 Peachtree Road
NE Suite 2640, Atlanta 30303, 404-865-0087,
fax 404-865-0311; perdue.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, 1504 Longworth House
Office Building, Washington, DC 20515,202-
225-9893; 210 Washington St. NW, Suite 202,
Gainesville 30501,770-297-3388; dougcollins.
house.gov
U.S. Rep Rob Woodall, 1725 Longworth House
Office Building, Washington, DC 20515,202-
225-4272, fax 202-225-4696; 75 Langley Drive,
Lawrenceville 30045, 770-232-3005, fax 770-
232-2909; woodall.house.gov
Georgia state government
Gov. Nathan Deal, 203 State Capitol, Atlanta
30334; 404-656-1776; www.gov.georgia.gov
Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, 240 State Capitol, Atlanta
30334, 404-656-5030; www.ltgov.ga.gov
Secretary of State Brian Kemp, 214 State Capitol,
Atlanta 30334, 404-656-2881, fax 404-656-
0513; www.sos.state.ga.us; Elections Division,
2 MLK, Jr. Drive SE, Suite 1104, West Tower,
Atlanta 30334-1530, 404-656-2871, fax, 404-
651-9531
Attorney General Chris Carr, 40 Capitol Square
SW, Atlanta 30303; 404-656-3300; law.ga.gov
School Superintendent Richard Woods, 205 Jesse
Hill Jr. Drive SE, Atlanta 30334; 404-656-2800;
www.doe.k12.ga.us; askdoe@gadoe.org
Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, 148 Andrew
Young International Blvd. NE, Suite 642, Atlanta
30303-1751; 404-656-3045, 877-709-8185;
www.dol.state.ga.us
GOP has opportunity with young blacks
Buried in the mounds of
data fleshing out what hap
pened in the midterm elec
tions is an interesting take
on blacks.
Nationwide data on
black voting in this election
cycle do not point to much
change. Various polls over
recent months seemed to
indicate that blacks were
starting to warm up to
Republicans and President
Donald Trump. But blacks went 90 per
cent for Democrats and 8 percent for
Republicans. Pretty much business as
usual.
However, digging down, we find some
thing interesting.
Blacks ages 18 to 29 voted 82 percent
for Democrats and 14 percent for Repub
licans. That seems to point to change tak
ing place among young blacks.
Lending support to this conclusion is
the fact that in the 2014 midterms, 18-to-
2 9-year-old blacks voted in concert with
the overall average, 88 percent for Dem
ocrats and 11 percent for Republicans.
Either we have a fluke in this year’s
midterms or some kind of change in
political thinking is taking hold among
young African-Americans.
I think there is good reason to believe
the latter. Of course, where it goes
depends on how Republicans choose to
think about and handle the situation.
Adding to this curiosity is something
else of interest. The inclination to vote
Republican as a function of age is the
complete reverse for blacks as it is for
whites.
Younger blacks vote Republican at
higher percentages than
older blacks. Younger
whites vote Republican at
lower percentages than
older whites.
Compared with the 14
percent of 18-to-2 9-year-old
blacks who voted Repub
lican in the midterms, 6.5
percent of blacks 45 or older
voted Republican.
Compared with the 43
percent of 18-to-29-year-
old whites who voted Republican, 58.5
percent of whites 45 or older voted
Republican.
How might we understand this?
According to the Federal Reserve, as
of 2016 median black household income
was $35,400, and median black house
hold net worth was $17,600. Contrast
that with $61,200 median income and
$171,000 median net worth for whites.
After all these years of government
programs to help low-income Ameri
cans, African-Americans, on average,
are not catching up.
Perhaps the message is sinking in
to young blacks that what they need is
more freedom and the kind of growing
economy that goes with it.
They are seeing firsthand the results
in the economic recovery that has taken
place over the past two years. There
were over 650,000 more blacks working
last month than there were in Octo
ber 2017. Compared with the average
monthly numbers of 2016, there were
over 1.3 million more blacks working.
According to reports that have been
rolling out during this recovery, the
boom has created a tight job market,
which has created new opportunities
for previously unemployable lower-end
workers. This has meant new opportuni
ties for young blacks. —
Young white voters — who, on aver
age, come from higher-income homes
and have a higher chance of getting
help in starting out from their parents
— seem to be likelier to buy into the big-
government and social justice mindset
than their parents and grandparents.
Republicans should highlight for
young blacks the critical importance
of capitalism and a free economy for
upward mobility. However, they also
need to inform them that the same Fed
eral Reserve report showing large gaps
in income and wealth between blacks
and whites also shows 61 percent of
white households as having a married
couple or romantic partners, compared
with 37 percent of black households.
The message is that wealth is created
through freedom and family.
President Trump won in 2016 by flip
ping states that were blue to red by very
thin margins.
Florida, for example, with 29 electoral
votes, which Trump won by a margin of
about 1 percentage point, will be critical
in 2020. We see now the elections there
for senator and governor at razor-thin
margins.
Republicans should target African-
Americans in Florida and other swing
states with the message of upward mobil
ity. It could make all the difference in
2020.
Star Parker is an author and president
of the Center for Urban Renewal and
Education and a columnist for Creators.
STAR PARKER
www.urbancure.org
She Stines
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