Mountain Views News          Saturday, January 2, 2016

15

OPINION

Mountain Views-News Saturday, January 2, 2016 

DICK Polman

WIL Durst Raging Moderate

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Dr. Tina Paul

Rich Johnson

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Sean Kayden

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Pat Birdsall (retired)


THE TEMPTATION OF DONALD TRUMP

A respected political analyst is writing about a certain presidential candidate. 
See if you can identify the candidate.

"He used simple, straightforward language that ordinary people could 
understand, short sentences, powerful emotive slogans."

Starting to sound familiar, right?

"There were no qualifications in what he said. Everything was absolute, 
uncompromising, irrevocable, undeviating, unalterable, final. He seemed to express (the voters') 
deepest fears and desires. Increasingly, too, he exuded self-confidence, aggression, belief in (his) 
ultimate triumph, (with) a fervor that was hard for less demagogic politicians to emulate. (He) 
managed to project an image of strong, decisive action, dynamism, energy."

It sure sounds like Donald Trump, America's top 2015 phenomenon. His whole pitch, after all, is that 
we're a bunch of losers and he's an absolute winner, strong, decisive, dynamic and high-energy.

Unfortunately, those quotes refer to German presidential candidate Adolf Hitler.

For the record, I am not suggesting that Trump is Hitler. But right now, as we prepare for nearly 
a year of balloting, we're in danger of embracing a very American version of autocracy. Our kind 
of autocrat doesn't need a jackboot army of street thugs; all he needs is an instinctive genius for 
exploiting rampant discontent (especially within the white downscale Republican electorate), and a 
silver tongue that is catnip for the ubiquitous insatiable media.

Those quotes come from Richard J. Evans, the distinguished British historian and author of "The 
Coming of the Third Reich." Some of the passages are downright creepy, because they resonate so 
disturbingly. German voters in the early '30s were fed up with conventional politics as usual - they 
viewed the government as gridlocked and ineffectual - and many were drawn to Hitler because 
he "advertised (his) opposition to conventional politics." The voters, writes Evans, "were not really 
looking for anything concrete (from Hitler). They were, instead, protesting against the Weimar 
Republic."

In addition, "many of them, particularly in rural areas, small towns, culturally conservative families...
may have been registering their alienation from the cultural and political modernity for which the 
Republic stood." Hitler was often vague about exactly what he wanted to do - he preferred "simple 
slogans" and "frenetic, manic activity" - and "to a large extent this allowed people to read into (him) 
what they wanted to and edit out anything they might disturbing."

Which is one reason why Trump gets away with disgorging his garbage - because his followers either 
focus on the stuff they like and edit out the garbage; or they endorse the garbage. And Trump's critics 
are continually stumped and amazed that this keeps happening.

All of which sounds eerily familiar. Evans writes that Hitler's political opponents "still found it 
impossible to take (his) extremist rhetoric and bullying tactics...as anything other than evidence of 
(his) inevitable political marginality. (Hitler) did not confirm to the accepted rules of politics, so (he) 
could not expect to be successful."

But what an aspiring autocrat needs most is a climate of despair, something visceral to exploit. And 
what we have today, particularly within a subset of the Republican electorate, is fear and anger and 
a yearning to lash out. These voters are terrified that America is changing for the worst, and that 
they're being left behind, culturally and economically. Trump speaks to those terrors ("we don't win 
anymore") - the same kind of terrors that gripped Hitler's voters, according to Evans:

"Money, income, financial solidity, economic order, regularity and predictability...now all this seemed 
to have been swept away....It added to a feeling in the more conservative sections of the population of a 
world turned upside down." And this fear and anger "debased the language of politics" and "lent new 
power to stock fantasy images of evil."

Which is why Trump suffers no penalty for debasing Muslims, women, journalists, blacks, Asians, 
and the disabled. Thirty five percent of the Republican electorate a sizable share if all his saner foes 
are divvying the rest of the pie.

But do we really want to flirt with autocracy? Are we not better than our basest instincts? The voting 
begins on Feb. 1. The choice is ours.

Dick Polman is the national political columnist at NewsWorks/WHYY in Philadelphia (newsworks.
org/polman) and a "Writer in Residence" at the University of Philadelphia. Email him at dickpolman7@
gmail.com.

2016: WHAT TO EXPECT

It's hard to believe, but we're on the brink of another presidential 
election year. Let us pray. Every quadrennial, the American 
political process plays out as a big-top carnival sideshow featuring 
moral contortionists, ethical geeks and fat sweaty white guys 
teetering on slack media wires.

Fortunately, we Americans have become as resilient to this format as fourth-
generation cockroaches are to watered-down insecticide. To show how familiar, we 
here at Durstco have compiled a political forecast of what to expect over the coming 
year. Clip and save. All dates are approximate. Your mileage may differ.

FEBRUARY 1, 2016: The results of the Iowa Caucuses are dismissed by non-winning 
candidates as an irrational political stunt, much like a game of musical chairs 
without the music. And no chairs.

FEBRUARY 9, 2016: Some type of victory in the New Hampshire primary, moral or 
otherwise, is claimed by no fewer than seven candidates.

MARCH 1, 2016: Super Tuesday. So called for the quantity of primaries, not the 
quality.

MARCH 11, 2016: A rumor about a low-polling politico having an affair with an 
aide is revealed to be a last-ditch cynical attempt to humanize him.

MARCH 20, 2016: A flag factory in New Jersey bans all photo-ops by Presidential 
aspirants in an attempt to get some work done.

APRIL 16, 2016: Ronald Reagan is reported to be in a Swiss spa getting transfusions 
of Keith Richards' blood. "Draft Reagan" groups spring up in thirty-seven states.

APRIL 29, 2016: A New York Times poll says 40 percent of the American public sees 
a need for a third party.

APRIL 30, 2016: Ben Carson announces he will run as a third party candidate.

APRIL 31, 2016: A USA Today poll says 43 percent of the American public sees a 
need for a fourth party.

JULY 18, 2016: In Cleveland, the Republican National Convention outlines a 
platform that proposes hunting the homeless for food.

JULY 22, 2016: After the Republican National Convention, the conservative wing 
accuses the nominee of selling out the party. Cleveland cab drivers express disgust.

JULY 25, 2016: In Philadelphia, the Democrats float a platform that endorses good 
and condemns bad.

JULY 26, 2016: Due to pressure from large donors, the platform is watered down.

JULY 30, 2016: After the Democratic National Convention, the liberal wing accuses 
the nominee of selling out the party. Philadelphia Uber drivers express dismay.

AUGUST, 2016: Absolutely nothing happens in August and it is reported upon at 
great length.

OCTOBER 4, 2016: The Vice Presidential debate is beaten in the ratings by a 
Weather Channel special on topsoil. Two days later, the DEA rules it illegal to 
stream a recording of it while driving.

OCTOBER 19, 2016: No Presidential candidate personally appears at the final 
debate. Instead, spin-doctors give detailed answers as to how the candidates would 
have responded if particular questions were asked in a certain way.

NOVEMBER 8, 2016: In a concerted effort not to encourage these hypocritical tools, 
the public stays away from the polls in record numbers.

NOVEMBER 9, 2016: The losing party's Vice Presidential nominee calls the election 
an aberration and fires an opening shot kicking off the 2020 campaign. The collective 
national groan registers a 4.2 on the Richter scale.

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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN 

TOM Purcell

2016 Resolutions: Hey, Federal Government, 
You First

If you think our benevolent federal government 
is too big, this will agitate you: The government is 
advising us on New Year's resolutions. 

About USA.gov, the government's official web 
portal, offers a dozen recommendations. First up, 
the government wants us to resolve to lose weight 
next year. 

Hey, federal government, maybe if you'd stop 
subsidizing the sugar and high-sucrose corn syrup industries — 
empty calories that the human body turns into instant fat — we surely 
wouldn't be so tubby. 

Here's another recommended resolution: eat healthy food — though 
this recommendation is more of a demand for some. Just ask school 
kids across America, whose school lunches must follow government-
mandated requirements — frequently resulting in awful-tasting grub 
— or their school districts will not receive government dough. 

That brings us to another recommended resolution: save money. That's 
a good one, federal government! Our national debt is nearly $19 trillion 
— it's more than tripled since George W. Bush became president 
in 2001. The budget deal just passed by our Republican Congress is 
packed with enough lard to cause a national cardiac arrest. If anyone 
needs to resolve to save money, it's you. 

Which brings us to a resolution our government knows plenty about: 
manage debt. Did I mention our national debt is nearly $19 trillion? 
Did I mention how rapidly it has grown? I didn't mention that our 
political leaders are doing little to address the problem. Or that we will 
be in a world of hurt when interest rates are restored to normal levels 
and our debt-service payments will soar. 

Here's another resolution: get a better education. Hey, great idea, 
federal government. An education is the way forward. However, your 
policies could use some adjustments. Every time you make more 
student loan money available, the cost of college goes up. It's risen 
three times faster than inflation and created a massive student-loan 
bubble over the past few decades. 

Today, nearly 37 million Americans owe roughly $1 trillion total 
in student-loan debt — most of it federal student-loan debt. The 
informational nonprofit American Student Assistance says the average 
student-loan balance stands at around $24,300. 

Here's another recommended resolution: get fit. I couldn't agree more 
with this one, federal government. Now that you have butted into the 
private health insurance system — now that I have to pay significantly 
higher premiums to cover things I don't want or need — I had to 
switch to a high-deductible policy. The more fit I am, the less likely I 
will face costly out-of-pocket health costs. 

That brings us to another recommendation: manage stress. Hey, 
federal government, I was managing stress just fine until you borrowed 
trillions and disrupted our private health insurance system, causing 
millions to lose their policies and pay lots more. 

In order to manage stress, I need to manage you, so I sent Republicans 
to represent me in the House and Senate and they just passed a spending 
bill that is so packed with pork, it would have caused Democrats to 
blush. In other words, I am unable to manage the source of my stress. 

Which brings us to two related resolutions: quit smoking and drink 
less alcohol. Hey, federal government, smoking premium cigars is the 
only thing that relaxes me these days — which is why the FDA is eager 
to regulate them, no doubt. The government wants to "improve" cigars 
the way it "improved" our health care system? 

Which brings us to alcohol, federal government. I figure that as long as 
you spend our money like a drunken sailor, you are making me drink 
like one. 

So let's make a deal, federal government: I'll agree to your New Year's 
resolutions — but only if you go first. 

HOWARD Hays As I See It


“He could not follow simple 
directions, could not 
communicate clear thoughts 
nor recollections, and his 
handgun performance was 
dismal.”

- Independence, Ohio 
Deputy Police Chief Jim 
Polak, in deeming candidate 
Timothy Loehmann unfit 
for service in his department

 This is the time of year for predictions. I’ll 
make some safe ones.

 If trends continue, I predict there will be fewer 
in law enforcement killed next year than in the 
year before. The Officer Down Memorial (web) 
Page shows a drop of 3% in officer fatalities in 
2015 from 2014, with a 17% drop in gunfire 
deaths. 

 Also according to those trends, I predict more 
civilians will be killed by police than before. The 
website Killed By Police shows an 8% increase 
in those killed by U.S. law enforcement in 2015 
from 2014.

 Going by figures from The Guardian, 
Hispanics will be 18% more likely than whites to 
be killed by a cop next year. For blacks, it’s 144% 
more likely. Also, blacks killed by police will be 
twice as likely as whites to have been unarmed 
when they’re shot. 

 I predict there might be some kind of 
closure next year on two shootings from 2014 
that recently made the news. One involves 
Chicago policeman Jason Van Dyke. A Chicago 
researcher notes that while 80% of Chicago cops 
might have 0-to-4 complaints throughout entire 
careers, Van Dyke piled up 20 in less than fifteen 
years on the force. He was among 20% of officers 
accounting for the vast majority of complaints, 
which the researcher described as not just a few 
but “barrels of bad apples”.

 Ten of those complaints against Van Dyke 
were for excessive force; two involved a firearm. 
One was for using racial slurs. None resulted in 
disciplinary action.

 There have been 28,567 complaints filed 
against Chicago police officers over the past 
four years. 2% of those complaints resulted in 
disciplinary action. If the CPD had a meaningful 
disciplinary program, perhaps Van Dyke, a 
husband and father, might not be facing murder 
charges today.

 And perhaps Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-
old high school student, might still be alive. 
Responding a year ago last October to a call of 
someone breaking into cars, the lead officer 
saw no need to use force. None of the eight 
other officers on the scene saw a need to use 
their weapons. Within 30 seconds of arriving, 
however, Van Dyke began pumping 16 rounds 
into McDonald within a span of 14-15 seconds 
– and this includes pausing after McDonald fell 
to the ground, then resuming fire to empty his 
9mm sidearm.

 It took 400 days for Chicago authorities to 
release video of the incident. It took 401 days for 
Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty 
to absolve Cleveland police officers Timothy 
Loehmann and Frank Garmback in the killing 
of 12-year-old Tamir Rice a year ago last month.

 Fresh out of the academy, Loehmann was on 
the Independence, Ohio force for a month when 
he got the assessment quoted above and deemed 
unfit for duty. It was in a personnel file that 
investigators from Cleveland didn’t bother to 
open when they approved him for duty in their 
own police force.

 Frank Garmback, Loehmann’s partner when 
Tamir Rice was killed, had a record of his own. 
It was earlier that year when Cleveland settled 
a $100,000 excessive force lawsuit against him. 
A woman claimed that a call about someone 
blocking her driveway led to a situation 
where Garmback “rushed and placed her in a 
chokehold, tackled her to the ground, twisted 
her wrist and began hitting her body” and “such 
reckless, wanton and willful excessive use of 
force proximately caused bodily injury”. For 
whatever reason, that suit and that settlement 
was removed from Garmback’s personnel file. 

 In November 2014, Garmback served not only 
as Loehmann’s partner, but as his supervisory 
trainer when they got a call about somebody 
“probably a juvenile” waving a gun “probably 
fake”. After the shooting, the president of the 
Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association told 
reporters how there had been “a few people 
sitting underneath a pavilion”, with Officer 
Loehmann seeing a “black gun sitting on the 
table, and he saw the boy pick up the gun and 
put it in his waistband”. Cleveland Deputy Chief 
Tomba related how “The officer got out of the car 
and told the boy to put his hands up. The boy 
reached into his waistband, pulled out the gun 
and (Loehmann) fired two shots.”

 A video released four days later showed this was 
all lies. The boy was alone on a swing when the 
patrol car sped up beside him; there was no sign 
of the toy pellet gun and the patrol car was “still 
in the process of stopping” when Loehmann got 
out and, within two seconds, shot and killed12-
year-old Tamir Rice. The video shows he laid 
on the ground for four minutes before an FBI 
agent, coming from a separate incident, stopped 
to administer aid. It shows how the officers, two 
minutes after Tamir was shot, tackled and cuffed 
his 14-year-old sister running towards him, and 
shoved her in the back of their patrol car to watch 
her brother die.

As in the case of the killing of Michael Brown in 
Ferguson, Missouri the year before, the county 
prosecutor then used the grand jury process 
not to bring justice but to absolve the officers of 
culpability – though it took him more than a year 
to do so. As in Missouri, he leaked information 
from “secret” proceedings seen as favorable to 
the accused. He allowed testimony from the 
accused officers, but then shielded them from 
any cross-examination.

 I’m hopeful that a federal investigation this 
coming year might reach a different conclusion. 
I’m hopeful these killings might end in the coming 
year; but unless our country’s law enforcement 
agencies commit to hiring only those deserving 
to wear the uniform, and prosecutors commit to 
prosecuting the bad guys, whether in uniform or 
not, then I predict that’s not going to happen.

Happy New Year 

Mountain Views News

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