Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 224, Ed. 1 Tuesday, March 14, 2017 Page: 4 of 16
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OPINION
4A
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Denton Record-Chronicle
Denton Record-Chronicle
American
partisanship
born of small
differences
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Published by Denton Publishing Co.,
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Founded from weekly newspapers,
the Denton Chronicle, established in 1882,
and the Denton Record, established in 1897.
Published daily as the Denton
Record-Chronicle since Aug. 3,1903.
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Bill Patterson
Publisher and CEO
Scott K. Parks
Managing Editor
Mark Finley
City Editor
Mariel Tarn-Ray
News Editor
PAST PUBLISHERS
William C. “Will” Edwards
1903-1927
Robert J. “Bob” Edwards
1927-1945
Riley Cross
1945-1970
Vivian Cross
1970-1986
Fred Patterson
1986-1999
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olarize” is a funny word. I hear it
all the time, including from my
own mouth. The country is po-
larized. The parties are polarized. President
Trump is polarizing. I think that’s true, but I
don’t think the word means what people
think it means.
First, let’s go to the dictionary. Merriam
Webster offers three definitions, the first two
scientific and then this:
“to break up into op-
posing factions or
groupings, (e.g.) a cam-
paign that polarized
the electorate.”
That looks right to
me. But when people
hear the word “polar-
ized,” they think it
means something like
“the maximum dis-
tance” apart from each
other — like when we think about how the
North and South poles are on opposite ends
of the planet.
In other words, the metaphor implicit in
the word suggests that Republicans and
Democrats, conservatives and liberals, could
not be any further apart ideologically. And
that’s really not true.
The other day, the Washington Post’s
Chris Cillizza said on Twitter, “No question
Republicans have moved further right than
Democrats have moved left. But Democrats
have moved way left too.”
It is undoubtedly true that on some is-
sues, Republicans have moved right and
Democrats have moved left. I am agnostic
about which team has traveled further, in
part because I do not cede to Cillizza or any-
one else the authority to define what consti-
tutes the center.
The more important point is that in many
respects, this just isn’t true. Consider Trump.
His position on trade, his signature issue,
represents not a sharp break from the left,
but a closing of the gap with it. Protectionism
and “fair trade” have been staples of the
Democratic Party’s base for a very long time,
which is why both Bemie Sanders and Hilla-
ry Clinton opposed the Trans-Pacific Part-
nership.
Likewise on infrastructure spending and
entitlement reform, Trump hasn’t staked out
some extreme libertarian stance, he has sto-
len the issues from Democrats. Just look at
health care. The Republicans just unveiled
their plan to “repeal and replace” Obama-
care.
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Editorials published in the Denton Record-Chronicle
are determined by the editorial board.
Questions and suggestions should be directed to the:
Denton Record-Chronicle
314 E. Hickory St., Denton, TX 76201
Phone: 940-387-3811
Fax: 940-566-6888
E-mail: drc@dentonrc.com
Texas GOP acts more
like two parties at war
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ahbelo.com NYSE symbol: AHC
he facile answer might be the right
one: Maybe House Speaker Joe
Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick really
do not like each other. Theirs is hardly the
first troubled political partnership in the
Texas Capitol.
But that personal relationship probably
doesn’t matter as much as the fact that they
represent, in effect,
two different political
parties.
For years, the state’s
most important politi-
cal divide was the
chasm between the
liberal and conserva-
tive Democrats. Since
the Republicans took
over the store in the
mid-1990s, the signifi-
cant friction in state
government and politics has been in the
GOP.
business Republicans who once dominated
the party. Patrick is a pretty good exemplar of
the populist movement conservatives who
have long been the party’s most energetic
Jonah
Goldberg
T
Editorial: Our View
camp.
Best policies rise
from compromise
The House and Senate budgets have big
differences, both in where they spend money
and in what money to spend — which might
prove harder to resolve. The state expects
lower revenue from taxes and fees over the
next two years, but it also has a record-size
savings account in the Rainy Day Fund,
which already has a balance of about $10 bil-
lion.
ndS
ell, it was bound to happen.
Democrats and other progressives are build-
ing a grassroots political organization to resist
President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters
in Congress.
They call it the Indivisible movement, and chapters
have sprung up in Denton, Dallas and across Texas and
the United States. Organizers are unabashedly copying
the tea party, which sprang to life in spring 2009 after the
election of Barack Obama.
“To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step
guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking
to replicate the Tea Party’s success in getting Congress to
listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents,”
says the Indivisible website.
Maybe we can call it the Herbal Tea Party. In Denton,
university professors and public school teachers are
prominent organizers.
Obviously, citizens have the right to organize and op-
pose the policies and programs promulgated by Trump
and his Republican congressional allies. At its core, how-
ever, the Indivisible movement is another sad reminder of
the extreme polarization of politics.
The tea party opposed anything and everything that
President Obama proposed. It was 100 percent against
him. Now, in a tit-for-tat response, we must watch the
rise of the ironically named Indivisible movement’s cre-
ation of yet more political division in which there is no
middle ground.
On the one hand, we recognize the Democratic Party’s
instinct for self-preservation. It must now be the opposi-
tion party and figure out how to attract more votes in
future elections. During its down times, the GOP has
faced its own existential challenges.
But where does it all end? When do GOP hardliners,
including the tea partiers, stop calling the reasonable
people in their party RINOs, or Republicans In Name
Only? Will the Democrats, including the Indivisible
movement, oppose all things Trump in the name of politi-
cal purity?
We believe the American people are looking for com-
mon-sense solutions to vexing issues such as health care
reform, tax policy, infrastructure renovation, job creation
and public and education improvements.
The best reforms and policies will rise from coopera-
tion and compromise between Republicans and Demo-
crats with a dash of Libertarians thrown in for good mea-
sure. Our guiding philosophy is that two or three heads
are better than one.
The Republicans don’t have all the answers. Neither do
the Democrats. To keep traveling down this same pot-
holed road is folly. It’s breaking our axles
W
They differ loudly on the Senate’s ‘bath-
room bill,” which would override local dis-
crimination laws and require transgender
people to use restrooms that match their “bi-
ological sex.” The full Senate will probably
vote on that legislation — a priority of Pat-
rick’s — next week; prospects in the House
— where Straus has said he’s “not a fan of the
bill” — are bleak.
The two houses are likely to face off on a
perennial issue of whether to use public
school money for private and parochial
school education — a long-running debate
that splits Republican members on both
sides, but especially in the House.
Sometimes the differences seem small;
the House is showing signs that it shares the
Senate’s urge to slow down increases in the
property taxes that fuel local schools and
governments.
The differences don’t always matter. The
same Texas Republican voters put both John
Cornyn and Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate, opt-
ing for a powerful establishment insider in
Cornyn and a rising disruptive outsider in
Cruz. It goes like that up and down the bal-
Ross
Ramsey
You can see evidence in the 140-day legis-
lative session, where the normal acceleration
that marks the end of the first two months is
coming right on schedule. This is when bill-
filing slows to a mere drip and when law-
makers begin considering non-emergency
legislation.
This is when the real debates begin.
Some differences might come down to
personality, but state officeholders all want
to make things happen, and they generally
figure out how to overcome their personal
feelings.
Some are institutional. The House and
the Senate were designed to block and resist
each other, and they do. Keep in mind that
we have this representative government
meeting inside those fancy buildings to set-
tle the types of differences our ancestors set-
tled with violence. It’s set up to only pass leg-
islation that gets through the whole obstacle
course.
And some are ideological. The traditional
Republicans versus Democrats doesn’t real-
ly apply much of the time because the GOP
has nearly a two-to-one advantage. The dif-
ferences among Republicans are more im-
portant in the day-to-day workings of the
Texas Legislature, though the Democrats are
numerous enough to decide which Repub-
licans win which arguments.
The seeds of the GOP divisions predate
the party’s Texas success. The country-club
conservatives and the religious right and the
chamber of commerce Republicans and the
tea party and the fiscal and social and move-
mentwings — all of the labels andfactionsin
the conservative stew — have matured into
major blocs.
Political parties are like that. But when
one party is as dominant as Republicans are
in Texas, those internal rifts grow in impor-
tance. They start to define the machinations
of the state government.
Straus is a pretty fair exemplar of the
lot.
It’s likely no Democrat in the House will
vote for it, not because of its radicalism, but
because it is an insult to Barack Obama’s leg-
acy. Their anger isn’t proof of a major ideo-
logical disagreement.
And this points to the source of the confu-
sion. There is a natural human tendency to
believe that those we hate must believe the
opposite of what we believe. This is part of
what psychologists call “the narcissism of mi-
nor differences.”
George W. Bush campaigned on “com-
passionate conservatism,” triangulating
against the libertarian rhetoric of (the old)
Newt Gingrich and the dour pessimism of
social conservatives. His first legislative pri-
ority was bipartisan education reform, sup-
ported by Sen. Ted Kennedy. Bush’s prescrip-
tion drug benefit constituted the largest ex-
pansion in entitlements since the Great Soci-
ety (at least until Obamacare). He rejected
the conservatism of William F. Buckley, ar-
guing that “when somebody hurts, govern-
ment has got to move.”
And for these sins, Democrats instantly
and continuously insisted he was some kind
of radical.
Before Bush, Republicans denounced Bill
Clinton as a left-wing extremist, even though
he was a free trader, supported the death
penalty, and campaigned on — and signed
welfare reform.
Even on social issues, where there are cer-
tainly significant ideological differences, the
two sides are rarely on opposite sides of the
issue. They are merely on opposing sides of
some narrow questions. Conservatives don’t
seek to outlaw homosexuality or transgende-
rism. They don’t seek to ban women from the
workforce. To the limited extent there are
Republicans still seeking to forbid gay mar-
riage, their position is the same one that
Obama and Hillary Clinton held until a few
years ago.
In Politics and the English Language,
George Orwell wrote about how metaphors
can do our thinking for us and bad meta-
phors can lead us to faulty conclusions. If
“thought corrupts language, language can al-
so corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread
by tradition and imitation even among peo-
ple who should and do know better.”
“Polarized” is precisely the kind of “dying
metaphor” Orwell had in mind. The country
is indeed polarized. But it is more socially
and politically divided than it is ideologically.
The root of the disagreement has more to do
with making sure “our” team has power.
JONAH GOLDBERG is a fellow at the
American Enterprise Institute and a
senior editor of National Review. His
column is distributed by Tribune Content
Agency.
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott is the man in
the middle, with support across the party.
He has managed to stay out of some of the
sectarian arguments that animate the legis-
lative leaders he sees at breakfast every
Wednesday morning.
The session could test that. He’s taken
Patrick’s side in the school voucher debate,
saying he’ll sign that legislation if it gets to
his desk.
He has juked on bathrooms, loudly tell-
ing the NFL to butt out when they signaled
their displeasure with the bill but not taking
a position on the legislation himself.
Texas legislators have an on-again, off-
again reputation for staying out of partisan
fights for working across enemy lines.
From outside, it appears one party has
control of the Texas government. From in-
side the Capitol, that one party acts more like
two parties at war.
ROSS RAMSEY is executive editor and
co founder of The Texas Tribune. The Texas
Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media
organization that informs Texans — and
engages with them — about public policy,
politics, government and statewide issues.
Letters to the editor
This day in history: March 14
Probable cause
Clearly, if President Trump was wire-
tapped, a federal judge found probable cause
for surveillance of his apartments.
Janice Heidlberger,
Denton
SUBMISSIONS
In 1939, the republic of
Czechoslovakia was dissolved,
opening the way for Nazi occu-
pation of Czech areas and the
separation of Slovakia.
In 1951, during the Korean
War, United Nations forces re-
captured Seoul.
In 1964, a jury in Dallas
found Jack Ruby guilty of mur-
dering Lee Harvey Oswald, the
accused assassin of President
Today is Tuesday, March
14, the 73rd day of 2017.
There are 292 days left in the
year.
Letters for publication must include the writer’s
name, address and telephone number.
The Record-Chronicle reserves the right to edit
letters for length. Letters should be typed or
legibly handwritten and be 250 or fewer words.
We prefer email submissions.
Send to: drc@dentonrc.com.
Otherwise, fax to 940-566-6888, or mail to:
Letters to the editor, P.0. Box 369,
Denton, TX 76202
On March 14, 1967, the
body of President John F. Ken-
nedy was moved from a tempo-
Bamboozled
Military solution is the ultimate oxymo-
ron, and its application the classic textbook
example of the law of diminishing returns.
Yet the American public has swallowed
the lie of the necessity of military interven-
tion, hook, line and sinker, ever since World
War II, and the congressional, military-in-
dustrial complex gobbles up more and more
of our taxes that should go to feed the hun-
gry, provide health care, educate our citizen-
rary grave to a permanent me-
morial site at Arlington National
Cemetery in Virginia.
In 1794, Eli Whitney re-
ceived a patent for his cotton gin,
an invention that revolutionized
America’s cotton industry.
In 1885, the Gilbert and Sul-
livan comic opera The Mikado
premiered in London.
In 1900, Congress ratified
the Gold Standard Act.
In 1907, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed an executive
order designed to prevent Japa-
nese laborers from immigrating
to the United States as part of a
“gentlemen’s agreement” with
Japan.
In 1923, President Warren
G. Harding became the first
chief executive to file an income
tax return, paying a levy of
$17,990 on his $75,000 salary.
John F. Kennedy, and sentenced
him to death. (Both the convic-
tion and death sentence were
overturned, but Ruby died be-
fore he could be retried.)
In1975, Monty Python and
the Holy Grail, a sendup of the
legend of King Arthur, had its
world premiere in Los Angeles.
Academy Award-winning ac-
tress Susan Hayward, 57, died in
Los Angeles.
In 1980, a LOT Polish Air-
lines jet crashed while attempt-
ing to land in Warsaw, killing all
87 people aboard, including 22
members of a U.S. amateur box-
ing team.
ry, house the homeless and rebuild our
crumbling infrastructure.
We have been bamboozled.
John Zeigler,
Denton
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 224, Ed. 1 Tuesday, March 14, 2017, newspaper, March 14, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131745/m1/4/: accessed June 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .