Recent editorials from Alabama newspapers:
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Feb. 3
The Opelika-Auburn News on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee:
Fire-breathing Republican Donald Trump may seem like an out-of-control dragon to the outnumbered Democrats who remain on Capitol Hill, but that shouldn’t be the case for his nomination to the Supreme Court.
Neither should be the goal of getting even. Trump’s choice is a good one, even for Democrats.
Tuesday night in a made-for-TV production, entertainer of the year Donald Trump, who also serves as president of the United States and as such wields tremendous power in key appointments, nominated Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court.
Gorsuch by all accounts is a popular judge who, at 49, is among the youngest ever nominated to the High Court, on which appointees serve for life.
Any appointment to the court is critical, as it determines a chapter of the nominating president’s legacy in office, but more importantly it affects the scales of justice between liberal and conservative leanings.
The eight members on the bench now are split 4-4, thus making this appointment one that could provide a lean in either direction.
Gorsuch is a fast-rising, well-respected, much-liked judge who serves on the Denver-based 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
He also is known as a stout conservative, despite coming from a state that votes conservative but is known for its left-tolerant, progressive liberalism as well. As in, think of Colorado’s approval of recreational marijuana laws.
Gorsuch’s record and reputation seem to suggest that he understands what it means to interpret and enforce laws based on balance and fair merit, rather than walk political tightropes.
Democrats have every right to protest and express anger and frustration over former President Obama’s nomination at the end of his presidency being stonewalled by Republicans in a hold-out for their victorious nominee.
Such is politics.
However, Trump won the Oval Office, and he is just beginning a four-year term, not serving in the final months of an eight-year tenure. Like him or not, he will be selecting the next Supreme Court justice who eventually will get approved.
The time for Democrats to have won their argument was before Trump’s election, not after. Given that they failed to do so, the payback shouldn’t come at the expense of the American people waiting on a handcuffed court to be free of deadlock.
Nor should a seemingly perfect candidate that projects fairness to both parties be sacrificed just because he is a conservative first choice by a Republican president.
Gorsuch should be evaluated in confirmation hearings based on his integrity and ability.
Not in a political game of “tit-for-tat.”
Online: https://www.oanow.com/
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Feb. 6
The Gadsden Times on how to respond to violent protests:
We’ve heard of folks getting so fed up with obsessive, repetitive, bordering on proctological coverage of turmoil and strife in the U.S. and elsewhere, they’ve self-imposed “news blackouts.” (Given the business we’re in, we wish they wouldn’t; we promise, there’s still some good news out there.)
Unfortunately, someone would have to be more than “blacked out” - try in a bunker so far underground, it would be a perfect setting for an author channeling or imitating Jules Verne - to be unaware of this country’s present political climate. It simply cannot be escaped, because it’s not just in the news media, it’s in the atmosphere.
People across the U.S. are staging protests for and against President Donald Trump; the scenario hasn’t changed since the campaign ended, and we see no signs that it will.
Trump’s opponents are furious that he’s sitting in the Oval Office at all, and simply will never accept his legitimacy as president. Right now, however, they’re focusing on his recent run of executive orders, most notably the one (since blocked by the federal judiciary) restricting citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
Trump’s supporters, on the other hand, are quite jolly over how things are going, and aren’t hiding their feelings either in public or on social media.
However, things degenerated last week when protesters did $100,000 in damage to the University of California at Berkley campus - setting fires, smashing windows, some people actually were injured - in successfully blocking a right-wing commentator from speaking there.
We support the First Amendment and the notion that diverse voices should be heard in the public forum - even if others find what they say abhorrent.
We know that attitude will be ridiculed as archaic and naive by people (and neither side is innocent) who view political disagreement in apocalyptic terms - who think every battle is Armageddon, and that their individual futures and the future of the U.S. are at stake every time the second hand clicks.
We absolutely support and defend those folks’ right to peacefully protest. No one, regardless of the cause, has the right to commit violence, block traffic in an unsafe manner or impede people who simply want to go about their everyday business and get from Point A and Point B.
Still, there doesn’t need to be an overreaction.
North Dakota Republicans have introduced a bill that would give drivers a pass if they accidentally ran over and killed protesters blocking a highway. We imagine there will be a lot of people saying “oops” after getting what effectively would be a green flag.
A Republican senator in Washington state wants to make “economic terrorism,” defined as “causing economic damage,” a Class C felony. Would that include boycotts? It gets old to hear people sanctimoniously proclaim “I’m not going to shop at ’A’ anymore” or “I’m not going to watch ’B’s’ movies or buy ’C’s’ records anymore” over political disagreements, but Americans certainly are within their rights to do that.
Here’s an idea - just enforce the laws that are on the books now, which should adequately cover protecting peaceful protests and stopping unacceptable violence. Enforce them evenhandedly, without any partisanship or judgment as to the righteousness of the respective causes. We think that’s fair, and should leave no room for argument.
Online: https://www.gadsdentimes.com/
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Feb. 7
The Decatur Daily on the start of the new legislative session:
Alabama’s looming problems this year are the same as they have been since at least 2010, when the GOP took control of the Legislature. Most of the problems go back decades, festering as first Democrats and then Republicans placed politicking over governance.
The 2017 session begins today, and it’s time for lawmakers to quit kicking the can down the road. Alabama voters no longer need the ideological red meat that has made up the legislative diet for the past six years. They need to know they have elected representatives who are capable of addressing the state’s increasingly urgent problems.
The state needs expanded prison capacity. Maybe this should be in the form of the $800 million mega-prisons Gov. Robert Bentley has proposed. It may include more aggressive sentencing reform and better use of county jails. What’s absolutely clear is that something needs to be done. Prison conditions are inhumane. Crowding is dangerous for prison guards and inmates. A federal mandate will be more expensive than any solutions tailored to the state’s challenges, and probably less effective. This is the job of the state Legislature.
The state needs adequate Medicaid funding. While lawmakers are grasping at the hope that the Trump administration will reform Medicaid, any such reform almost certainly will be aimed at reducing federal expense. There is no excuse for delay in tackling a problem that costs the lives of children, the elderly, the disabled and the working poor.
The General Fund budget is not workable, and hasn’t been for decades. The Legislature has avoided confronting the issue by stringing together one-time windfalls, borrowing from reserve funds and raiding the Education Trust Fund. Those are not solutions. Shuffling existing revenue does not help as the Education Trust Fund, while growing slightly, remains terribly deficient in providing adequate funding to the poorest school systems in one of the nation’s poorest states.
The prerequisite to tackling any of these issues is increasing revenue. Alabama places the highest tax burden on its poorest residents and the lowest burden on its most wealthy. This policy is effective at keeping political donors happy, but in all other ways it’s a failure. It’s unfair to the poor, and it’s completely ineffective in collecting the revenue needed to adequately finance state operations.
Alabamians need a break from pointless state laws aimed solely at scoring ideological points. They need a break from special sessions that deal with issues that should have been dealt with in the regular session. It is time for lawmakers to show they are worthy of the trust that has been placed in them.
As the session begins, Alabamians will be watching their elected representatives to see which ones take their duties seriously.
Online: https://www.decaturdaily.com/
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