Op Ed: Demo-Dialog Killed,
Kicker-Drain Stymied,
Oregon Legislature Wallows in Woe

Cult-Controlled Confrontation Causing Commonweal Consternation

"Hell of a way to run a railroad!" has often been heard when a train goes off the track Image: www.lib.unc.edu

(SALEM) - Most Oregonians believe the notorious corporate tax-kicker must be drained at least once to shape and supply the only-possible first step towards State return to fiscal sanity: the Rainy Day Fund fulsomely promised by politicians of assorted stripe and similar conscience.

Consensus and cooperation were to be achieved while cult-driven bloody competition --and colossally inept initiatives-- avoided “this time for sure!”, with “the kicker” finally captured and put back to work.

Multi-millions in corporate tax refunds masterfully manipulated and married into our Constitution by further fulsome propaganda have been allowed to accumulate from ostensible “estimate-error”: to be lavishly laid out for mostly out-of-state corporations whose “campaign contributions” clearly constitute a form of purchase for that munificent privilege.

Those millions-retrieved from proper support payment for State-provided amenities, services, protection and proper other essentials will now rapidly return right to the bottom-line profit-pockets of those corporations; a clear-and-current demonstration of distorted and perverted economic practice so recognized, so clearly, that Oregon is the only state still suffering from that extreme dollar-disease.

That much is clearly apparent from the twisting and twirling pressures still playing out in full chaotic display in “the Salem Arena”, this week.

Not much else is all that clear, --except that in all probability that still-notorious kicker will NOT be drained or otherwise sensibly managed-- with any action for a Rainy Day Fund facing early-and-sure Senate assassination next week.

“Hell of a way to run a railroad” was the catchword across the West for many a now-historic train-wreck, threatening ongoing pioneer-needs when the essential-supply train was plunged deep into a crevasse, by a broken rail --or off a rotting bridge.

That historic phrase was heard more than once under the dome downtown this week --and those driving the train had better listen to the tone and tenor of strong responses now heard among the large mass of Oregonians as they watch the wreck unfold right before their very eyes.

This one is off a rotting bridge, too --as open legislative self-examination at the Ethics Commission level has continued to teach us, even without the “painful consequence for painful behavior” clearly justified.

This time it may well be the ostensible-engineers who will find themselves dangling in a death-inflicting noose of revealing news-stories --when the final facts find their unerring way out to many Oregonians, who now sense something sensationally wrong with this Legislature.

Surely these Arena-actors seem unable to manage the best possible intention and strong consensus for action provided by an unprecedented display of honest and open corporate concern; even if driven inevitably by the desperate need for protection of long-term interests.

If the kicker is killed, after such supreme expectation for commonsense first-step return to fiscal sanity, what must follow --as inevitably as further rain-in-Oregon after brief-sunshine-- is the million-dollar/costing election-assignment; to determine its death-or-continuance by forcing voters statewide to substitute --AGAIN!! and RAPIDLY!!-- for what the Legislature was established to do, with its members selected and trusted to do their job by the very fact of such choice.

When do you remember Republican leadership scolding and caviling at concentrated consensus supplied by solid statement from nine leading business associations?

What could possibly be more reversed-from-”normal” than the GOP bewailing and belittling --and, finally, betraying-- that more-normal corporate-support we’ve all long ago learned to expect from them?

Why was it that such ready consensus forced such gag-reflex and party-splitting kickback between Senate and House GOP-”leadership”? Who forced whom to do what, resulting in highly obvious non-participation by one cult-contingent leader while the other played out his own hand? What comes-now when Senate and House-side gurus face off to see who must do what to clean up the mess and make good to the big contributors?? Both party-remnants must thus answer-up, this time...

Is there still any question as to whose politically-perverse and rationally perverted “my way or the highway” brought on this debacle and its desperate ongoing consequences?

The serene, supreme State Capital has been the site of ongoing political mayhem and manipulation perhaps never before so concentrated and conscienceless even in the malevolent-consequence last couple of decades; clearly cutting to the bone of democratic decision by demolishing its essential element: Open, honest, clear, concentrated attention to the commonweal interest ALONE and ONLY by elected representatives chosen in full trust precisely for that major task.

What forced that furious face-off, bringing on the first futility after clear consensus had been achieved, was forecast earlier in the metropolitan press with clear responsibility for the conclusion stated.

The open warning was thus a matter of printed-record right before the train-went-off the bridge...

Long before this session opened, both political remnants of once-proud essential-operational-units for a democracy --the two “political parties”-- had BOTH promised that THIS time, FOR SURE, cooperation would conquer cult-driven confrontation: with due respect and full regard for the State’s work and the commonweal interest --which is the ONLY rational, reasonable, durable explanation for ANY session.

Not in living memory has there been such a display of displaced dialog --kept from ever-happening-- to facilitate and fasten down full understandings on a solid and sensible consensus, by the strongly-imposed political will of one would-be “leader”, perhaps lost in personal pursuit of misplaced power and potency-demonstration.

Now we all must face the dilemma forced upon us when open, honest, concentrated and cooperative study and determined dialog leading to democratic decision is abandoned for a return to that same silly and senseless system of cult-concentrated competition and negative nonsense.

It’s not the railroad or the bridge bringing on these catastrophic wrecks. We need engineers who can drive the train straight and true and honestly.