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Opinion
Reece Terry, publisher
Mark Boehler, editor
4 • Saturday, February 6, 2016
Corinth, Miss.
Trump’s disregard for private property Donald Trump is running a pretty successful presidential campaign saying that he wants to “Make America Great Again.” But he seems to have very little interest in what exactly it is that makes America great. This paradox is very much on display when Trump talks about eminent domain, the authority given to government in the constitution to take private Star property for public use. Trump says, “Eminent doParker main is wonderful.” The Fifth Amendment to Columnist our Constitution tells us: “No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.” The key question is, what is “public use”? George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin sums it up as follows: “Until the early 20th century, most courts interpreted those words to cover things such as roads or power lines – projects owned either directly by the government or by private owners who have a legal obligation to serve the entire public, such as utility companies.” “By the 1950s, however,” Somin continues, “The original meaning of ‘public use’ had been largely abandoned. Legal elites came to believe that government planners should have nearly limitless authority to take property to promote growth and combat blight afflicting the urban poor.” Donald Trump includes himself among these “legal elites” who think government should be free to confiscate private property and turn it over to some private developer who proposes a project, claiming it will create jobs. This is what happened in the Kelo v. City of New London decision in 2005, when the Supreme Court sided with the city of New London, Connecticut, which seized property to make way for a commercial development anchored by a new research facility for Pfizer Corporation. One of the property owners, Susette Kelo, sued the city, claiming this seizing of private property for a private development was not “public use” as intended in the constitution. The court sided with the city, 5-4. The two solid conservatives on the Court at the time, Anton Scalia and Clarence Thomas, sided with Kelo, who was represented by the libertarian public interest law firm Institute for Justice. Donald Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto, regarding the Kelo decision, “I happen to agree with it 100 percent.” It sounds so nice to say a project can bring jobs and development. But can we really allow, in our country, the forcing of private owners off their property because a government entity, working with a private developer, claims there is potential in some new development there? We have proof in the pudding with Kelo, where the owners were removed and then the project fell through. The place is now an abandoned lot. Washington is filled with special interests looking for favors, claiming their business project is in the “national interest.” Back in 1993, Donald Trump tried to buy Vera Coking’s Atlantic City home to use the property for his casino development. She refused to sell. So New Jersey confiscated her property. Coking was represented by the Institute for Justice, and defeated Donald Trump in court. Coking kept her home. Cato Institute economist Mark Calabria estimates that since the Kelo decision in 2005 more than 1 million households “have been displaced by government action.” Of these households, Calabria estimates 29 percent were black and 32 percent households in poverty. What makes America great is respect for law and respect for all private citizens and their property. We need leaders who understand and care about this. This is what will make America great. Not unprincipled dealmakers looking for wealth and power. (Star Parker is an author and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure.org.)
Prayer for today Lord God, may I not only feel the need of thee when I am burdened with sorrow and care, but may I have need of thee in my pleasures and joys. I thank thee for thy gracious kindness, thy mercy and thy protection. Amen.
A verse to share For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. — Jeremiah 29:11
The age of working-class discontent We live in the age of working-class discontent, which, if it wasn’t obvious before, has been made plain by the passions roiling 2016 presidential politics. The media’s preferred description of the average Republican voter has often been “the angry white male.” This was crudely simplistic and meant to be pejorative. If the press wants to update the descriptor, it should refer to “the despairing white male.” Or more accurately, the despairing white working class. Two of the most illuminating and alarming books of the past few years – “Coming Apart” by Charles Murray and “Our Kids” by Robert Putnam – described the struggles of workingclass America. This is the year that the facts and figures in the pages of those books have made themselves palpably felt in our politics, both left and right. White working-class life in America has been in a slow-motion disintegration for decades, and it shows. The white working class is an archipelago of hopelessness. It is in a funk about the economy (almost 80 percent think we are still in a recession) and, more fundamentally, the American future.
According to the American Values Survey conducted by the Public Religion Rich R e s e a r c h Lowry I n s t i t u t e , only about National 40 percent Review of the white working class say the country’s best days are ahead. This is not only lower than college-educated whites (53 percent), but much lower than blacks (60 percent) and Hispanics (56 percent). It is astonishing to think that the white working class has a dimmer view of the nation’s future than blacks, who have been historically discriminated against and still lag badly on almost every socio-economic indicator. As noted by the National Journal’s acute analyst Ronald Brownstein, a survey for The Pew Charitable Trusts picked up the same finding a few years ago. It asked people whether they expected to be better off in 10 years. Whereas twothirds of blacks and Hispanics said “yes,” only 44 percent of whites without a college degree said the same.
We are conditioned by the media to be obsessed with race, when class is an increasingly important divider. (No one ever earnestly says on a cable-TV show that we need to have “a conversation about class in America.”) The class divide among whites shows up again and again on questions about the fairness of the country. The American Values Survey finds that white working-class Americans distrust institutions like the government and business more than college-educated whites do; they are more likely to think that their vote doesn’t matter because of the influence of wealthy interests; they are more likely to think that hard work doesn’t necessarily lead to success. There is a sense among working-class whites that America has gone off the rails, and has been that way for a long time. Sixtytwo percent of them say American culture has gotten worse since the 1950s, whereas only 49 percent of college-educated whites agree. (Similarly, the working class has a much more jaded view of immigration, which has been a defining feature of American life in
recent decades.) If our politics has a coloration of anger and despair, it is only the dismaying trends written about by social scientists Charles Murray, Robert Putnam and Bradford Wilcox coming home to roost. Besides the economic battering that lower-skilled workers have taken in recent decades, the working class is increasingly disconnected from the institutions that lend meaning and hope to people’s lives: marriage, the workforce, churches and other institutions of civil society. They believe that the long-standing American promise of a country where children are better off than their parents has been betrayed, and they sense that their time is past – a sense reinforced by a pop culture that tends to consider them afterthoughts, or fitting subjects for mockery. Although smaller than it once was, the white working class remains about 40 percent of the electorate. Its travails can’t — and won’t — be ignored. (Daily Corinthian columnist Rich Lowry can be reached via e-mail: comments.lowry@nationalreview.com.)
Carmichael’s courage paved way for GOP success My first exposure to statewide politics outside the confines of the Founder’s Square Pavilion at the Neshoba County Fairgrounds was with Mississippi Republican pioneer and Meridian businessman Gil Carmichael. Carmichael, 88, died over the weekend in Meridian after a long and productive life. No one Mississippian did more to further a viable two-party system of politics in the modern era in this state than did Carmichael. In the summer of 1975, I had the opportunity at the age of 16 to serve as a campaign volunteer in Carmichael’s first gubernatorial campaign against Democrat Cliff Finch. Political campaigns in the days before cell phones, email, websites, and social media involved a steady, rather schizophrenic erosion of shoe leather and steel-belted radial tires. There were a lot of bad meals, bad motels, and bad days when busy people really didn’t want to be bothered by a politician. But I learned more about retail politics during those weeks – watching Carmichael deal with local politicos like legendary Potts Camp power broker J.M. “Flick” Ash, the former Potts Camp mayor, Marshall County sheriff and
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chancery clerk, and area state legislator – than I learned in some of my college poSid Salter litical science Columnist courses. A native of Columbia, Carmichael was, by current standards, a moderate Republican and one that espoused a progressive political agenda. Carmichael — progressive, intelligent and courageous — spoke out bravely for a new state constitution, passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and compulsory school attendance. Gil’s first foray into state politics came in the 1966 after then-state Sen. G.V. “Sonny” Montgomery was elected to the U.S. House. Carmichael sought the seat in a special election and finished second in a field of nine. He ran on the slogan “If you want a job done, send a busy man.” He sought another state Senate seat in 1967, but lost. But it was in taking on Democratic Mississippi U.S. Sen. James Oliver “Big Jim” Eastland in 1972 that Carmichael earned a place in Mississippi’s political history as a Republican Party pioneer. Even with active opposition by Republican President Richard Nixon – who cur-
ried favor with Eastland as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee – Carmichael won almost 42 percent of the vote against Eastland in the Doddsville Democrat’s final election. In that race, Nixon sent Vice President Spiro Agnew to Mississippi to endorse fellow Republicans Trent Lott and Thad Cochran on the president’s behalf, but Nixon refused to allow Agnew to endorse Carmichael. The Meridian car dealer served in the U.S. Coast Guard, winning the Silver Lifesaving Medal for his real-life role in the USCG’s rescue immortalized in the current Hollywood film “Finest Hours.” Carmichael was the Republican nominee for governor in Mississippi in 1975 (winning 45.1 percent of the vote against Finch and independent Henry Kirksey) and again in 1979 (winning 39.1 percent against Democrat William Winter). He made an unsuccessful bid for lieutenant governor in 1983. Despite never winning an election, Carmichael was a valuable public policy contributor. In 1973, he was appointed to the National Highway Safety Advisory Committee and became chairman of the advisory committee until 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he was a federal commissioner for the
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National Transportation Policy Study Commission. Carmichael was named administrator of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration in 1989 and served until 1993. He later served as chairman of the Amtrak Reform Council. Among Republicans, Gil will also be remembered as a pivotal supporter of Gerald Ford over Ronald Reagan at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City. The Mississippi delegation famously split over the choice, but the “unit rule” required that the candidate who had the support of the majority of the state’s 30 delegates get all 30 votes – killing Reagan’s nomination. Some old guard Republicans in the state carried enmity over that split for the rest of their lives. But moderate or conservative, Carmichael’s role as a Mississippi Republican Party pioneer is undeniable and history should regard Carmichael as a man of principle and integrity who refused to engage in the easy and mean-spirited politics of race or class. (Daily Corinthian columnist Sid Salter is syndicated across the state. Contact him at 601-507-8004 or sidsalter@sidsalter.com.)
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