A18 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR[email protected]LOCAL OPINIONSJoin the debate at washingtonpost.com/local-opinionsI
F THE Securities and Exchange Commission
stopped acting, the nation would feel vulnerable
to securities fraud. If the Federal Trade Commis-
sion were paralyzed, or the Federal Communica-
tions Commission, there would be a crisis of confi-
dence in fields they regulate. Why, then, are the
nation’s political leaders so complacent about the
Federal Election Commission, the independent reg-
ulatory agency charged with being the watchdog
over the political process and protecting the integri-
ty of U.S. democracy?
As of this month, the six-member commission is
down to three commissioners, although it needs four
for a quorum. Without a quorum, the FEC cannot
hold hearings, make rules, initiate litigation, issue
advisory opinions, launch investigations or approve
enforcement actions and audits, among other
things. The FEC chairwoman, Ellen L. Weintraub,
has put on a brave face, noting that the commission’s
“most important duties will continue unimpeded,”
such as shining a spotlight on campaign finance andperforming the staff work when it receives com-
plaints. She insists that the “United States’ election
cop is still on the 2020 campaign beat” and that she
will “remain vigilant to all threats to the integrity of
our elections.”
But this is a precarious time for the commission-
ers to lack a quorum. The 2016 presidential election
was undermined by interference from Russia, and
the upcoming campaign seems equally vulnerable to
mischief and meddling. Moreover, the need is great-
er than ever to police the torrents of cash flowing
into campaign coffers, much of it in dark money
from shady interest groups. The lack of a quorum at
the FEC is an open invitation to those who want to
skirt the law to gamble that they won’t be caught
until later, if at all.
President Trump has repeatedly leveled the
charge, of which there is no evidence, that there was
massive voter fraud in 2016. If he were really
interested in keeping U.S. elections clean and trans-
parent, he would make a special effort to bring theFEC back up to speed. Senate Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell (R-Ky.) has long wanted to neuter the
FEC. Both he and Mr. Trump have the power to fix it
— and have not.
The FEC, created after the Watergate scandals, is
supposed to have three Republican and three Demo-
cratic members, nominated by the president and
confirmed by the Senate. In practice, they have been
nominated by the White House with agreement from
party leaders in Congress, two at a time, one from
each party. Mr. Trump saw fit to send up a single
Republican last time, breaking with the tacit under-
standing; that nomination awaits Senate action. Tw o
other vacant commissioner seats have no nominee.
Even before the current loss of a quorum, the FEC
was beset by partisan deadlock. Meanwhile, all three
current serving commissioners are holdovers first
appointed in the presidency of George W. Bush. It
looks as though politicians have done their best to
weaken the FEC just as the nation heads into an
election cycle. Whose interest does that serve?Running elections on empty
The Federal Election Commission lacks a quorum on the eve of the 2020 presidential campaign.
Barry Svrluga’s Sept. 3 Sports column, “In the
stands, the fun has not begun,” discussed low fan
attendance at Washington Nationals baseball
games this season.
I’m not sure why others are avoiding Nationals
Park this year, but I can tell you why we canceled
our partial season plan, as of 2018: a lousy attitude
and poor customer service from the marketing
level to the Nationals’ managing partner.
Last year, when we encountered a scheduling
glitch, the Nats ticket office refused to acknowl-
edge the mistakes with its original schedule and
its database. In attempts to get a refund, we
encountered snarky responses filled with misin-
formation. (I’m being polite.) After we fell for
general manager Mike Rizzo’s comments aboutthe team’s being competitive for the playoffs but
before he threw in the towel and began disposing
of popular but expensive players — in a span of
three to four days — we put down a deposit on
playoff tickets.
When the managing partner ignored two re-
quests for a refund, we had to file suit in Arlington
County small claims court to get our money back.
Let’s not even go into the overpriced, half-cooked
hot dogs on stale buns.
It will take a positive, organizational change in
attitude at Nationals Park to bring us back.
Paul W. Ropp , ArlingtonNot going back to Nationals Park
ABCDE
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P
RESIDENT TRUMP’S belligerent national-
ism and his use of trade as a political
weapon are being emulated by key Ameri-
can allies, compounding the damage to
U.S. strategic interests. One particularly acute case
in point is that of Japan and South Korea, which
have become caught up in an escalating feud about
20th-century grievances that animate nationalists
in both countries. The result: Japan has restricted
key exports to South Korea, and Seoul has an-
nounced it will end an intelligence-sharing agree-
ment with To kyo, even as both countries face a
growing threat from North Korea.
This is far from the first time that the two East
Asian democracies have feuded over their troubled
history, including Japan’s colonization of Korea
from 1910 to 1945. But Mr. Trump has done much to
exacerbate the latest spat, first by modeling mer-
cantilist tactics and then by doing little or nothing
to defuse the conflict.
The flare-up started with a questionable ruling
by South Korea’s Supreme Court, which saidJapanese firms must compensate South Koreans
used as forced laborers during World War II despite
a 1965 treaty settling those claims. In July, the
Japanese government of Shinzo Abe, a nationalist
who has worked hard to cultivate Mr. Trump,
responded with a Trumpian measure: restrictions
on exports to South Korea, including chemicals
vital to its big chip-manufacturing industry.
The previous South Korean government, under
the conservative Park Geun-hye, had tried to head
off the court’s ruling after striking a deal with
Mr. Abe on another sensitive subject, South Ko-
rean women forced to serve as “comfort women”
for the Japanese army. But the leftist Moon Jae-in,
who succeeded her, chose to play on the easily
inflamed Korean resentment toward Japan. Hav-
ing already dismantled the earlier deal on comfort
women, he responded aggressively to the Japanese
export restrictions, first announcing the cancella-
tion of the intelligence-sharing and then conduct-
ing military exercises near islets claimed by both
countries.All t his came as a blow to U.S. d iplomats w ho had
worked painstakingly to broker the intelligence
deal and to encourage the settlement on comfort
women. Yet, other than issuing a statement
criticizing the South Korean move on intelligence
sharing, the Trump administration has made little
effort to repair the rift. This, even though North
Korea’s recent testing of several new short-range
missiles capable of striking both South Korea and
Japan has made cooperation between them more
urgent than ever.
President Barack Obama made it a priority to
ease tensions between these vital U.S. allies, even
convening a trilateral meeting with Ms. Park and
Mr. Abe to break the ice between them. Mr. Trump,
in contrast, has publicly complained about the
expectation that he should do something. “How
many things do I have to get involved in?” he
whined after getting a mediation request from
Mr. Moon in July. Thanks to such thinking, the U.S.
strategic position in East Asia is steadily deterio-
rating, to the advantage of North Korea and China.East Asia’s turmoil, America’s loss
The U.S. stays on the sidelines while allies Japan and South Korea bicker, hurting all three nations.
T
HE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S war on
environmental rules has always been irratio-
nal. But the unreason hits a new peak in the
Trump Energy Department’s campaign to
save old, outdated, energy-wasting lightbulbs, to the
benefit of no one except a handful of lightbulb
manufacturers.
The Energy Department announced Wednesday
two measures that will result in more greenhouse-
gas emissions in the air and less money in consum-
ers’ pockets. One would roll back an Obama admin-
istration effort to subject the full range of household
lightbulbs to federal efficiency requirements. The
other would defy Congress’s explicit instructions to
ratchet up those requirements in 2020.
The Appliance Standards Awareness Project,
which advocates stronger national efficiency pro-
grams, on Wednesday provided a sense of the
potential cost: “Eliminating the 2020 standards for
all light bulbs would cost US consumers up to
$14 billion annually, which works out to more than
$100 in lost bill savings every year per household.
The rollback would increase annual climate-change
emissions by about 38 million metric tons per year,
or approximately the amount emitted by 8 million
cars.”
True, many consumers would choose to buy better
bulbs in the absence of federal standards. But how
would killing the rules benefit them? Only by
providing the option to buy Thomas Edison’s i ncan-
descent lightbulb, which uselessly dissipates as heat
nearly all the electricity it gobbles up and requires
constant replacement.
At one time, at the start of the transition off this
fossil of a technology, one could argue that modern
bulbs — particularly compact fluorescent bulbs —
had drawbacks. Compact fluorescents tended to give
off harsh, institutional white light. They d id not turnon immediately. Disposing of them required care.
But the technology has improved dramatically,
particularly with the introduction of LED bulbs at
mainstream prices. These bulbs last for ages, come
in all shapes and sizes, and can give off any color
light that consumers desire. Over time, the energy
savings are profound.
That is why consumer groups and electrical
utilities have fought the Trump administration’s
effort to keep Edison-style incandescent bulbs on
the shelves. In its rulemaking, the Energy Depart-
ment acknowledged utilities’ and efficiency organi-
zations’ warning that they would have “to replace
the lost energy savings either by building morepower plants or by creating more utility programs
around other products to achieve the savings
through much less cost-effective means.” Those
cheering the Trump administration, on the other
hand, are a combination of anti-regulation zealots
and lightbulb-makers.
If the courts do not stop the Trump administra-
tion, a more rational future administration will have
the legal tools to reverse this nonsense; Congress
mandated better bulbs in 2007 legislation, and it
empowered the Energy Department to act. In the
meantime, states should push along the transition
toward more efficient bulbs. Four have already
created standards of their own.A dim-bulb
policy idea
The administration’s push for
less efficient, more costly lighting
defies reason.ABCDE
FREDERICK J. RYAN JR., Publisher and Chief Executive Officer
News pages: Editorial and opinion pages:
MARTIN BARON FRED HIATT
Executive Editor Editorial Page Editor
CAMERON BARR JACKSON DIEHL
Managing Editor Deputy Editorial Page Editor
EMILIO GARCIA-RUIZ RUTH MARCUS
Managing Editor Deputy Editorial Page Editor
TRACY GRANT JO-ANN ARMAO
Managing Editor Associate Editorial Page Editor
SCOTT VANCE
Deputy Managing Editor
BARBARA VOBEJDA
Deputy Managing Editor
Vice Presidents:
JAMES W. COLEY JR. ..................................................................................... Production
L. WAYNE CONNELL..........................................................................Human Resources
KATE M. DAVEY .................................................................................. Revenue Strategy
ELIZABETH H. DIAZ ................................................. Audience Development & Insights
GREGG J. FERNANDES........................................................Customer Care & Logistics
STEPHEN P. GIBSON...................................................................Finance & Operations
SCOT GILLESPIE .......................................................................................... Engineering
KRISTINE CORATTI KELLY...................................................Communications & Events
JOHN B. KENNEDY.................................................................General Counsel & Labor
MIKI TOLIVER KING........................................................................................Marketing
KAT DOWNS MULDER........................................................................Product & Design
SHAILESH PRAKASH...............................Digital Product Development & Engineering
JOY ROBINS ........................................................................................... Client SolutionsThe Washington Post
1301 K St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 (202) 334-Jane Fonda’s Aug. 31 op-ed, “Taking back our
country starts with one conversation,” t ook us back
to 2008, our first experience in retail politics, as
volunteers for the Obama campaign. We were
assigned to south Philadelphia; we walked into
beauty shops and barbershops, talked with anyone
pushing a baby carriage or walking a dog. We were
there long enough that a kind restaurant owner told
us that we could use his bathrooms anytime, and we
didn’t have to buy anything. We knocked on
492 doors and met the Americans we all are:
friendly, curious and eager for a conversation on
what matters to us.
At a train station in Fredericksburg, Va., we
handed out brochures, talked about the day’s news
and had as many conversations as time allowed.
Next, we talked by phone with registered voters in
Mississippi.
We all deserve to believe that we matter, have
value and are not alone. The best way to nurture
those feelings is for each of us to share what is
mutually important in personal conversations.
We’re all in this together, and we need each other.
Patricia Moore and Arthur Cotton Moore ,
WashingtonLike Jane Fonda , I’m also “scared for our
democracy.” How can we solve our problems if
eligible voters don’t know and don’t care what is
being done in their names? She cited the case of a
Trump supporter in Pennsylvania who had an
incorrect assumption about her son’s health-
insurance standing.
Unlike Ms. Fonda, I believe the problem is too
deep and ominous to be solved with a chance
conversation. Look at the growing disconnect be-
tween citizens and politicians caused by the drastic
decline in news coverage of local and state political
affairs because of the disappearance of local newspa-
pers and radio newscasts.
According to the Brookings Institution, the num-
ber of daily newspapers per 100 million people fell
from about 1,700 in 1945 to 400 in 2014. Since 1980,
television networks have lost nearly half of their
audiences for evening newscasts.
Many p eople are getting their news from bulletins
and Internet headlines, surely no way to be informed
about political affairs that are so often far from
simple to report or understand. No wonder only a
little more than half of eligible Americans bother to
cast ballots for president.
Me worry? Hell yes.
Arthur E. Rowse, Chevy Chase
The writer is a retired journalist.Democracy relies on all citizens
Regarding the Sept. 2 editorial “A reckoning for
the Vatican”:
Say 10 Hail Marys and write me a check for
$5 million. Kudos to the state of New York (and
others) for raising the penitential price tag for the
Catholic Church and its never-ending child sex
abuse scandal. No l onger will the heirs to St. Peter be
able to hide behind a “statute of limitations” law t hat
shielded them from older abuse claims.
Here’s the gospel truth: Strip away the mumbled
pledges of healing and change, the stained glass and
incense, and the Catholic Church is just another
lawyered-up corporation doing everything it can to
avoid earthly judgment. Well, in New York at least,
Judgment Day is at hand.
John Dalby , LeesburgJudgment Day for the church
Grover Norquist, of no-new-tax-pledge fame,
wants to ditch an old tax, as he suggested in his
Aug. 29 Thursday Opinion column, “Indexing capi-
tal gains helps more than the rich.” He said those
who sell homes bought 40 years ago shouldn’t be
taxed on their gains that he claims, because of
inflation, are “mostly imaginary.”
Wrong. The gains were very real, reflecting better
schools, roads, mass transit, parks, etc., that the
public created but most of which the homeowners
kept as a windfall addition to their property value.
Wiping out the gains tax would further benefit the
affluent but make already astronomic housing costs
even more out of reach for new buyers and renters.
Walter Rybeck , Silver SpringMr. Norquist is wrong
I agree with the Sept. 2 editorial “Our labor
debate is rife with hypocrisy.” We need to wake up to
the reality of working in the United States. Immi-
grants (primarily Hispanic construction workers)
have transformed the skylines of the nation over the
past quarter-century. More important, Hispanics
alone have accounted for nearly half of the nation’s
employment growth over the same period.
President Trump ignores the massive job gains
Latinos attained under then-President Barack
Obama but takes credit for record-low U.S. Latino
unemployment. Latino unemployment fell from a
high of 13 percent in 2009 to a low of 5.8 percent
when Mr. Obama left o ffice. Under Mr. Trump, it has
gone from 5.8 percent to 4.2 percent.
From 2000 to 2016, Latinos accounted for
65 percent of all new workers added to the
U.S. economy. However, during the first two years
of the Trump administration, Latinos accounted
for only 41 percent of all new workers added to the
U.S. economy, with that percentage continuing to
dwindle.
Alejandro Becerra , Silver SpringHurting Hispanic job gains
Regarding the Sept. 4 Politics & the Nation article
“Mich. becomes first state to ban flavored
e-cigarettes”:
E-cigarettes help tobacco smokers quit.
E-cigarettes encourage youngsters to start smoking
tobacco. E-cigarettes are dangerous to health but
less so than tobacco.
All these statements may be true, but they don’t
have to be in conflict. Just r estrict e-cigarette sales to
those with medical certificates attesting to a tobacco
addiction.
It’s a simple, virtually costless method of keeping
e-cigarettes where they can do some good and out of
the hands of nonsmokers.
Let’s tame this monster before it grows so power-
ful, with the support of tobacco companies, that we
lose the opportunity.
Brad Swanson , ViennaTaming tobacco and e-cigarettes
EDITORIALSLet’s not even go into the hot dogs.
MARK DUNCAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
LED lightbulbs are tested in an oven at a General Electric facility in East Cleveland, Ohio, in 2011.