HSFC_2017_01_11

A12|Wednesday,January 11, 2017|SFChronicle.com XXXXX

OPINION

@JohnDiazChron, @lkazakoff, @marshallkilduff, @caillemillner, @spencewhitney

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Y

ou don’t need a pass-
port toget here, but
our neck of the Califor-
nia woods may be asstrange
to Bay Area residents as many
a foreign land orfantasy king-
dom.
First off, most of theMother
Lode voted forTrump: Seven
of our eight counties joined
rural voters nationwide in
going for the Donald, mostby
landslide margins of nearly 60
percent.
(Hillary Clinton did eke out
a win inNevada County, per-
hapsdue to GrassValley back-
to-the-land enclaves leftover
from the’60s.)
As surprising asTrump’s
success here in the hills may
have been to some,it shocked
no one in the Gold Country.
We’ve been part ofRepub-
lican California (in all, 25 of
the state’ s 58 countieswent for
Trump) fordecades. Which is
kind of like DemocraticUtah
— apparently populatedby
Salt Lake Cityvoters who ha ve
elected fourstraight Dem
mayors, the most recent of
whom is a lesbian.
In the interests of letting
The Chronicle’s readers know
and understand a little more
about their neighbors in the
Mother Lode, I’ll be filing the
occasional dispatch frommy
Tuolumne County home.
But first, some context may
be in order.Withoutit, taking
in my stories might be like
reading tales of orcs, ents,
trolls and hobbits without
knowing anything ofMiddle
Earth.
Sure,Middle Earth is make-
believe. But to some, life in the
Central Sierra foothills might
comeclose.
The California known to the
rest of the nation outlaws
plastic bags, funds sex-change
operations for inmates, taxes
root beer, mandates earth-tone
houses inupscale neighbor-
hoods, droolsover electric
cars and sends Governor
Moonbeam to Sacramento.
We in theMother Lode
drink ditchwater, drive pick-
up truc ks, hang laundry on
lines, buy guns and let our
dogs run free. Our lawnsgo
unmowed, andrusting cars
clutter ouryards. You can buy
ammo,while it lasts,at a few
of our bars.
We poison-oakers have
elected congressmenwho
would rather jump from the
fiscalcliff than cooperate with
the dreaded Dems.We love

the cash that tourists fromLos

Angeles and SanFrancisco

bring us, butwe don’t trust

the politicians they send to

Sacramento orWashington.

Many of us feel forgotten by

big-city lawmakerswho don’t

know how to tie afly, fire a

hunting rifle or listen to any-

one from a county with only

enoughvoters to electabout a

10th of astate senator.

Some of us are ornery, rude

and just to the right of Attila

the Hun. Others believe in

Bigfoot, UFOs and the Demo-

craticParty. We have a lot of

bars, a lot ofchurches, many

true believers at each and

someat both.

But this isn’t “Deliverance”

country. Folks are friendly,

and if a neighbor stubs his toe,

we’ll organize a benefit dinner.

We throw so many fund-rais-

ing feeds that a diner with a

tolerance for spaghetti could

survive for months eating for

charity.

We have theaters, poetry

readings and writers’work-

shops. The local junior colleg-

e’s debate team has posted

better records thanits hoops

squad.

Visitors arewelcome to

share our historic towns and

spectacular mountain scenery,

and oftendo. Thousandsvaca-

tion here annually, spending

millions ofdollars while get-

ting lost on our dirt roads and

wonderingwhere theirIn-

ternet and cell servicewent.

Ranching,farming, logging

and miningwere once corner-

stones of our economy. For-

tune-seekersstill dipgold

pans into our creekswhen the

economy takes a particularly

bad turn, logging rasps back

to lifewhen it takes agood

one, and our only remaining

cash crop may be marijuana.

The retail and service in-

dustries (readWalmart and

McDonald’s) now power foot-

hill communities foundedby

prospectors in the Days of ’49.

Speaking of’49, most of us

in the foothills are thatage or

older.At 70, I’m firmly within

our retirementdemographic.

For visitors from afar,we

graying hill folk can be a foun-

tain of perceived youth: Come

up to Geezerville andyou’ll at

least feelmuchyounger.

The Mother Lode period-

ically makes the national

news, usually for forest fires

or sensationalmurders. Occa-

sionally, howeve r, it’s for

something barely believable —

like when a sheriff’s lieutenant

shot himself in the footwhile

showing a reporter his new

sidearm. Orwhen two seniors

— he 62 andshe 72 — were

busted forgettingit on in the

back seat of alurchingFord

Taurus outside a Sonora bar-

becue joint.In broad daylight.

We’ve also made the movies,

scores of them. “HighNoon”

was filmed here, aswas “Back

to theFuture 3.”We were also

Hooterville(or at leastits train

station) for TV’s “Petticoat

Junction.”

A few locals take exception

to any comparison to the

1960s show, rec koning that

we’re nowfar more sophis-

ticated than BillieJo, BettyJo,

BobbieJo, Uncle Joe and the

rest ofHooterville’s good-

naturedyokels.

But I’ll letyou rea ders de-

cide that one.

Raised in theChicago ar ea,

formerBay Area resident Chris

Bateman worked as areporter,

editor and columnist for

Sonora’s Union Democrat for

nearly40 years. Now

semi-retired, he is associate

editor ofFriends andNeighb ors

Magazine. His writing can be

found online at http://www.seniorfan.

com.

OPENFORUMOn Politics

Welcome to Republican California

JamesTensuan /Specialto The Chronicle 2016

Nevada City is 45 miles northeast of Sacramento. Nevada Countywas the only one in Gold Countryto go for Hillary Clinton.

Associated Press file photo

Gary Cooper is seen asthe stern sheriff inthe Western “High

Noon.” The1952 moviewas filmed inthe Gold Country.

By Chris Bateman

The politicalclass isstill
coming to grips withwhat
appears to be DonaldTrump’s
novel management philoso-
phy: governmentby Twitter.
Put aside theby-now-familiar
weirdness of our president-
elect’sgloatingover Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s poor“Celeb-
rity Apprentice” ratings or
swipes at Meryl Streep.
Trump’sTwitter addiction
poses heretofore unnoticed
challenges for hisadministra-
tion.
The president-elect often
emphasizes thevalu e of being
“unpredictable.” And he has a
point — in certain contexts.
Keeping our enemies guessing
has adva ntages. Defenders of
Trump’s habit of jabbing cor-
porationsabout their offshor-
ing decisions will tellyou that
Trump is“setting the tone
from the top.” Becausesuch
decisions are often made with
anarrow andsubjective cost-
benefit calculus, the argument
goes, using tweets to encour-
age executives to err on the
side of“America first” is a
valu able way to change the
business culture.
Whether or notyou like
Trump’s economic reasoning,
you can seewhy he likeskeep-
ing CEOs afraid of the crack
of hisTwitter whip.
But what about hisown
appointees and allies in Con-

gress?

When I’ ve talked toveter-

ans of theRonald Reagan

administration, particularly

from the speech-writing or

policyshops, I’ve often heard

acommonobservation. Know-

ing whatthe boss believed

was both empowering and

efficient.If you know a policy

or a line in a speech will never

fly with the president,you

won’t bother pursuingit.

Peter Robinson, theac-

claimed speechwriter, has

writtenat lengthabout how

knowingReagan’s vision made

his job easier.Robinson could

write “Mr. Gorbachev , tear

down thiswall!” because he

knewit was what Reagan

wanted to have happen.

The vast literature on lead-

ership and management ham-

mersaway on this point: Pro-

vide a vision and then let the

troopsdo the hardwork. Jack

Welch, the legendary former

CEO of General Electric, putit

this way: “In order to lead a

country or a company, you’ve

got to get everybody on the

same page and you’ve got to

be able to have a vision of

where you’re going.” British

Field Marshal Bernard “Mon-

ty” Montgomery said that his

definition of leadership is:

“the capacity and the will to

rally men andwomen to a

common purpose, and the

characterwhich inspires con-

fidence.”

Except for trade policy,

there are few areaswhere

Trump’s troops have a clear

idea of exactlywhatthe boss

wants, and his compulsive

tweetingadds a layer of un-

predictability. I’ve talked to a

half-dozen committed and

principled conservatives con-

sidering jobs in theadminis-

tration, and I heard one recur-

ring concern: “WillTrump

have myback?”

The point isn’t about per-

sonal loyalty, but resolve in

the face of the inevitable polit-

ical and media backlashes that

will come with any serious

reform effort.

Consider two recent in-

cidents:

+The House GOP caucusvote

to sharply curb the power of

the Office of Congressional

Ethics.There’s bipartisan

consensus that the office is a

hot mess.When the predict-

able firestorm hit,Trump hied

to Twitter to mock the effort

as a distraction, earning a

nanosecond offavorable cov-

erage by killing the initiative.

+The effort to repealObama-

care.Trump issued a series of

Twitter fatwas lastweek, say-

ing that Congressshouldn’t do

anything that lets Democrats

off the hook for the problems

of the Affordable CareAct.

Politically, I thinkTrump is

right to be concernedabout

the perils of repealingObama-

care without having a replace-

ment ready. But his glib re-

sponse elicits fear among

some conservatives that he

won’t stand fast on repealing

Obamacare, ormuchelse.

There are countless areas —

entitlements, civil rights, im-

migration, etc. —where seri-

ous conservative reforms will

spark controversy, horrible

headlines and negative cover-

age on “theshows” the presi-

dent-electwatchesobsessively.

Will Trump impetuously use

Twitter to triangulateagainst

his own troops?

Right now, Trump’sdefend-

ers wave off suchconcerns,

saying he’s usingTwitter to

communicate aclear vision to

his team and thewhole coun-

try. To me, that seems like a

generous reading between the

lines — or between tweets

about Meryl Streep.

©2017 Tribune ContentAgency

Jonah Goldberg is afellow atthe

American EnterpriseInstitute

and a senioreditor ofNational

Review. Email: goldbergcolumn

@gmail.com Twitter:

@JonahNRO

JONAH GOLDBERG

Will Trump’s Twitter fixation repel allies?

EvanVucci /Associated Press 2016

DonaldTrump’s celebrated unpredictability, often manifested

140 charactersat a time,keeps allies and enemiesguessing.