Time To Look Carefully At DeFazio

Since the elections are more than a month in our rearview, maybe Eugene Weekly can stop with the vacuous takes on the Peter DeFazio v. Alek Skarlatos race and start telling readers what their representative is really up to.

“Slant” from Dec. 10 informs us that a local timber company preferred Skarlatos, calling DeFazio “a vocal opponent of our industry.” Perhaps they could have instead informed us that timber giant Weyerhaeuser donated thousands of dollars to DeFazio, not Skarlatos. Readers can simply follow a politician’s social media to find out what they are “vocal” opponents of, but we look to alternative news media to tell us what’s really going on.

For example, on Dec. 8, DeFazio voted to finalize what Glenn Greenwald calls an “extremely militaristic, imperialistic, pro-war, bloated budget to benefit the Pentagon, the private arms dealers, defense industry and lobbyists.” Here again DeFazio has abandoned actual progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar, who opposed what she called “a bill to appease defense contractors” which “further commits our servicemen to escalations abroad” and “does nothing to stop arms sales to some of the most corrupt and brutal regimes in the world.”

With Oregon ranking dead last in defense spending as a share of GDP there is no pressure from DeFazio’s constituency to support a war budget larger than the next 15 countries combined. So where is the pressure coming from? Alongside Weyerhaeuser you will find “arms dealers, defense industry and lobbyists” like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin making big donations to DeFazio. 

Colin Moran 

Eugene