Oregon's Uncle Phil

I've been a Nike fan.

Now it's more complicated.

Nike is headquartered in Beaverton, Oregon. I have considered it the "home team" of athletic wear. I have been a fan of Phil Knight, too.

Phil Knight, Nike's founder, has made huge gifts to the University of Oregon, my home-state flagship university. 

Phil Knight ran track when he was a student at the "U of O" in Eugene, Oregon. Eugene advertises itself as Track Town USA. Oregonians were early adopters of jogging and running for casual exercise. Nike money helps maintain that Oregon tradition. 

Knight could move his personal domicile to Texas and probably save on taxes, but he hasn't done it. Not yet, anyway. Oregon needs a rich guy. California has its Silicon Valley billionaires, but Phil Knight is Oregon's, with an estimated net worth of $40 billion. He's been loyal to Oregon so I've been loyal right back. I buy Nike stuff. I have worn Nike running shoes for decades for running and casual wear. The Pegasus model is my favorite.

Pegasus: Lightweight, cushiony, slipper-like.

They are crazy-expensive -- about $125 -- and they are manufactured in Asia, so there's got to be a lot of margin in them for Nike, but that's OK. Some of that margin comes back to Oregon. 

Three months ago my sister surprised me by telling me that I should sell the Nike stock I own. "Nike is going downhill," she said. "Nike shoes are good, but they aren't as good as Hoka shoes."

I told her I had never heard of Hoka. 

"They are so comfortable," she said.  She was wearing a pair. Hers looked garish and clunky, like this.

Or maybe the orange ones.  All I remember was that they were brightly colored and had thick, rounded heels. 

My sister said the rounded heel makes her feel like she is walking downhill, or gliding effortlessly, the way we feel walking on those moving walkways at airports. "They are the most amazing shoes I have ever worn," she said.

I looked on-line for Hoka shoes. They were $150/pair! I felt guilty going to REI, the Pacific Northwest-headquartered recreational equipment store to try on some. I felt like I was cheating Nike. My sister was right. The shoes were incredibly comfortable. Something about the rounded heel, I think, rolls my feet forward when I walk. 

These are three months old and have about 300 miles of walking on them:

I felt disloyal to Oregon. 

And then this:  

I have always gotten along well with Republicans. Probably half of my clients were Republicans back when I was a financial advisor. Before Trump transformed the GOP, Republicans had the normal spectrum of political thought, with a lean against taxes on rich people and opposition to abortion, but still supportive of law and good order.

Trump forces Republican officeholders to toe his line on issues central to democratic government. Otherwise you are a RINO. Non-Trump Republicans are so uncomfortable in the new GOP that they are resigning their seats in congress. That is almost unheard of, but it is happening. Being in the caucus demands too much of them.

Ronna McDaniel just burned her bridges with the GOP when she said in public that, really, now that she is free to speak, Biden did win the 2020 election and it was wrong for Trump to try to overthrow it with violence. McDaniel is the perfect case to show the problem with electing Republicans to state offices. As part of the team, she had to stick to the program of overthrowing and denying elections. She knew better. She knew it was a lie, but to be a Republican she had to tell it.

A Republican state senator in good standing, Kim Thatcher, a former candidate for secretary of state, the chief election officer of the state, is the kind of officeholder who will be funded by Knight's donation. She led Oregon's effort to join the Texas lawsuit that would have thrown out Biden electoral votes in six states. Randy Sparacino, the non-partisan mayor of Medford -- a pretty normal-sounding guy usually -- had to abandon that moderation and sound like the election-denying crew that leads the local Republican party and the state senate's GOP caucus and its PAC. He had a long career in law enforcement, yet to be a Republican in good standing he was stuck tolerating a flagrant scofflaw who condemns the people who investigate and prosecute crimes. He paid a high price for party loyalty. It sabotaged his campaign, as I wrote in detail two years ago. 

It is Trump's party. You can mumble. You can tell people in private that you don't agree 100% with Trump. But in a public vote, you stick with the team. The team tolerates -- and in many cases actively promotes -- the Big Lie and the mechanisms for overthrowing elections. It is dangerous to have Republicans in that position.

So I am not surprised that Phil Knight likes Republicans. Democrats want to tax him more heavily than do Republicans. But I am disappointed that he wants to support them now, when Republicans must be Trump compliant, on issues that involve respect for our democracy.

I hope Nike quickly copies Hoka's rounded heel design. I also hope Phil Knight stops trying to elect people who will toe Trump's line.

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