PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.
If that headline strikes you as a bit presumptuous, good. It is.
I have no business thinking I will ever be in charge of government, either at the state or federal levels and either by appointment or election. Plus, I am retired. But I do have a few prescriptions for what should constitute good government.
So, here goes.
- Good government should be marked by asking one important question: Is there a role for government in regard to this problem and, if there is, how should a government response be designed to achieve the desired result.
Too often, this question is not asked, much less answered. Thus, we have a pay for government solutions to every problem. Does government have a role in some cases? By all means. But not all cases.
Asking this hard question and providing a fact-based answer is the first step toward good government.
- Good government should be about promises kept, not just promises made.
Making promises is easy. Keeping them is hard. But if promises are just talk, then why listen? Make promises, then keep them.
Let me add one clarification here. If a candidate makes a promise on the campaign trail or an agency head makes a promise in running a program, then finds out he or she cannot fulfill it, tell the public the truth. In straightforward facts, describe why a promise cannot be kept. That builds credibility.
- Good government should be about achieving results, not just proposing them.
In his Wonder Land column, Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Henninger put it this way about Donald Trump’s recent election:
“…..Democrats disconsolate since the election about the loss of hope in American politics leave the impression they believe that giving people the rhetoric of hope, lifting them with words, is more important than delivering results, which some might call change.”
Results matter. Measure those who serve you in elected or appointed office by the results they achieve, not the results they promise and don’t achieve.
- Good government should be about the search for middle ground, not extremes in public policy.
Too often, government these days is about the ability to win at all costs. Call the other side stupid. Impose your will.
Consider the Affordable Health Care Act, which came to be called ObamaCare. It was, in fact, an apt moniker. The program was imposed by Obama and his Democrat supporters in Congress without one Republican vote – and this was not because Republicans were just opposed to Obama. It was because the Act was an over-the-top, one-size-fits-all prescription for health care in America.
Was it all bad? Of course not. Millions of Americas got health coverage as part of new government spending, but at what cost? A huge spike upward in health premiums, both for those newly on a government program, as well as those in the private sector.
The better answer, one the Republicans in charge should now consider, is to legislate from the middle. Work with reasonable Democrats – yes, there are some, just as there are some reasonable Republicans – to repeal ObamaCare and replace it with something that works better.
House Speaker Paul Ryan’s “Better Way” document would be a good place to start in the effort to do what good Americans and their representatives should be able to do, with is find a middle ground solution to health care.
- Good government should be about ethical and honest behavior, not bending the truth.
This seems far from the case today. A government by and for the people should be honest in its approach to these “people” – us.
Conclusion: These prescriptions might not make good sound bites. But they’d make good government.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 