PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH 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.

Remember the two solid public servants in this headline?

I do and my recall was heightened the other day when I read a piece by both that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

Baker, remember, served as Secretary of the Treasury and State in the mid-1980s and early 1990s. He went on to serve as chief of staff for President George Bush. Young was ambassador to the United Nations in the late 1970s, then went on to be elected mayor of Atlanta.

We need more Bakers and Youngs today.

Their piece in the Wall Street Journal, under the headline, “Identity Politics Are Tearing America Apart,” resonated with me as I have watched this country continue to go down into negative political discourse.

A couple key paragraphs set the tone for the piece:

“Somehow, the drumbeat of dissonance seems harsher today. America’s national ideal of “e pluribus unum”—out of many, one—threatens to become a hollow slogan. Jaded Americans are constantly confronted by a deluge of animus from their televisions and smartphones.

“The U.S. finds itself increasingly divided along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, religion and sexual identity. Countless demagogues stand ready to exploit those differences. When a sports reporter of Asian heritage is removed from his assignment because his name is close to that of a Confederate army general, political correctness has gone too far. Identity politics practiced by both major political parties is eroding a core principle that Americans are, first and foremost, Americans.

“The divisions in society are real. So are national legacies of injustice. All can and must be addressed. Those who preach hatred should be called out for their odious beliefs. But even as extremism is condemned, Americans of good will need to keep up lines of civil, constructive conversation.

“The country faces a stark choice. Its citizens can continue screaming at each other, sometimes over largely symbolic issues. Or they can again do what the citizens of this country have done best in the past—work together on the real problems that confront everyone.

“Both of us have been at the center of heated disputes in this country and around the world. And there’s one thing we’ve learned over the decades: You achieve peace by talking, not yelling. The best way to resolve an argument is to find common ground.“

Baker and Young argue in favor of the following ways for Members of Congress and the Trump Administration – and, by extension, those who vote for them – to find common ground:

• First, Congress and the Trump Administration should agree to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government “for there is no benefit to shutting down the government simply because one side does not get all it wants from the legislative process.
• Next, leaders in Washington should focus on infrastructure projects that help the U.S. keep pace with its global competitors, particularly China.

“Floodwaters,” they say, “don’t distinguish between Republicans and Democrats. Nor do rotting bridges discriminate between whites and blacks” – a particularly apt description as the entire nation grapples with the ravages of hurricane Harvey.

• Next, leaders in Washington, D.C, should focus with “laser-like intensity” on the federal tax code which handcuffs American businesses.

Finally, Baker and Young advocate that Congress and the President do more than just act on these pressing issues, as challenging as that may be.

“They also need to set an example to all Americans. Politics is a contact sport, but leaders in Washington need to restrain their rhetoric and practice the lost art of compromise. They should stop pandering to the worst in us and appeal instead to what President Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Let’s hear it for the good words from James Baker and Andrew Young and, if, by some change, we see middle ground emerge in Congress and/or the Administration, let’s applaud, not castigate, the result.