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.

I hate to cite Senator Ted Cruz as being smart about anything, but he said something the other day that rings true.

Without legislative accomplishments on health care or tax reform (the latter is still pending), he said Republicans could face a bloodbath in the 2018 mid-term elections.

He’s right and guess what? Democrats know that, too, which is one reason why they will be working to stop any Republican legislative achievements.

They’ll likely contend that Republicans did that to them when they were in charge, so it’s fair that one bad turn deserves another bad turn.

Think about that. Getting even never ends.

Which is one reason why Congress can never get anything done.

Things only got worse this week when President Donald Trump signed an executive order eliminating cost-sharing subsidies that helped low- and moderate-income Americans afford health insurance. About 50,000 eligible Oregonians, for example, stood to lose about $48 million a year in federal assistance.

ObamaCare was a new federal entitlement, which is almost impossible to remove or limit and it was a bad piece of legislation when it was passed seven years ago without one Republican vote.  But Trump’s action smacks of the get-even mentality.

Worse, Democrats were incensed and said they will hold Trump and the Republicans hostage when the time comes later this year and eearly next to try to avoid a government shutdown.

As an aside, last Friday Oregon insurance regulators said they had figured out a way to increase a different federal health insurance subsidy – premium assistance payments — that could more than cover the loss of the cost-sharing payments for many Oregonians.

And, at the same time, despite that development, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum says she will join a lawsuit to prevent Trump’s plan from hurting low-income Oregonians. The other states are Kentucky, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Illinois, New York, Washington, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Minnesota, New Mexico and Iowa.

So, the back and forth continues, with no end in sight.

The risk is that all of this getting even business makes it look like American democracy doesn’t work anymore. Perhaps true.

From one person in the cheap seats, what’s needed:

• Elected officials of goodwill, good intent and intellectual ability who will rise above partisan politics to produce solid middle-of-the-road results.
• Politicians who will rise above the current motivation, which is always about the next election.
• A president who does not yell and scream at every supposed criticism, but keeps his or her eye on the final, it-benefits-all result.
• Voters who will choose officials who say that, once elected, they’ll work for the common good, not their own next election….and who say their motive will not be to get even in response to any suspected slight.

Too much to expect? Perhaps.

But, unless we find a new way of doing the public’s business, we’ll continue watching our democracy slide into the abyss.