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.

Even as we close out one year, I hope I am able to find optimism fofor the New Year, even though one Donald Trump will still occupy the nation’s highest political office, the presidency.

For Trump to be in this position is nothing if not incredible, given his many misdeeds as a human being, not to mention his excessive and misplaced tweets which threaten to compromise his own agenda – if he has agenda at all.

At any rate, here are my random reflections on Trump’s first year. In other words, what I list are not necessarily the most important issues in the last year under Trump; they are just what I choose to list. And, in the spirit of David Letterman, I have limited my points to 10, thus my “Top 10 List” – and, further, these perceptions do not appear in any order of priority.

1. GOVERNMENT RULES ROLLBACK: Amid the debate over tweets and tax reform, perhaps the most significant change brought by the first year of the Trump Presidency has been overlooked: Reining in and rolling back the regulatory state at a pace faster than even Ronald Reagan.

It is testament to a belief that life does not revolve around government regulation, though there surely is a place for some of it…just not the heavy reliance characteristic of the Obama big government years.   Further, stalling regulations should provide a dose of credit for many of the good executive appointments Trump has made during his first year – not ALL appointments, mind you, but a number of good ones.

A rules rollback is harder than it sounds because the tendency of bureaucracies is to expand, and the modern administrative state has expanded almost inexorably under presidents of both parties. New rules are published in the Federal Register, and Barack Obama presided over six of the seven highest annual page counts ever. In 2016, his regulators left town with a record-breaking binge of 95,894 new pages.

By contrast, in the first year of the Trump Presidency through September 30, 45,678 pages were added to the Federal Register. Many were required to follow-up on legislation and rules from the Obama era, so the Trump trend is even better.

2. DEMOCRATS BOYCOTT TAX REFORM: Near the end of 2017, Republicans succeeded in passing the most significant tax reform in 30 years.

Democrats sat on the sidelines, apparently believing Republicans couldn’t do the deed. Democrat leaders in Congress, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, bet that the GOP would fail, so they pressed their members to boycott negotiations, thus giving them the chance to raise against Republicans.

On their own, Republicans delivered bigger paychecks and the prospect of accelerated economic growth. Not a single Democrat can take credit for it as their leaders tried to say the reform would only help “fat cats.”

Read on.

3. EARLY REAL BENEFITS OF TAX REFORM: The benefits of the tax reform bill began showing up almost immediately. Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bancorp announced a raise in their lowest wage to $15 an hour. AT&T said it would give about 200,000 unionized workers a $1,000 bonus and increase capital spending $1 billion. Comcast said it would give 100,000 employees bonuses and spend more than $50 billion in infrastructure improvement.

Given that the main feature of the tax bill was a sizeable reduction in corporate tax rates, it only will be a matter of time before other corporations began to re-invest in America and bring back some of their money which has been parked in overseas banks where taxes were much lower.

4. UNSEEMLY CROWING ABOUT TAX REFORM: In the immediate aftermath of the tax win, Republicans should have touted its benefits for Americans. Instead, many of them traveled down to the White House to fawn over Trump and the role he was reported to have played in the Congressional win.

I suspect the tax reform bill passed despite whatever role he played. Still, as usual, he enjoyed the fawning as grown men and women slathered personal, obsequious, over-the-top praise on the president. Trump emceed the show and called new praisers to the stage.

As Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan wrote, “The president thinks this kind of thing makes him look good. It doesn’t. It diminishes him: Keep the buffoon happy. Here is what would make him look good, and elevate him: Normal human modesty. If he modestly waved off the praise, shut it down, said, “Please, let’s talk about the bill and how it will help our country . . .”

5. IF YOU WANT A FOREBODING STORY, TRY THIS ONE ON FOR SIZE: When I read this a few months ago, I couldn’t believe it.

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley actually appears to be thinking about running for president.

Taking a page from former President Barack Obama’s playbook, Merkley invoked language of hope and unity in an op-ed published in Iowa, the site of the first 2020 presidential primary.

I know Merkley well from his time as a representative in Oregon, including as Speaker of the House. He was one of the most sanctimonious, self-righteous legislators I met over my 40 years of involvement in Oregon state government. I couldn’t believe when he unseated Senator Gordon Smith, a solid advocate from Oregon.

Such is life, I guess – but, Merkley for president? Never!

I am not even sure he would be better than Trump.

6. OBAMACARE DOESN’T WORK: Whatever the supposed benefits of ObamaCare, it was developed only by Democrats. Perhaps like the Democrats did with tax reform, Republicans boycotted the process of developing health care reform about seven years ago.

I say a pox on both houses. Both health care and tax reform would have been better as bi-partisan achievements.

But, on health care policy, Washington continues to debate it as if the number of people covered by government insurance programs is the key measurement of success. This week brought more evidence that the ObamaCare experiment of signing up millions more people for subsidized coverage has not made Americans healthier.

“Life expectancy in the United States fell for the second year in a row in 2016,” NBC News reported a couple weeks ago, quoting the government’s National Center for Health Statistics.

It is striking that the implementation of a massive expansion in federal health benefits – call ObamaCare a new federal entitlement — has coincided with the reversal of a long-term trend of increasing U.S. life expectancy. At a minimum, it should inspire politicians to stop equating rising health appropriations with better health.

7. AN ENDLESS STREAM OF TRUMP COMPROMISING HIS OWN BEST INTERESTS: Trump’s first year in office has produced a relentless stream of controversies which should come as no surprise given his past indiscretions (if not alleged crimes) and his absolute lack of qualifications for the nation’s highest political office.

Still, Trump’s willingness to flout political norms has outraged his critics, even while his conduct appears to have delighted his supporters.

I say take away his tweeting ability and give him a teleprompter for all public speeches. Make him stick to pre-arranged points. We’d all be better for it and his agenda – again, if there is one – might even fare better.

8. TRUMP MAULS LANGUAGE: I know that there are things of graver consequence in Trump’s regime than his diction, but as a person whose vocation focused on language, I am appalled by Trump’s savage mauling of words.

Like New York Times columnist Charles Blow, who wrote about this several months ago, I believe Trump’s usage isn’t only idiosyncratic or some act of bungling idiocy. It is a way to reduce language to the point that it is meaningless because the use of it is mindless. In that compromised state, Blow says language becomes nearly worthless. As a consequence, truth becomes relative, if not altogether removed.

I agree.

Trump’s frequent “fake news” defense against any story he dislikes helped codify the idea that the media, especially CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, seek only to misinform. Trump’s strategic deception has created a volunteer class of the arrogantly ignorant.

Finally, from Blow: “While such consistent dishonesty is annoying, my greater concern is for the future of the republic. The health of our democratic system of government relies at least somewhat upon a reasonably well-informed citizenry.  When truth is relative, facts are fungible and the loudest voice wins the day, why, anyone really can become president.”

9. AND THIS ABOUT FAKE NEWS: What is “fake news.” It is a question that occupied me since Trump got to the White House. For him, fake news seems to be anything with which he disagrees.

To others, it is producing so-called news that is patently false and the practitioners know it is false when they post it on various social media sites.

As a journalist, which I used to be, I know this fact: News is what the editor or publisher of a publication believes it to be. That’s why he or she assigns reporters to cover potential stories and write for media outlets. [Social media posts, of course, rarely have editors or publishers.]

Trump gets away with fake news protests all the time, but I say, don’t listen to him. Read newspapers, listen to radio reports, and watch TV news, then decide for yourself what’s real and what isn’t. That’s why, every day I read the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times before forming my own views.

10 THE NAPALM GIRL’S STORY: I end on a positive note.

At year’s end, there was a great story about the so-called “Napalm girl,” one many of us will remember from the Vietnam war years.

Here is the story as she wrote it: “You may not recognize me now, but you almost certainly know who I am. My name is Kim Phuc, though you likely know me by another name. It is one I never asked for, a name I have spent a lifetime trying to escape: ‘Napalm Girl.’

“You have probably seen my picture a thousand times. Yes, that picture. The image that made the world gasp. Some called it a turning point in the Vietnam War—a Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph of me in 1972, age 9, running along a puddled roadway in front of an expressionless soldier. I was photographed with arms outstretched, naked and shrieking in pain and fear, with the dark contour of a napalm cloud billowing in the distance.

“For years I bore the crippling weight of anger, bitterness and resentment toward those who caused my suffering. Yet as I look back over a spiritual journey that has spanned more than three decades, I realize the same bombs that caused so much pain and suffering also brought me to a place of great healing. Those bombs led me to Jesus Christ.

“My salvation experience occurred on Christmas Eve. It was 1982. I was attending a special worship service at a small church in Vietnam. The pastor, Ho Hieu Ha, delivered a message many Christians would find familiar: Christmas is not about the gifts we carefully wrap and place under a tree. Rather, it is about the gift of Jesus Christ, who was wrapped in human flesh and given to us by God. As the pastor spoke, I knew in my heart that something was shifting inside of me and I expressed my faith in Christ.”

Nothing more needs to be said or written — at least this year!

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.

Those of you who know me understand that I believe words matter.

More than pictures or charts.

Using the best words and the right ones is a good challenge, one I don’t always meet, but one that lays forever before me.

So it was that, this morning, I enjoyed a column by Lee Pollock, a Chicago-based writer who is an expert on quotes attributed to Winston Churchill.

He suggested that many of the quotes attributed to the great British leader were not actually said by him.

“More than 50 years after his death,” Pollock wrote, “Winston Churchill is everywhere. John Lithgow’s performance as the great prime minister enlivened the first season of ‘The Crown’ on Netflix. Gary Oldman is earning praise for his portrayal in “Darkest Hour.’ A Google alert for Churchill’s name returns at least 50 citations daily, many beginning with ‘Winston Churchill once said . . .’

“Churchill produced more than 15 million words during his lifetime, making him a fertile source for commentators of all stripes. Buried in that mountain of copy is something for everyone. But with these repeated citations has come what one scholar describes as ‘Churchillian drift’—the never-ending circulation of Churchillisms that sound right but are, in fact, wrong.”

In one case, Churchill was reported to have said, “You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.” But Churchill never said that, however true it may appear to be. Other oft-repeated quotes also turn out, upon review, to be inaccurate:

• “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
• “If you’re not a liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.”
• “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
• “If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
• “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

Now, it should be said that Pollock knows more about Churchill than I do. But he also admits that the difficulty in trying to stop the fake Churchill sayings is that they often reflect his character and echo the distinctive rhythm and cadence of his speeches. It’s easy to imagine Churchill uttering these words.

Pollock continues: “As another fake Churchill chestnut has it: ‘A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on.’ The internet aggravates Churchillian drift—and also, presumably, the comparable drift for quotes from Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain and others. The accuracy of almost any line or anecdote is easily verifiable online, but erroneous words have such a head start and travel so fast that the truth indeed is still putting on its pants.

And Pollock says “a savvy spotter of fake quotes, though, can also use his intuition. Churchill would have said ‘trousers,’ not ‘pants,’ which provides a clue that the story is faulty.

So, words do matter. As another ace linguist Yogi Berra, once remarked (perhaps accurately), “I really didn’t say everything I said.”

Well said!

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.

Some of you could ask why, at this Christmas season, I choose to wrote a blog on something other than Christmas joy. Good question.

But…

As we prepare to enter the New Year, there have been a number of good quotes worth remembering as various columnists reflected on current events. They also commented on prospects for 2018, the second year of the Trump administration.

So, as director of the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, I am opening the department again.

From a Wall Street Journal column by Kimberley Strassel: “To read all this coverage, you’d be justified in believing that the entire Republican Party had been hit with a stupid stick. Its members united to jack up the taxes of millions of middle-income voters, throw the country into recession, and saddle today’s toddlers with a future debt crisis—all to enable the transfer of tax plunder to fat-cat donors. And not only did it pass this colossally idiotic policy, it did so enthusiastically, in full view of the public—guaranteeing a 2018 GOP midterm wipeout. What dimwits!

“This is the Democratic line, and the media is embracing it. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi bet that the GOP would fail to enact tax reform, so they pressed their members to boycott negotiations. Instead, Republicans are delivering bigger paychecks and the prospect of accelerated economic growth, and not a single Democrat can take credit. The Democratic Party’s only path is therefore to spin an obvious GOP victory into a disaster. The press, with all its biases and insularity, once again is all in, with another attack on reality.”

Comment: This is another indictment of the current Washington, D.C., especially on part of Democrats. Rather than get around a table with Republicans to produce a solid tax reform proposal (for the first time in more than 30 years), the D leaders “pressed their members to boycott negotiations.” The good news is that Republicans prevailed anyway.

I could add that both Republicans and Democrats have played this “I will not be involved game.” The Rs did so when the Democrats and President Barack Obama passed ObamaCare without one Republican vote. The Rs did it this time around with tax reform.

I suggest that both bills – ObamaCare and tax reform – would have been better if they would have represented bi-partisan achievements.

From a Wall Street Journal column by Peggy Noonan: “The president thinks this kind of thing (the post tax reform party at the White House where Trump basked in the glow of “his” achievement) makes him look good. It doesn’t, it diminishes him: Keep the buffoon happy. Here is what would make him look good, and elevate him: normal human modesty. If he modestly waved off the praise, shut it down, said, ‘Please, let’s talk about the bill and how it will help our country . . .’

“He would look bigger, as modest people always do, and his praisers would not look smaller.”

Comment: Instead of talking about the benefits of the tax bill for the American public, Republicans fawned over Trump. Of course, that’s what Trump’s wants – fawning.

In the new year, all of us ought to hope for two things – first, that Republicans will set about to sell their tax reform bill on its merits, and second, that they’ll stop catering to the president’s desire for continual praise.

More from Noonan: “And the bill is going to prove popular. The Democrats bet wrong on this. Almost immediately on passage, Wells Fargo and Fifth Third Bancorp announced a raise in their lowest wage to $15 an hour. AT&T said it would give about 200,000 unionized workers a $1,000 bonus and increase capital spending $1 billion. Comcast said it would give 100,000 employees bonuses and spend more than $50 billion in infrastructure improvement.”

Comment: It’s hard to argue with various corporate actions in the wake of passage of the tax bill. Sending money to thousands of employees tended to counter comments from Democrat leaders that the only beneficiaries would be corporate fat cats. Was this only a public relations gambit? Who cares? The actions represented real money in the pockets of real people – and there is more to come.

From Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker: “Not only has the president’s frequent ‘fake news’ defense against any story he dislikes helped codify the idea that the media, especially CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, seek only to misinform, but this strategic deception has created a volunteer class of the arrogantly ignorant.

“While such consistent dishonesty is annoying, my greater concern is for the future of the republic. The health of our democratic system of government relies at least somewhat upon a reasonably well-informed citizenry. When truth is relative, facts are fungible and the loudest voice wins the day, why, anyone really can become president.”

Comment: As usual, Parker digs beneath a label such as “fake news” to underscore the implications of the Trump criticism of anything with which he disagrees. To decry the Trump tendency as a risk for our democratic system of government, she uses good phrases such as “the arrogantly ignorant,” “facts are fungible,” and “loudest voice wins the day.”

That’s Trump’s world. Not mine.

From a column in the Oregonian by John Kitzhaber, former Oregon governor: “I agree that funding for the Oregon Health Plan is a shared social responsibility, but jeopardizing health insurance coverage for 350,000 Oregonians to make that point is equally unfair and unnecessary. Let’s put this into perspective. We need a stable, long-term — and equitable — funding strategy for the health plan, which contributes to the state’s chronic structural budget deficit. As The Oregonian correctly pointed out, the governor and legislative leadership failed to address either issue. But defeating the ballot measure will only make it that much more difficult to do so in the future.”

Comment: Interesting that Kitzhaber, still operating under an ethical cloud from his fourth (not to mention short) term as governor, is trying to emerge by going on record on health care issues, his area of expertise. Also interesting that the Oregonian, which called for his resignation, is giving him a platform when, it could be condtended, he doesn’t deserve. Still, Kitzhaber accurately describes what’s at stake as Oregonians face a vote to confirm hospital and insurance taxes to fund low-income health care. He contends, properly I think, that defeating the ballot measure will make it more difficult to establish a better funding mechanism down the road.

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.

It was supposed to be a good and fun trip. After all, it was the day after Christmas with family and we were with family again on a flight to Hawaii for a post-Christmas respite.

My wife calls these trips, with two children and three grandchildren, “making memories.” And she is right!

This was my fourth annual retirement party with the entire family and it was going to be a good first day on our trip to the islands.

But, then something happened. Not a major “something,” but something anyway.

As we neared Kauai, the weather got worse and it turned out we couldn’t land there because of low -ying fog – lower than suitable for our Boeing 737-B aircraft.

So, we circled for awhile, then heard the captain say that we had to divert to Honolulu, about 50 miles way.

We did. It was raining heavily there but the fog was not low enough to prevent a landing.

Turned out we also had to get gassed up, which raises the question about why we were low enough on fuel to require the diversion. The need for refueling wasn’t the express reason for the diversion, but I suppose the side trip was understandable because we would have had to circle around for at least another hour or so above Kauai to allow the weather to clear.

We stayed on the plane in Honolulu while, fortunately, the captain and flight attendants opened the restrooms. Let me just say the lines were long.

After about an hour on the ground, we took off again for a bumpy 25-minute flight to Kauai.

We made it safely and started our sojourn in the islands.

But, with all due respect to our air carrier, Alaska (all of the staff performed very well under the circumstances, maintaining their normal level of quality service, with a bit of humor thrown in), this was just another in a series of flying dislocations for us.

Don’t misunderstand – the dislocations have occurred on great trips and we are appropriately thankful for the opportunities to travel. Still, this morning in Hawaii, it’s good to be on the ground where Hawaii golf is in my future.

Enjoy your own post-Christmas time as we heard toward the New Year!

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 got four books for Christmas, which we celebrated early yesterday. Well, actually, it was three, with a fourth in the mail from Amazon.

Here’s the list:

• “Thanks, Obama,” a book by Obama speechwriter David Litt, which is an easy read because – no surprise here – Mr. Litt is a good writer who knows how to weave in humor with his reflections on what he calls, “My Hopey, Changey White House Years.
• “Capital Gaines,” a book by Chip Gaines, one of the two stars of the HGTV program, Fixer Upper. Based on his conduct on the program, Gaines is two things – a solid carpenter, plus someone who, from to time, goes nuts.
• “The Rooster Bar,” another book by one of my favorite authors, John Grisham. Will be good to get back into a Grisham legal thriller.
• “The First Major,” another chronicle by one of my favorite golf writers, John Feinstein. This time, he writes about the 2016 Ryder Cub, which I watched when it was on TV and when the U.S. won.  [And, Steve Koller, you can read this book after I finish it.]

An eclectic list, you say.

Yes, I respond.

But at least one characteristic carries from book-to-book. The writers are good at their craft – using the best and right words to convey important messages.

It’s a skill to admire. And, as I read all of these books in the next weeks, I will.

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.

There is perhaps no better way to answer the question illustrated by the headline on this blog post than to repeat lines from some of the great Christmas carols that we sing – or, in my case, try to sing – every year. And they never get old.

JOY TO THE WORLD

Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heard prepare him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing.

O COME, ALL YE FAITHFUL

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him, born the king of angels. O come let us adore him. O come let us adore him. O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.

SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT

Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, Mother and Child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace.

HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING

Hark, the herald angels sing. Glory to the newborn king. Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise. Join the triumph of the skies. With the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing, glory to the newborn king.

And, trust me as a person who cannot carry a tune in a wheelbarrow, if you want to have a stirring experience this Christmas, listen to The Messiah by Frederic Handel. Don’t forget to honor the protocol to stand for the anthem, one of the most beautiful in all the world. But, if you are driving, obviously, just pretend to stand and I say that because I have The Messiah available in my car.

At this Christmas season, my wife and I love the family traditions we have established over the years, most of which fall to her (Nancy’s) credit.  One of them is to make sure we remember the real reason for the season, which is to honor the birth of Christ who came to the world to save us.

May the words of the Christmas songs above ring true for you this year!

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.

Words matter?

I always have believed in that phrase, sometimes to the consternation of the partners in my lobbying firm who suggested that I ought to become a believer in graphics – charts, graphs and photos.

Point made.

Those vehicles can increase understanding of your perspectives, but they should not come at the expense of words – especially using the best and right ones.

So it was that a development this week caught my attention. It was the dictate, supposedly, from the Trump Administration that its officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) could not use even words — vulnerable, diversity, entitlement, fetus, transgender, science-based and evidence-based.

As Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker wrote this week:

“Everybody went bonkers on cue.

“Pro-choice activists insisted that such word changes were an attempt to thwart abortion rights. [I add that abortion rights advocates always believe every issue – every issue — is negative toward them.]

“The CDC pushed back and denied the ban.

“What really happened? It’s hard to know for sure at this point,” writes Parker.

“Some see a heavy-handed silencing, but the National Review’s Yuval Levin’s offers a different explanation. According to Levin’s sources, the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, issued a stylebook to departments for the preparation of budget documents.

“Included were three of the words mentioned above — vulnerable, diversity and entitlement — with the suggestion they be used as little as possible because they were either used too often or incorrectly.”

Kudos to Parker for setting the record straight.

But back to my “words matter” issue.

I could open one of the two departments I run – the Department of Pet Peeves – to provide this summary of my peeves over words. But listing the peeves will suffice.

• I hate the current tendency to use nouns as verbs. For one example, think of the word “helm.” It is a noun. But it crops up continually as a verb, as it “someone helms a process to its conclusion.” Better to say “someone took the helm to bring a process to its conclusion.”
• Or, for another example, close to my passion for golf. Golf is a noun. Not a verb. You cannot “golf your ball.” You have to hit your golf ball.
• Or, think of the current tendency to add the suffix “ize” to many words. Many write“utilize” when “use” would do nicely. Or “prioritize” when “establish priorities” would do nicely.
• Or, the example from one of my partners – a person from whom I learned a great deal about the art of lobbying and public persuasion. In a cute way, he often used the word “catalyze.” I had to ask him what it meant. He said it meant to bring issues together to persuade folks to a particular point of view. Better, I suggest, to say that than to use “to catalyze,” which grates on the ears.

Enough for now, except to suggest that all of should endeavor to use the best and right words as we speak or write. Doing so will contribute substantially to greater understanding, even consensus.

\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.

As the director of this department, I enjoy full and complete authority about what to include, as well as how to comment on the quotes.

There has been a lot of grist for my mill lately as the Trump Administration goes wild in Washington, D.C. – what else is new? – and as commentators write about political unease. Very few compliment the Administration because there is little that deserves a compliment as Trump jeopardizes his own agenda (if he has one) and puts Republicans leaders in the vise of having to work with him.

As one year ends and we head toward a new one, it ought to prompt time for reflection and hope for the future. But, no, with Trump in the nation’s top political job, many of us worry about what’s next, including the heightened prospect of war.

All of that said, here are more Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

From Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal:  “Mr. Trump’s political malpractice has been to fail, since his election, to increase his popularity and thus his power. He has a core but it remains a core. He could have broadened his position with a personal air of stability and moderation, and with policies that were soft-populist. He has failed to do so, primarily due to his self-indulgence—his tendency to heat things up when he should cool them down; his tendency always to make the situation a little worse, not a little better. His tweets, his immaturity, his screwball resentments and self-pity alienate and offend.”

Comment: The point of Noonan’s comments is not to suggest that Trump shouldn’t be in the White House, though that may be her view, as it is mine. It is to say that Trump avoids all of the normal protocols of being and acting like the president of this country. “His tweets, his immaturity, his screwball resentments and self-pity alienate and offend,” Noonan writes. Yes.

And more from Noonan:  “As to his {Trump’s) foes in the other party, the biggest silence in American political life is not from the Republicans, who can’t stop arguing. It is from the Democrats when they are asked what they stand for. What economic policy do they want? What is the plan, the arrangement they hope to institute? What philosophy are they trying to put in place? What in terms of foreign policy do they want?

“Domestically the only thing they’re clear on is identity politics. Who’s going to unite or find the place of common ground between the rising left and the older middle? What program can accomplish that?”

Comment: Without Trump to lambaste, Democrats have nothing to say. No one says what Democrats stand for, except being anti-Trump. That approach might work, especially in the upcoming mid-term elections, but it won’t provide them with a way to govern and lead.

Charles Blow in the Washington Post:  “I know that there are things of graver consequence in Donald Trump’s regime than his diction, but as a person whose vocation concerns him with language, I am simply appalled by Trump’s savage mauling of that language.

“His usage isn’t only idiosyncratic or some act of bungling idiocy, although it is surely both. But his usage is also a way of reducing language to the point that it is meaningless because the use of it is mindless, and in that compromised state, language becomes nearly worthless. As a consequence, truth becomes relative, if not altogether removed.

“I would submit that Trump lie in two ways: First, by directly and intentionally saying things he well knows aren’t true, and second, by obfuscating with linguistic obtuseness, by overusing a nebulous relativism and by spouting an excess of superlatives to stand in for meaningful description and disclosure.”

Comment:  Blow is right. Trump doesn’t have the first clue about using language to help achieve his objectives. It’s always words such as “nice” and “great,” without any supporting documentation. I saw a bumper sticker yesterday with a photo of Trump and the saying “liar in chief.” For me, I agree with the “liar in chief” moniker, which without using words that provide any chance that he could be believed.

David Von Drehle in the Washington Post:  “Donald Trump learned a powerful lesson while running for president. The rules don’t apply to me. Trump blew through one political stop sign after another as he sped recklessly past the competition; again and again, he burned rubber away from the feckless, doughnut-munching cops of the media, the swamp and academia. The rule about not calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” in your announcement speech? The rule about not attacking a war hero or a Gold Star family? The rule about releasing your tax returns, and the one about never, ever boasting of sexual assault while wearing a live microphone?

“Trump squealed his tires and waved a one-finger salute.

“But it appears the lesson was mistaken, for the long arm of political law is catching up to the president. That’s one of my takeaways from the special U.S. Senate election this last week in Alabama, where hogs sprouted wings, rivers ran backward and a Democrat won. Trump believed he could get away with flouting the political commandment that says Thou Shalt Not Endorse Accused Child Molesters. He thought his cloak of immunity was large enough to enfold Roy Moore, with room for Stephen K. Bannon left over.”

Comment:  The litany of offenses by Trump grows daily.  In this piece, Von Drehle says Trump’s basic enemy will be gravity.  He’ll fall far enough to continue losing the thin layer of support he now enjoys. If Democrats control Congress, he stands to undergo an impeachment trial.  I say good.  He deserves what he gets for having cast so much discredit on the nation’s highest political office, not to mention our overall democracy.

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 am starting what I hope will become a new tradition (Note my phrasing: You have to start what “you hope becomes a tradition” because traditions don’t exist – they have to last) – writing about “bits and pieces” of news developments.

Of course, this presumes that folks care about what I think. Well, at least I care about what I think, so here goes.

Canada-Style Single Payer Health: Many Democrats are following Bernie Sanders in embracing single-payer health care for the United States based on the Canadian model. But, when Canadians get sick, our neighbors to the north increasingly find that the only way to get “free” medical care is to wait for weeks or months.

A new report from the Fraser Institute, “Waiting Your Turn: Wait Times for Health Care in Canada,” documents the problem. The Vancouver-based think tank surveyed physicians in 12 specialties across 10 provinces and found “a median waiting time of 21.2 weeks between referral from a general practitioner and receipt of treatment.” This is worse than 2016’s wait of 20 weeks, making it the longest in the history of Fraser’s annual survey and 128 per cent longer than the first survey in 1993.

The wait to see a specialist for a consultation is now 177 per cent longer than in 1993, while the wait from consultation to treatment is 95 per cent longer than in 1993. At 10.9 weeks, it is longer than is clinically reasonable.

While the United States has experienced trouble reforming health care after the debacles of ObamaCare, essentially a new federal entitlement, the answer is not a single payer system. First, we cannot afford it. Second, as Canada illustrates, it means long waits, not viable care.

Is Jerusalem the Capitol of Israel? The Trump Administration stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy with its recent decision to place its embassy in Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel.

A letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal the other day put the decision in its simplest form:

“What other nation has foreign countries tell it what its capital is? In recognizing that and moving the American embassy, the administration is recognizing reality. It is impossible to make peace with enemies who refuse to make peace and who vow to destroy you. Congress acknowledged Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in the last century, and Russia did so this spring. If not now, when?”

Enough said.

The Port of Portland: A letter to the editor in the Oregonian the other day said the Port of Portland would never survive as a deep- water port.

According to the letter writer, “the Port of Portland needs to reconcile itself to the overwhelming fact that it will never be a major port again.  Container ships are now too big for the current Columbia channel.  Portland is a mousetrap for container ships, requiring a bar pilot, a river pilot, and speed limits on the river. And then the surly longshoremen may not offload you anyway. Oregon needs a deep-water port on the ocean.

“It’s time to develop some alternatives. Maybe we should develop Coos Bay and improve the rail infrastructure to support imports and exports. Or improve the rail service from Seattle and Tacoma to get some of the trucks off the I-5 corridor and improve traffic flow.  More of the same old tired thinking will not solve the problem.”

The writer makes some decent points about difficulty of traveling 90 miles inland to the Port of Portland, but the Port has taken steps routinely to compete for shipping despite the challenges. The letter writer also suggests that it’s time to develop a major port in the Coos Bay harbor.

Won’t happen. Much too expensive.

I write this as the lobbyist who, over 10 years, worked with Port officials and other lobbyists, including lobbyists for unions, to convince the Oregon Legislature to fund its share of costs to deepen the Columbia River channel, a key to the economic future of the region. So, yes, I am a biased advocate for the Port of Portland and I believe smart management, which the Port has had for years, can surmount the inherent challenges.

I-5 Traffic Issues: Anyone who, like me, has driven north and south on I-5 in the last few years would say that traffic has only increased – and, by some accounts, increased substantially enough to give second thoughts about tolerating the trek.

A recent letter to the editor in the Oregonian argued for improving – read, expanding – I-5, as unrealistic as that may be from funding or land use standpoints.

According to the letter writer, “I am appalled, disgusted, yet sadly unsurprised by the elitist, ‘moral’ outrage of the groups opposing the I-5 expansion. Two points to address.

“One, the argument that people should live close to their work: Take off your rich-person, rose-colored goggles. Almost everybody who drives I-5 would love to live close to work but Portland’s outrageous housing prices make that an impossible pipe-dream for most.

“Two, traffic is not going away no matter how many bike lanes you create. I-5 is a major freeway, one of the biggest freight corridors in the United States, and it runs right by sporting and events venues. Freight cannot be hauled by bike, nor can fans from other cities rely on public transportation to get them to the events they want to see.”

In my retirement, I no longer have to make the I-5 drive as often – good news for me. I suspect expansion is not in the cards, which leads to a notion that Oregon should have provided more room when it developed I-5 in the first place.

This is not an exaggeration – in California, there often are five lines going one way. Won’t happen here.

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.

You may notice that this department – one of two I run (the other is the Department of Pet Peeves) – is open a lot. That’s because there are a lot of good quotes worth remembering – and which draw my comments.

So here goes again.

From the Washington Post:   “For most of the year, people inside and outside Washington have been convinced that there is a strategy behind Mr. Trump’s actions. But there is seldom a plan apart from pre-emption, self-defense, obsession and impulse.”

Comment: Trump operates in ways that confound both his supporters and detractors. By tweeting all the time, he compromises his own agenda….if it is even possible to suggest that he has an agenda. If these were only personal flaws, they would be halfway acceptable. But the trouble is that his impulses go much farther and actually risk war.

And this from the Post:  “Armed with Twitter and fueled by Diet Coke, the president spends at least four hours a day — and sometimes as much as twice that — in front of a TV.”

Comment: Sounds like Trump doesn’t it? Spending time before a TV to see how many mentions he gets an hour is just like the nation’s leading narcisscist.

From a Washington Post interview with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, the new chair of the Democrat Governors’ Association: “We need to talk about jobs.  People will figure out for themselves that they have to stand up to Donald Trump. They’re doing that without us saying a word. That’s not our communications strategy. We want to communicate about jobs and the economy. The other thing just happens organically.”

Comment: Inslee makes a good comment. I often wonder why more politicians don’t run on a jobs platform. Having a job contributes greatly to self-esteem. Plus, it is usually much better than existing on the government dole.

From Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: “The problem of our time is not only arrogance without accomplishment or swagger without success. These are common enough in politics. Rather, it is the arrival of leadership that survives by feeding resentment, hatred and disorienting flux. Leadership urging us — at angry rallies, in ethnic stereotyping, through religious bigotry — to forget who we really are as a people. Leadership that has ceased to believe in the miracle at our country’s heart — the inclusive, unifying power of American ideals.

Comment: This quote confirms for me that Gerson is one of the best opinion writers these days. Those, like Trump, who feed on resentment, hatred and disorientation contribute to a loss of meaning of what it means to be an American in America. I wish for a return to what Gerson calls “the miracle at our country’s heart – the inclusive, unifying power of American ideals.” Won’t happen under Trump.