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.

Trust is an important commodity in every day life. And, not just a commodity, but a critical factor in maintaining a sense of equilibrium.

But America’s trust in its leaders and institutions has been falling for four decades. Trust in the federal government has never been lower. In 1958, Pew Research found that 73 per cent trusted government to do what is right “always” or “most of the time.” That sounds healthy.

As of 2017, that number was down to 18 per cent. Not healthy.

In a column by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal the other day, she posited: “Other institutions have suffered, too—the church, the press, the professions. That’s disturbing because those institutions often bolster our national life in highly personal ways. When government or law turns bad, they provide a place, a platform from which to stand, to make a case, to correct.”

Noonan, ever an optimist, believes there are things we can do individually to help America be more at peace with itself.

“First,” she says, “realize this isn’t merely a problem, but a crisis. When you say you believe in and trust democratic institutions, you are saying you believe in and trust democracy itself. When you don’t, you don’t. When a nation tells pollsters it’s unable to trust its constituent parts, it’s telling pollsters it doesn’t trust itself.”

Noonan says and I agree that there is a difference between skepticism and cynicism. Skepticism is constructive. Cynicism is the opposite, childish.

“Skepticism,” Noonan adds, “involves an intellectual exercise: You look at the grand surface knowing it may not reflect the inner reality. It implies action: If it doesn’t, try to make it better. Cynicism is a dodge: Everything’s crud, you’d be a fool to try and make it better, it’s all irredeemable and unchangeable.”

Be skeptical of our institutions, not cynical toward them.

President Trump cannot help in this effort. Increasing public trust is not his declared mission, and what it would take is not in his toolbox. He tends in his statements to undermine trust: His own government is embarked on a deep-state witch-hunt conspiracy, his agencies are incompetent, the press is fake-news liars.

So, forget Trump if that is possible. Practice skepticism.  Forego cynicism.