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.

A conversation with friends the other day left me in an uncertain mood.

They said they felt the country was headed in the same direction as before the Civil War broke out.

I took the statement, at least initially, as a bit of an overstatement. But, upon reflection, even if not the character of pre-Civil War days, the state of the country is in disarray. And, the sides – let’s call them the far left and the far right – seemingly would just as soon shoot each other as try to find agreement.

It’s certainly true in politics, where I spent the majority of my career, as indicated in the preamble to this blog. Like General Colin Powell said several years ago, I bemoan the loss of civility in politics.

Worse, compromise, the real nature of politics, has become a dirty word.

All of this came back to me this weekend as I read a column by Barton Swaim in the Washington Post. The headline was as follows:

Politics: Postcards From a ‘Collapsing Country’

To every man his own take on why voters are angry and the nation is in free fall.

Swain went on to write this:

“If you write about politics these days, you’ve got to write at least one book or article explaining the 2016 election, and in particular why voters were so angry. The proof that they were angry, of course, is that they elected Donald Trump —only I can’t recall a presidential election when we weren’t told that voters were angry. Bear in mind, too, that the candidate who won the most votes did so by embracing the status quo with all her might. Let’s accept the premise, though, and ask: Why the anger?”

Author Steven Brill, who wrote “Tailspin: The People and Forces Behind America’s Fifty-Year Fall—and Those Fighting to Reverse It,” says “respect for basic institutions, especially the government, are far below the levels of a half century ago, and in many cases have reached historic lows. So deep is the estrangement that 46.1 per cent of American voters were so disgusted with the status quo that in 2016 they chose to put Donald Trump in the White House.”

“Since the middle of the previous century,” Brill writes, “America and its elite institutions, mainly of the nation’s most prestigious prep schools, Ivy League universities, and top-tier banks and law firms, have increasingly prided themselves on their meritocratic principles: Who you are and where you come from matter less than what your gifts and discipline enable you to do. A meritocratic society places the best and brightest at the top, and the best and brightest are very good at protecting their gains and positions.

“The most talented, driven Americans,” Brill continues, “chased the American dream—and won it for themselves. Then, in a way unprecedented in history, they were able to consolidate their winnings, outsmart and co-opt the government that might have reined them in, and pull up the ladder so more could not share in their success or challenge their primacy.”

American meritocrats, he contends, then become aristocrats by creating systems of laws and regulations that protect their wealth and status and ensure that others can’t rise or compete.

That may be a decent analysis of where we are as a country today. But there may be many other factors that produce the tension between the left and the right. One is the tendency to believe that you are right and the other side is wrong, so there is no alternative but, figuratively, to stand on the street corner and yell at the top of your voice.

My wish is that we would find a way to bridge our differences – especially in politics – and reach agreement on a range of tough issues. One way is to practice this old saw – to realize “that what you see depends on where you sit and that others may sit elsewhere and see things differently.”

So, remember that different viewpoints are the reality and, if you recognize them respecting the right to disagree, so much the better. Perhaps. I, for one, refuse to yield to the instinct that a new civil war is the only option.