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 have heard several stories lately of persons renouncing their Republican party label, given the outlandish activities of the Trump administration. I use a small “a” in the word administration because I don’t believe Trump administers anything, instead flying only moment-by-moment by the seat of his pants.

One of the stories – I will not name the individual – was a long-time Republican who worked for several Republican political figures.

He couldn’t stand being aligned with Trump by party label.

If I was a Republican, I would have taken the same action – renouncing the label. But, several years ago, when I still worked as a lobbyist, I thought it best to illustrate my independence by becoming “unaffiliated.”

That action meant, obviously, that I didn’t have to renounce anything now.

All of this came to my mind when I read a piece by columnist Max Boot in the Washington Post. It said this:

“’Should I stay or should I go now?’ That question posed by the eminent political philosophers known as The Clash, is one that confronts any Republican with a glimmer of conscience. You used to belong to a conservative party with a white-nationalist fringe. Now it’s a white-nationalist party with a conservative fringe. If you’re part of that fringe, what should you do?

“Veteran strategist Steve Schmidt who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, is the latest Republican to say ‘no more.’ Recently, he issued an anguished Twitter post: ‘29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of the Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life,’ he wrote. ‘Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.’”

Schmidt follows in the footsteps of Post columnist George F. Will, former senator Gordon Humphrey, former representative (and Post columnist) Joe Scarborough, Reagan and Bush aide Peter Wehner, and other Republicans who have left the party.

As Boot explained his own decision, he noted that “Trumpkins want to transform the GOP into a European-style nationalist party that opposes cuts in entitlement programs, believes in deportation of undocumented immigrants, white identity politics, protectionism and isolationism backed by hyper-macho threats to bomb the living daylights out of anyone who messes with us.”

So, as to label, Republican or Democrat? I say neither. My wife hopes for the rise of a third-party that would enable she and others like her – including me – to vote on the basis of what a person stands for, not party label.

A recent piece in the Oregonian newspaper suggested that open primaries – such as already exist in some local elections in and around Portland — would give unaffiliated voters a chance to help choose candidates for Congress, Oregon Governor and the Legislature.

In such open primaries, anyone taking 50 per cent or more of the vote wins. If no one does, the top two face off in a general election.

The numbers of unaffiliated and third-party voters are already a large voting bloc. For me, that is good news if unaffiliated and third-party voters cast their ballots with a commitment to support candidates who will represent us well as they work to find the smart middle.