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 will not come as a surprise to readers of this blog – yes, I know there are a legion of you – that one of my favorite words is “civility.”

I usually apply the word to the political arena where I often comment on the loss of civility, as well as my fond hope – poly-annish though it may be – that we can return to a time when civility matters in politics.

Call it finding what I call the “smart middle ground” which is where the best solutions lie to complicated public policy problems.

I also have said several times that one of my favorite quotes can be attributed to military leader and, at one time, a possible presidential candidate, Colin Powell, who said he “bemoaned the loss of civility in politics” and cited the loss as one of the main reasons why he chose not to run for president.

The dictionary defines civility with words “courtesy and politeness,” styles missing from today’s politics.

So it was that I read and appreciated a column by William McGurn which appeared in the Wall Street Journal this morning under the headline, which is the one I used for this blog – Playing the Civility Card.

Here are excerpts from McGurn’s column:

• “’A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone’s feelings—unintentionally.’ The quip is attributed to Oscar Wilde, and the sentiment is capacious enough to include Donald Trump. For even the most ardent Never Trumper would concede that when this president offends, it’s intentional.”
• “During the 2016 campaign, for example, Trump claimed a judge’s Mexican heritage meant he couldn’t be impartial. He belittled a Muslim mom and dad whose U.S. Army officer son had given his life in Iraq. And he declared John McCain was ‘not a war hero’ because he had been a prisoner of war. The insults continued in the Oval Office, from regular jabs at ‘Crooked Hillary’ to ‘low IQ’ tweets variously directed at MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski, actor Robert De Niro and Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat from California.”
• “Yet the civility offensive is not without contradiction. How is it that those who presume they posses the moral standing to preach on Trump’s incivility are so conspicuously blind to the equally glaring outrages of his critics? Was it civil, for example, for Hillary Clinton to dismiss half of Trump voters as ‘deplorables’ who were also ‘irredeemable? Is it civil that showing up with a ‘Make America Great Again’ cap can invite a beating?”
• “Perhaps this explains why the civility conversation is mostly confined to those who already agree. In the past few months alone, after all, Americans have watched press secretary Sarah Sanders and her family hounded out of a Virginia restaurant while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife were harassed by young men. More recently, John McCain’s memorial services became a weeklong taunt to the president—all by the same people applauding each other for their exquisite decency.”
• “As for the confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanagh, talk about incivility and norm-breaking. Leave aside the disruptive audience members. When Democratic senators weren’t interrupting Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, they were attempting to smear a decent and respected husband, father and jurist. Surely the proposition that Trump has a monopoly on rudeness and incivility took a beating from the antics of Senator Cory Booker.”

“This is civility?” asks McGurn. “Forgive those Americans who concur that today’s pious demands for civility are often less about good manners than shutting down folks with an opposing view.”

The fact is that civility is a two-way street. Republicans need to preserve it. So do Democrats. And, often the approach from SOME on both sides, is to be decidedly uncivil.

It is important to remember that as ALL of us contend with the lack of civility in politics. To put a point on it, all of us can at least be civil to those who disagree with us even as we take the risk of talking about politics.

So, to one of the partners in my old firm who accused me of holding onto an outdated, slim hope for middle ground, I say this — I continue to hold out hope for civility to return to politics from Republicans, from Democrats and from those who don’t accept a party label.

It is not a vain hope, or, if it is, we can say goodbye to our democracy.