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.

By the actions and antics of many of those either running for or holding elective office – not to mention voters themselves – it appears that character is not much of a political consideration these days.

I listened the other day to a presentation by Walter Schaub, who held the position of director of the Federal Ethics Office for a number of years until his retirement a year or so ago. He served with distinction and skill for his time in the ethics office.

One of his main comments was this:

In the immediate aftermath of the Watergate scandal, many elected officials, as well as voters, displayed a renewed commitment to ethical conduct and behavior, especially in relation to the exact opposite of the Nixon Administration. Now, however, much of that commitment to ethical behavior and conduct has receded.

Mr. Schaub was right.

Look only so far as President Donald Trump for whom ethical behavior and conduct are not even on his radar scope. He acts in unethical ways in almost all of his dealings, indicating that he was not prepared for the realities of being president – or perhaps was prepared in the sense that serving in the Oval Office strokes his massive ego.

Trump treated the presidential campaign as an infomercial for his Trump brand. And, he has gone about holding the nation’s highest political office in the same way – it’s mostly an infomercial for his economic holdings.

Many members of Congress are no better than Trump.

They appeal to their political bases without much apparent regard for being honest and forthright. If their bases are happy, so be it. If they win election or re-election, so be it. Damn the public interest.

Or, this. While I hate to quote Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank because he usually is so far left of center, he was right when he wrote this about Senator Bernie Sanders:

“In politics, as in physics, every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

“Hence, Senator Bernie Sanders’s emergence as the Donald Trump of the left.

“Fundraising and polls show that many Democrats think the best answer to an angry old white guy with crazy hair, New York accent and flair for demagoguery is, well, another angry old white guy with crazy hair, New York accent and flair for demagoguery. It’s not difficult to picture a scenario in which Bernie captures the Democrat presidential nomination with the same formula that worked for Trump with Republicans in 2016.

“On paper, the independent from Vermont doesn’t make sense: Democrats are a party of youth, and he’s 77; they are majority-female, and he’s a man; they represent the emerging multicultural America, and he is white.”

In this and other pieces about Sanders, there is not one word about character. To him, as well as to Trump, character does not matter. Appeal to your base. Utter falsehoods as if they are true. Let the chips fall where they may without regard to ethical behavior or conduct.

Overall, this is true on both the far left and the far right, indicating that the best approach may be to say, as I do, “a pox on both extremes.”

Let’s consider candidates who will gravitate toward the middle or even a third-party candidate who will pledge to do the public’s business when running for office, and then when in office, do it.

It’s time for a change in this country. Neither Trump nor Sanders fit the bill.