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 to 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 press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon, as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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.

For the life of me, as a long-time participant in politics, I cannot figure out how a brand new representative in Congress has developed so much social media fame that she goes by initials – AOC.

That stands for Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and she is certifiably nuts. She has no idea what she is doing or what she is advocating other than a new, different America that suits her purposes.

Capitalism be damned. Personal endeavor be damned.  Diligence be damned.  Creativity be damned.

Do it my way, she avers, or take the highway.

And, if you care to loft criticisms her way, you’re a racist.

Just ask House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  In a meeting of the in-control Democrats in the House, Pelosi told members not to criticize others in their party for fear of fomenting controversy that would eventually work to the benefit of Donald Trump as he runs for a second term.

Perish the thought regarding Pelosi’s concern – a second term for Trump, that is.

We need far less of both Ocasio-Cortez and Trump.

We need leaders who will gravitate toward the middle, not the extremes of right or left. Or, the stupidity Ocasio-Cortez illustrated when, after she and other ultra-liberals succeeded in persuading Amazon not to locate a second headquarters in the New York area (along with taking away thousands of jobs from New Yorkers), she said, good, now we can use the money for something else.

What money?  Of course, there was none.  Amazon had negotiated tax reductions in exchange for bringing the jobs and secondary investment to New York. The total was in the millions.  Ocasio-Cortez, incredibly, wanted to spend “that money” elsewhere.  She couldn’t.

Regarding Pelosi, she is taking heat for the caucus meeting where she scolded Democrats for publicly attacking each other. “You got a complaint? You come and talk to me about it. But do not tweet about our members and expect us to think that that is just OK,” Pelosi was reported to have said.

She noted that “a majority is a fragile thing,” and warned the loudest progressives to quit their attacks on moderates.

Her comments were viewed as a direct warning to “The Squad,” a quartet of high-maintenance female freshmen:  Representatives Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts.

Pelosi was responding, among other things, to offensive tweets, including from Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti.  Last month, he accused moderate Democrats who backed a compromise border-spending bill of “being hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s.”

Ocasio-Cortez played the race-and-sex card on America’s foremost liberal, Pelosi.  She accused Pelosi of “singling out newly elected women of color” and of being “outright disrespectful.”  Pressley complained that the speaker’s comments were “demoralizing.” Omar suggested Pelosi was insufficiently committed to resisting the Trump administration.

To the extent Pelosi has faced moments of “chaos” or “civil war,” it has been entirely at the hands of a few media starlets who are at the far left of even the so-called “progressive world.”

As opined by Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel, “the Squad commands the cameras, and they are getting good at creating outrages, imposing litmus tests, and intimidating other members.”

Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk — this is not a racist criticism; it is one based on the demerits of her point of view.  Sne wants to fight, not to produce results or capitalize on the good that is in America.

In that way, she mimics Trump on the right.

That’s what he does, too. He wants a fight because he believes the fight, not results, will accrue to his credit.

The problem is that Trump’s approach may win him another four years in the Oval Office.  And, if it does – if it produces a second term for the buffoon – Ocasio-Cortez should be given credit for the result.