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.

If history was made yesterday – the U.S. House voting in favor of two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, only the third time a president has been impeached in U.S. history — then what was that history?

How should it be characterized?

There are various views.

To Democrats in the House (and probably in the Senate, as well), Trump committed acts that compromise the national security of the U.S. and risk a reality that the 2020 election will be tainted.

To Republicans in the House (and probably in the Senate, as well), all Democrats want to do is overturn the 2016 election, an action they have wanted to take for three years and finally succeeded with the impeachment votes.

Various commentators have said the vote will be, forever, a stain on the Trump presidency, however long the presidency lasts. [In the spirit of full disclosure, I did not watch FOX news yesterday, so I have no idea what Trump publicists Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson said about the impeachment vote, though I can imagine.]

Don’t expect Trump to recognize the stain on his record.

He’ll use it to inflame, just as he was doing in Michigan at the very moment of the House vote.

Washington Post editorial writers – yeah, okay, they are usually a bit left of center, though not over-the-top left — put it this way:

“Wednesday’s action punctuated a quarter-century of increasingly poisonous partisanship in Washington, one that arguably began during Bill Clinton’s presidency, was extended with rebellions against presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and is culminating in the Trump era.

“The intensity and polarization of the debate on the House floor vividly illustrated the extent to which leaders of the two parties now believe entirely different accounts of what occurred and are motivated by different concerns. At times they sounded almost as if they were representing different countries.

“That is what it means to uphold the Constitution. If you ignore it, if you say the president may refuse to comply, may refuse lawful process, may coerce an ally, may cheat in an election because he’s the president of our party, you do not uphold our Constitution.”

Washington Post analyst Dan Balz, a multi-year veteran of politics in the Nation’s Capitol, wrote this:

“Trump has been defiant throughout the process and perhaps for reasons beyond his assertions that he did nothing wrong in pressuring Ukraine to investigate a potential 2020 political rival. The president’s angry letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, released a day ahead of the House vote, seemed to reflect his understanding of what was about to transpire.

“As always with this president, the six pages of blistering language highlighted his determination to have both his words and his feelings clearly reflected in the historical record.

“But that written record, like much else that emanates from the president in tweets, speeches and other public appearances, was replete with exaggerations, distortions and outright falsehoods. Which is how the extraordinary has become ordinary, if no less an issue of his presidency. However much he has deviated from the truth, he has shown the ability to tell the story the way he wants people to hear it, especially those in his base.”

No surprise there. Trump appeals to his base with little care for honesty, integrity and ethics. His Republican sycophants in the House also display little care for the “how” of politics and just want the “what” – incendiary language that shows how much they revere Trump.

Consider these fulminations on the House floor yesterday by some of the Republicans as chronicled by Dana Milbank in the Washington Post:

“Democrats are the ones, Representative Tom McClintock (R-California) said, who committed a ‘stunning abuse of power.’ Democrats are the ones, Representative Tom Rice (R-South Carolina) said, who ‘colluded with Russia and Ukraine.’ Democrats are the ones, Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) said, who engaged in ‘the largest and most massive cover-up of such a list of crimes against our country.’

“Democrats are the ones, Representative Peter King (R-New York) said, who committed an ‘assault on the Constitution.’ Democrats are the ones, Representative Tim Walberg (R-Michigan) said, who are ‘interfering in America’s election.’ Democrats are the ones, Representative Roger Marshall (R-Kansas) said, who ‘have dangerously shattered precedents.’

Representative Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) said Democrats are “insidious forces which threaten our republic” with “betrayal.” This “threat from within,” he said, did “conspire to overthrow President Trump.”

It got worse.

Incredibly, Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) compared Democrats unfavorably to Pontius Pilate in the story of Jesus. Representative Fred Keller (R-Pennsylvania) likened Democrats to those who killed Jesus (‘they know not what they do’). Representative Mike Kelly (R-Pennsylvania) likened impeachment to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Really!

To Republicans, I say vote the way your conscience prods you to vote, but never compare Trump stuff to the story of Jesus!

For me, a long time political junkie, there are at least two major concerns here.

First, our system of governance in this country is broken. Neither side listens to the other in any way, shape or form. There is no middle ground.

Second, the failure of that system of governance threatens the very future of our democracy.