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.

I was asked the question in the headline the other day as a good friend of mine wondered why, as I centrist, I have tended lately to deviate toward the Democrat side of the political ledger.

The question came, I think, because, on several past occasions, I have expressed concern that Democrats, especially those running for president, as well as various members of the U.S. House, have veered so far left as not to be found on any past political spectrum.

And, I also have railed against the excesses of one Donald Trump.

So, yes, I consider myself to be a centrist, one who doesn’t favor the excesses of either the Ds or the Rs and who wants respectful and solid debate on issues facing this country. Tough to find these days.

On impeachment, I support it for a simple reason.

Donald Trump is not worthy of being president. We cannot tolerate another year of what he views as his “reign,” much less four more years if he wins the presidency in 2020.

Trump has sold out America for his own ends in trying to win re-election and now wants us to trust him until the next rigged election.

He has taken American tax money, which had been approved by Congress on a bi-partisan vote to help Ukraine fight against Russia, and held money as leverage to bribe a foreign country to investigate one of his main rivals for election.

The fact that Republican sycophants cannot see that is because they aren’t looking.

Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin, commenting on the impeachment vote, contended that the Republican Party “has lost its bearings and its soul to defend an unhinged narcissist.”

At the same time, Wall Street Journal writer Peggy Noonan wrote that many Democrats have placed themselves “outside the mainstream of American politics,” which means that, by extension, they are playing into Trump’s hands.

Noonan continues: “In almost every national public presentation this year, especially in their presidential debates, Democrats branded themselves not as what they had to be — a sophisticated party with a working-class heart — but what they couldn’t be — extreme left-wing progressives.

“From their first debates in June, their major candidates announced themselves to be for sharply higher taxes, banning private health insurance, the Green New Deal, free college, complete student loan forgiveness, free health insurance for illegal aliens, and functionally open borders. At least one candidate said America’s religious institutions should lose their tax-exempt status if they oppose same-sex marriage. They are extreme on abortion — no limits, ever — and in their support of identity politics, which sees not a country but a thousand warring tribes endlessly rewarded for being at each other’s throats.”

So, as what I call myself, “a centrist,” I say a pox on both sides of a current political process that threatens America’s system of governance. If middle ground cannot be found, we’ll all be losers.