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.

Here is the question:

Does character trump policy?

Or, does policy trump character?

Forgive the play on words here with the use of the word “trump,” but the current president is almost a classic example of the tension between someone’s character and what they do in a political position – or at least what they say they do.

One of my friends put the question this way:  If a president had solid character, but implements dumb policy, would you still vote for solid character?

Good question.

The easy answer is that I want a president with solid character who handles the duties of the presidential office with aplomb, zeal and honesty, even if I might disagree from time to time with the policy.  If the president supports and implements policies with which I disagree, so be it, because no one president will ever do what exactly I want – nor should that president.

Put differently, I want both character and sound policy.

And, I think, as Americans, we deserve both.

But, at least with solid character, I would know that a president was telling the truth about policies, not making things up as he or she went along.

We are reaching a point in our national existence when we are dominated by rage and resentment, at least in politics, if not in society in at large.  For one thing, the current president, emboldened by the U.S. Senate decision not to convict him in the impeachment process, is retaliating against those who oppose him.

For another, those on the left behave in the same way, eschewing respect and decency for, again, rage and resentment.

I say it’s time to return to politics that meant something – the ability to disagree agreeably.  The same should be true of society in general.