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.

No surprise here, but both sides have ramped up their political statements just hours after the aborted 2020 short legislative session ended in a stalemate.

Most of the statements are designed to influence the next election when Democrats say they should be granted larger margins of control to give them quorums, and Republicans say they – and their rural Oregon constituents – should be considered victims of urban Oregon mandates.

Here are two examples of the to-ing and fro-ing:

• Oregon Senate Republican Leader Herman Baertschiger Jr. held a video press conference from an undisclosed location to say: “As promised, my caucus and I will be ready to work on March 8 to pass the bills the short session was intended for. The focus all along should have been on the budget bills, not cap-and-trade.  It amazes me how the Democrats do not take any responsibility for the failure of the session.  Let’s get back to the purpose of the short session.”
• Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek, was quoted extensively in a story in the Oregonian newspaper under this headline, “Normally staid Oregon House Speaker decries session marred by cheating, ‘corrosion of democratic process,’ shame and a ‘hostage situation.’”

“Just before gaveling the House’s half of the 2020 Legislature to an abrupt, early close, the Portland Democrat gave a speech brimming with fear, pride, idealism and – above all – anger.

“She expressed concern about bedrock public institutions and the public’s faith in government. She excoriated Republicans for what she cast as a fundamental failure to keep their oath of office. And she used language of the sort she’s never before shouted from the dais.”

I, for one, have no idea how to bridge the gap – no, it’s a chasm – between the two sides.  Urban Oregonians think they know best about how to solve pressing public policy problems and, in some cases, they may be right, especially for where they live.

But, rural Oregonians think those in urban areas have no idea about the challenges in Eastern Oregon, so those who live consider themselves to victims of the urbans.

At one point in the last week or so, I thought I had come up with what struck me as relatively easy solution to the stalemate over climate change legislation called “cap and trade.”  It would have been for Democrats to agree to Republican demands to send the measure out to a vote of the people and, then, count on urban voters to pass it.

However, one of my sources at the Capitol told me that this wouldn’t work.  Democrats, this source saidm, had commissioned polling showing the measure would fail because of the huge tax increases contained in it.

Well, I submit, if that polling is done by a reputable pollster (not one paid to do the bidding of one side or the other), then why should the in-charge Democrats impose the cap-and-trade measure in the first place?  At least the measure in its current form.

Work instead, I say, to reduce the tax consequences while, at the same time, taking steps to protect the environment.

This is the kind of action that would occur if those in the Legislature worked to find the smart middle ground instead of modeling themselves after Congress which almost always produces nothing but disagreement.

Oregonians deserve better and my view is that both sides are at fault.  There are no heroes.