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 ask the question in this blog headline as we have watched socialism advocate Bernie Sanders go from leading the Democrat presidential sweepstakes to now being behind – at least a little behind — Joe Biden in what still is a volatile race.

For my part, I am not ready to trash capitalism and move on to what Sanders wants, which is more and more government.  Under his watch, government would be in charge of every area of our lives, thus limiting individual effort and enterprise.

It appears that voters now involved in the D campaign may feel the same – or at least they are not ready to line up behind Sanders.

Here’s the way Wall Street Journal analyst Daniel Henninger put it in a column late last week under this headline:

Socialism Just Bombed

Hard to believe these days, but voters still get the last word on what they want from our politics.

Henninger wrote:

“Joe Biden’s back-from-the-dead primary wins…were remarkable, but they aren’t the biggest story.  Super Tuesday was a wake-up call for this country’s understanding of who we are and what we want from our politics and culture.

“Before the voting began Tuesday it was conventional wisdom — more like an article of faith — that something called progressivism was on the march in the U.S., sweeping aside decades if not centuries of belief, history and tradition with a new agenda of wokeness, identity politics and socialism. Its political vessel the past four years has been Senator Bernie Sanders.

“This movement’s primary political weapon is not persuasion but intimidation.  Starting in the universities and spreading to politics and the private sector, progressivism uses social media platforms to assert:  Fall in line with our views or we will isolate and discredit you with moralistic shaming.”

Agreed.

First, let me say that I disdain the word “progressive,” which comes across as far too positive to describe people who, as Henninger puts it, “will isolate and discredit you with moralistic shaming.”

Second, if the Biden resurrection provides evidence of a move back toward moderation, good.

Third, I also appreciated a humble perspective provided by another Wall Street Journal columnist, Gerard Baker, who wrote about his misgivings for giving up too soon on Biden.

Baker wrote:

“It’s easier to laugh, I suppose, than to acknowledge the humbling truth:  When it comes to political commentary (to borrow the immortal phrase of the late, great screenwriter William Goldman), ‘Nobody knows anything.’

“You would think by now that pundits would have learned a little humility when commenting on the likely future decisions of voters. Our capacity to be surprised is, curiously, undimmed by the frequency with which we are surprised.  Barack Obama, the Tea Party, Brexit, Donald Trump:  All major political upsets that have reshaped our world in the past dozen years alone.  Who saw them coming?

“I’m not (for once here) just attacking others.  I have been wronger than anyone on this topic, and readers of The Wall Street Journal would have been better informed about the presidential race by examining the patterns made by the scraps of food left on their breakfast plates than by reading my observations.”

Baker adds that he often thinks about two phrases as – or even before – he posits conclusions in his columns.  They are:

• “Never make predictions, especially about the future.”
• “When giving a forecast, give a number or a date, but never both.”

All of us could learn a few lessons from the useful reflections of Henninger and Baker as we deal with roiling political issues in this country.

Be better listeners.  Be slower to arrive at predictions or conclusions.  Be willing to consider facts more than opinions.  Be willing to recognize that someone who disagrees with you is not necessarily a jerk.