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 (Les AuCoin), 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 could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it where you want to be on a golf course.

Since it opened about 20 ears ago, Bandon Dunes on the South Oregon Coast has produced an international reputation largely due to the creator, Mike Keiser, who has gone on to create acclaimed golf venues in such faraway places as Nova Scotia and Tasmania.

Great golf.  Like exists in Scotland and Ireland.  Great vistas of the Pacific Ocean.  Links-style “golf as it was meant to be,” to use the official Bandon Dunes slogan.

Measuring the impact of the original Bandon Dunes course on modern golf is difficult, given that the resort grew so quickly after its opening and the effects are still ongoing. We do know that, before Bandon, American golfers were largely apathetic toward the bouncy, firm, links-like golf they found in the British Isles.

Bandon Dunes has always seemed like the right course at the right time.  The four subsequent courses built at the resort directly inspired Chambers Bay, Streamsong, Erin Hills, Barnbougle Dunes, and others to seek out naturally rolling golf ground and choose traditional cool-season golf grasses.

Bandon Dunes changed course architecture in America by reminding the industry of the beauty of coastal golf, and that not only can old school, hands-on, minimalistic design still produce the best results, it can also produce the best profits.

The opening of the fifth course at Bandon – Bally Bandon, formerly called “The Sheep Ranch” — only will add to the lustrous reputation.

That is due to occur tomorrow, June 1.

Those words – “Sheep Ranch” — brought back fond memories for me.

It’s now more than 10 years ago, but the golf course superintendent at Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Bill Swancutt, took three of his friends – me included – on a visit to the Sheep Ranch.  The goal was to play golf on pure, untested ground.

As we arrived by car at the Southern Oregon Coast, Bill – or Swanny as we called him then and use the nickname to this day – knew where to take us to a gate overlooking the Sheep Ranch, with sterling views West to the vast ocean as it crashed on the shore.  The superintendent at the Sheep Ranch – he said he had the best job in the world, running a golf course with no golfers – met us just inside the gate.

He talked us through us playing the course, which was not fully a golf course in the sense that it had not yet been designed.  He had a slip paper in his hands and, with golf course pencil in hand, drew a routing for the first 15 holes.  And, then, he said, just design the last three holes you want to play with our own routing.

As we looked West, we could see 18 golf course flags.  When you get to a hole, the super advised, just putt out, and then find a level spot of land near that green and tee off toward the next flag.

We did that 18 times – and it was great fun.

Now, of course, the Sheep Ranch has been transformed into a real golf course in the sense that it has been designed by the acclaimed design duo, Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.

Here’s the way Jason Lusk, writing in Golfweek Magazine, described what he called “a cliff top thriller.”

“There never was a question that the land immediately north of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is stunning with a mile of shoreline, 100-foot cliffs above the Pacific Ocean and plenty of sand for a bouncy, rollicking American links.

“Previously the site of a somewhat secretive 13-hole, play-’em-as-you-like routing known as the Sheep Ranch, the property is being turned into the 18-hole Bally Bandon Sheep Ranch, set to open in the spring of 2020. Grassing has commenced at the design created by the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, which will feature nine greens on the cliffs’ edges.  [Note:  When we played the Sheep Ranch, we played a full 18 holes.]

“You read that right:  Nine greens on the cliffs.  That’s three more than any of the 18-hole courses at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s foursome of 18-hole courses, all of which rank in the top 14 of  Golf week’s Best Modern list  of U.S. courses.

“Quoting the designers, he wrote that ‘We’re going to have some more design sophistication, some really cool holes.  Before we had some really cool sites, and now the greens themselves will be improved upon.’

“Property owner Phil Friedmann has again partnered with Mike Keiser, owner of Bandon Dunes and Friedmann’s co-founder of Recycled Paper Greetings, Inc., to transform the site into what likely will be the most-talked-about U.S. course opening in years.  They will operate the new Sheep Ranch as a separate entity apart from Bandon Dunes, but much of the existing resort’s infrastructure and amenities will be used at the Sheep Ranch.  Players will be able to book rounds at the Sheep Ranch as part of their stay at Bandon Dunes.”

“Friedmann said he had considered building a full course on the 400-acre site for years.  He and Keiser credited Coore with developing a layout that fits onto the property’s lower 140 acres without climbing into the wooded acreage farther from the cliffs.  Coore also pitched a design with no bunkers, letting the wind and terrain provide the challenges, and the owners signed off on the no bunker approach.

“I told Bill when I last saw him that it is a collaboration between him and God.  God created the land, and Bill chose where we get to walk on it.

“The highlight probably will be the double green situated atop Fivemile Point, which juts into the Pacific Ocean.  Unlike the oceanfront at Bandon Dunes, where the existing holes are plotted alongside the cliffs but never really offer a view back at the cliffs or a shot over the steep rock walls, the Sheep Ranch will require balls fly over the cliffs from tees and to greens set on the promontory.

“’It’s certainly a dramatic addition,’ Keiser said. ‘Fivemile Point is out in the ocean, and isn’t it exciting to see breakers rolling past you and internal to you?  It has always beckoned.’”

So, the addition of Bally Bandon only adds to lure of the place, now five golf courses (Bandon Dunes, Pacific Dunes, Old MacDonald, Bandon Trails and now Bally Bandon), a putting course, a short-hole track, and practice facilities to entice any golfer

Despite the current virus pandemic, Bandon Dunes will host the U.S. Amateur in August.  It will be a treat for top amateurs.

And it will be for me, too, when I next venture south to Bandon Dunes.

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.

One of my former business partners made the contention the other day that there are no Republicans who oppose Trump.  On its face, the contention was silly, I contended, and I told my former partner so.  Still, he persisted by asking me “to name one Republican who opposed Trump.”

I could easily do so, though I said many Republicans who oppose Trump don’t have a public pedestal to express their opposition.

Then, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) posted a story this week about the Lincoln Project, a super political action committee launched by a group of Republicans operatives seeking to defeat Donald Trump this fall.  The specifics dealt with a decision by Stuart Stevens, the former chief strategist for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, to join the Lincoln Project.

There, I told my former partner – you have one example of a Republican who opposes Trump – Stuart Stevens.   Of course, I also could have named Senator Mitt Romney as another.

Here is more from the WSJ story:

“Stevens said in an interview with The Washington Post that the group will likely be his sole political endeavor for the remainder of the year and that he will advise its team on anti-Trump advertising and strategy.

“I will just try to fit in with the team and see where I can be helpful.  We’ll see how it goes.”

“They’ve proven to be effective.  They remind Republicans that it doesn’t have to be this way. They remind Republicans of principles that the party had said it long stood for. Clearly, they’re inside Donald Trump’s head.

“The Lincoln Project’s leadership includes strategists John Weaver, Rick Wilson, Steve Schmidt and former New Hampshire Republican Party chair Jennifer Horn, who last year worked with Stevens on the long-shot GOP presidential primary campaign of former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld.  Lawyer George T. Conway III, who is married to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, is also involved.

“Weaver said in an email that Stevens is the ‘gold standard’ and to have him join us in the Lincoln Project in a senior role will help the group convince voters that “Donald Trump must be trounced, along with his enablers.”

So, I say to Stevens and others who share his animosity for Trump, you have many supporters across the country, including me, though it should be added that I am not a Republican, having been an Independent for a number of years, a title better suited to my role as a state lobbyist for many years.

Many Republicans and Independents, not to mention Democrats, yearn for better days from the Oval Office.  The occupant there should have solid character – solid enough to lead the country in “normal” times if those ever return, but also during such a major challenge as the current pandemic.

When it comes to solid character, Trump does not qualify – and many Republicans know it.

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 hadn’t heard the word “lexophile” until a guy I play golf with in La Quinta, California sent it my way a couple weeks ago.

It came with a list of what, I guess, are called” lexophiles” as published a few weeks ago by the New York Times, which holds an annual competition to see who can come up with the best “lexophile.”

It’s tough to define the list that appears below, but it is enough to just say they are phrases that embody interesting words that go together well – and leave you laughing, if only at the ingenuity of the person who came up with the string.

Why do I focus on this? Well, first, it is true that I like words – better than numbers it should be said. Second, I don’t have a lot to do other than golf in the pandemic, so the list below is worth reading.

• You can tune a piano, but you can’t tuna fish
• To write with a broken pencil is pointless.
• I changed my iPod’s name to Titanic. It’s syncing now.
• England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.
• Haunted French pancakes give me the crepes.
• This girl today said she recognized me from the Vegetarians Club, but I’d swear I’ve never met herbivore.
• I know a guy who’s addicted to drinking brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
• A thief who stole a calendar got twelve months.
• When the smog lifts in Los Angeles, U.C.L.A.
• I got some batteries that were given out free of charge.
• A dentist and a manicurist married. They fought tooth and nail.
• A will is a dead giveaway.
• With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
• Police were summoned to a daycare center where a three-year-old was resisting a rest.
• Did you hear about the fellow whose entire left side was cut off?  He’s all right now.
• A bicycle can’t stand alone; it’s just two tired.
• The guy who fell onto an upholstery machine last week is now fully recovered.
• He had a photographic memory, but it was never fully developed.
• When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
• Acupuncture is a jab well done. That’s the point of it.
• I didn’t like my beard at first. Then it grew on me.
• Did you hear about the crossed-eyed teacher who lost her job because she couldn’t control her pupils?
• When you get a bladder infection, urine trouble.
• When chemists die, they barium.
• I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.
• I’m reading a book about anti-gravity. I just can’t put it down.\
• I just can’t see myself wearing camouflage.

It may be a waste of time or an investment – depending on your point of view – but I may try to come up with my own example to fit the list above.

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.

Some of the words in the headline for this blog appeared in Washington Post editorial over the weekend.

It makes a good point – the need for verifiable testing if we are to get out from under the pandemic.

But I think there is another missing ingredient in all face in these days of the pandemic – trust.

Trust – in two ways: (1) Trust in government officials who often cash in trust as they behave in unethical ways (just look at Donald Trump, for whom building trust is never an issue), and (2) the loss of mutual trust on the part of citizens who often favor self-centered ways of behaving (just look at those who flocked to beaches and other venues on Memorial Day no matter if they risked infecting others).

Here is the first paragraph on the Post editorial favoring more testing.

“The current approach to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is based on wishful thinking — that a vaccine or drug therapy will be available by the end of the year, or sooner; that death and illness will taper off with the summer heat, and not come back next fall. But what if none of this happens? What if the novel coronavirus sticks around for a year or two or longer? In that case, diagnostic testing will be critical to our ability to manage lives, jobs, schools and health. Yet, we still lack a federal strategy to get there.”

True.

For me, cultivating trust is a second ingredient in surviving the pandemic — and without it there will be no way to move forward.

Trust in and about government can be built in several ways:

• By telling the truth and saying you don’t know when you don’t know. That was normally a principle when I worked in and around state government here in Oregon for about 40 years.

But, while Oregon is nowhere near as bad as the federal government, building trust has receded as a critical factor in the state.

• Bi-partisanship for the public good. When I see Democrats and Republicans find a way to act together – as they did in the first pandemic relief bills in Congress – it gives a sense of hope that bi-partisanship is possible. Bi-partisanship, however, has tended to recede in view of the next relief bills.

Bi-partisanship is hard to achieve, but possible…except for Trump, as well as those on the far left who wouldn’t know bi-partisanship if it hit them full in the face.

• Deploying a “your word is your bond ethic.” When I worked as a lobbyist in Oregon for about 25 years, I always had this ethic in the back, if not the front, of my mind.

If I told a legislator or another lobbyist something, I stuck to it come hell or high water. If I had to change position because of the inherent tension of issues confronting each other, I would only do so if I told those to whom I had spoken earlier that I had to change.

If the “your word is your bond ethic” existed, it would improve the operation of government.

In my work on an Ethics Committee for Oregon Common Cause, I encountered the following quote from Walter Shaub, the retired director of the Federal Ethics Office. It dealt with the question of ethics, but could just as well have been about the subject of “trust.”

Here is the quote:

“The current ethics program, at least at the federal level, was developed in response to Watergate. The system worked well for 40 years. There was room for improvement, but, for the most part, the system worked well as a preventive mechanism. The flaw was that it was completely dependent on the president’s administration to comply and set an example. The current administration has signaled that it does not want the system to work.”

Building trust in and around government will take concerted work by all involved. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. Just worth it.

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.

The headline for this blog appeared in Washington Post editorial over the weekend.

It makes a good point – the need for verifiable testing if we are to get out from under the pandemic.

But I think there is another missing ingredient in all face in these days of the pandemic – trust.

Trust – in two ways: (1) Trust in government officials who often cash in trust as they behave in unethical ways (just look at Donald Trump, for whom building trust is never an issue), and (2) the loss of mutual trust on the part of citizens who often favor self-centered ways of behaving (just look at those who flocked to beaches and other venues on Memorial Day no matter if they risked infecting others).

Here is the first paragraph on the Post editorial favoring more testing.

“The current approach to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States is based on wishful thinking — that a vaccine or drug therapy will be available by the end of the year, or sooner; that death and illness will taper off with the summer heat, and not come back next fall. But what if none of this happens? What if the novel coronavirus sticks around for a year or two or longer? In that case, diagnostic testing will be critical to our ability to manage lives, jobs, schools and health. Yet, we still lack a federal strategy to get there.”

True.

For me, cultivating trust is a second ingredient in surviving the pandemic — and without it there will be no way to move forward.

Trust in and about government can be built in several ways:

• By telling the truth and saying you don’t know when you don’t know. That was normally a principle when I worked in and around state government here in Oregon for about 40 years.

But, while Oregon is nowhere near as bad as the federal government, building trust has receded as a critical factor in the state.

• Bi-partisanship for the public good. When I see Democrats and Republicans find a way to act together – as they did in the first pandemic relief bills in Congress – it gives a sense of hope that bi-partisanship is possible. Bi-partisanship, however, has tended to recede in view of the next relief bills.

Bi-partisanship is hard to achieve, but possible…except for Trump, as well as those on the far left who wouldn’t know bi-partisanship if it hit them full in the face.

• Deploying a “your word is your bond ethic.” When I worked as a lobbyist in Oregon for about 25 years, I always had this ethic in the back, if not the front, of my mind.

If I told a legislator or another lobbyist something, I stuck to it come hell or high water. If I had to change position because of the inherent tension of issues confronting each other, I would only do so if I told those to whom I had spoken earlier that I had to change.

If the “your word is your bond ethic” existed, it would improve the operation of government.

In my work on an Ethics Committee for Oregon Common Cause, I encountered the following quote from Walter Shaub, the retired director of the Federal Ethics Office. It dealt with the question of ethics, but could just as well have been about the subject of “trust.”

Here is the quote:

“The current ethics program, at least at the federal level, was developed in response to Watergate. The system worked well for 40 years. There was room for improvement, but, for the most part, the system worked well as a preventive mechanism. The flaw was that it was completely dependent on the president’s administration to comply and set an example. The current administration has signaled that it does not want the system to work.”

Building trust in and around government will take concerted work by all involved. It won’t be easy, but nothing worth doing is ever easy. Just worth it.

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.

“Thank you for your service.”

Sometimes those words trip off our tongues easily with nothing much behind them.

Today, I utter them with full and deep meaning.

“Thank you for your service.”

I say this to such heroes as retired Colonel Ricky Love, one of my best friends who served well in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

He and many others like him, including those who did not make it home from various war zones, deserve our full and genuine appreciation – not just on this Memorial Day, but on all other days when we are able to value the freedom they preserved.

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.

Okay, I was wrong.

I wrote a few days ago that baseball, in a nod to trying to re-start in the coronavirus pandemic, would outlaw spitting.

Good, I said then, as I noted how often I have been tempted to count the number of times baseball players spit when I watched a game on TV.

Stop I would say – and it was a welcome development when the pandemic would do the deed.

But the Wall Street Journal set me straight this week with a story under this headline:

Actually, There Will Be Spitting in Baseball—When Players Are Tested

MLB’s plan for playing through coronavirus involves what may be the most high-profile use of saliva tests, rather than swabs, to screen for infection

The story went on:

“In the bizarro season Major League Baseball (MLB) hopes to have this summer, players will be forced to do the unthinkable in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus: Refrain from spitting, a tradition as much a part of the game as the ceremonial first pitch and seventh-inning stretch.

“Under MLB’s proposed health and safety protocol to play amid a global pandemic, sunflower seeds and smokeless tobacco are considered contraband. Communal water jugs are outlawed. Licking one’s fingers is against the rules. Players will be required to keep their saliva in their mouths at all times.

“Except, that is, in one key instance: when they’re being tested for the virus.

“MLB is betting big on saliva tests for coronavirus as the mechanism that will allow it to proceed this year. In doing so, it will become perhaps the highest-profile employer to embrace the approach on such a large scale. The league plans to test all personnel—including players, coaches, umpires and other employees deemed essential—several times a week as part of a plan to play a fan-less, shortened schedule that does not subject employees to a quarantine.”

So, horror of horrors for me, a partial baseball fan, we’ll be back to spitting, part of the so-called “national pastime.”

Makes me want to spit!

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 have been trying for months now to understand how President Donald Trump operates.

It is hard to believe a reality TV show host and a businessman of shoddy character even understands what the word strategy means as he flies by the seat his pants as president and says whatever happens to cross his mind. Truth is no barmeter.

In the Washington Post this week, columnist Eugene Robinson put it this way – and I agree with him:

“I find it hard to understand how anyone can construe Trump’s tirades and tweets as anything resembling a strategy. I see, at best, a familiar tactic: He seeks to drag opponents down to his level. He cannot compete with Joe Biden on the basis of ideas, integrity or performance, so he seeks to pull him into the gutter — hence the elaborate attempt to concoct a scandal involving Biden’s son Hunter.”

One of the basic propositions during my 25 years as a lobbyist, augmented early on by 15 years as an Oregon state government manager, was this:

To achieve any management end, it is easy to begin with tactics.  Don’t.   Strategy – a big picture look at what you want to achieve – should be the starting point. And, then, tactics should be developed to achieve the strategy.

For Trump, it’s all about tactics or least whatever crossed his mind and lips moment-by-moment.

Buoyed by columnist Robinson, I felt compelled this week to develop a list of what I consider to be Trump’s actions without strategy –- and some of these may be a repeat of what I have said before about this worst of all U.S. presidents. So here goes.

• First, with Robinson, I say Trump “seeks to drag opponents down to his level. He cannot compete with Joe Biden on the basis of ideas, integrity or performance, so he seeks to pull him into the gutter.”
• Second, Trump lies at every turn. It’s not second instinct for him; it is first instinct. Incredibly, the Washington Post Fact Checker column says Trump has told more than 18,000 lies in three years. It’s enough that “Fact Checker” has to exist in the first place; it’s even more troubling to reckon with the tally of lies.
• Third, Trump instinctively practices a policy of distraction. Rather than working with governors around the country to develop a sound national plan for tracing and testing in the coronavirus pandemic, he castigates Barack Obama and anyone else to distract from his own abysmal performance.

For me, in many ways, the worst of Trump’s diatribes was for him to denigrate the late Senator John McCain, truly a national hero. In life and in death, Trump went after McCain, one of most despicable acts of Trump’s presidency.

There is little question but that we are at war with coronavirus pandemic, as is every country around the world as the virus is no respecter of nationalities or borders.

More than ever, we need a president who will rise to the occasion. Many of us are not surprised to see Trump putting his own welfare above that of the nation.

As written by Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Fred Hiatt, Trump is busily inciting people across the country — and especially in swing states — to ignore public health guidance on limiting the spread of covid-19 and resume socializing and working in the riskiest of ways.

“Modeling masklessness, he welcomes any sabotage of orderly reopening.”

Such recklessness, in defiance of his own administration’s guidance, Hiatt writes, risks igniting new waves of the disease. That could lead not only to thousands more deaths, but also to further devastation of the economy. It’s not far-fetched to think that this blowback could arrive with the cooler weather next fall — just as people are voting in the presidential election.

“Various theories are offered for this seemingly self-destructive behavior.

“Trump, it is said, can’t think beyond tomorrow’s headline or stock market bounce. His need for instant gratification clouds his ability to plan ahead.

“Or, his perennial hunger for adulation drives him to irrationality. He craves the thanks of tavern-goers in Wisconsin; he is desperate for the roar of his rally crowds.

“Or, he is simply discounting the advice of experts, confident that his gut provides a better guide than their knowledge and experience.

All of these theories may contain some truth.”

So, Trump continues without strategy or rational tactics, thus making things worse than they otherwise would be. And, he wants to be re-elected? No.

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.

While all of us have been trying to adjust to the pandemic, a major issue lurks in the background, though it often jumps to the foreground.

It is this:

What should the role of government be and how big should it get?

The Washington Post published a story on the subject under this headline:

Crisis exposes how
America has hollowed
out its government

It was written by veteran Washington, D.C. reporter Dan Balz, who, for years, has been an excellent chronicler of events and trends in the nation’s capitol.

Here is the lead to his story:

“The government’s halting response to the coronavirus pandemic represents the culmination of chronic structural weaknesses, years of underinvestment and political rhetoric that has undermined the public trust — conditions compounded by President Trump’s open hostility to a federal bureaucracy that has been called upon to manage the crisis.”

This reminds me of several perspectives.

• One is that it was only a few months ago when anyone interested in federal politics heard several Democrat presidential candidates promoting ideas to expand hugely the role of the federal government.

Two of those candidates were Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, the latter of whom remains in the hunt to join presumed Democrat nominee Joe Biden as his vice president running mate.

Sanders, Warren and others on the far left wanted government to do everything – provide free health care, forgive student debt, adopt a so-called “green standard” for all buildings, etc.

Today, while the issue is no longer the Sanders-Warren agenda, we have big government – and most of us would say it is a necessity to have it. The only way to respond to the pandemic is by relying on government, much as would be the case in any other kind of war.

• A second perspective is how Donald Trump and his minions have so botched the job of preparing for government obligations that those obligations cannot be carried out with any level of competence. If it could be contended that Trump is on the far right politically (I add that it is impossible to know where he stands on anything), various others on the right joined him in lofting an inflamed anti-government stance. To those on the far right, government was the enemy, the so-called “deep state.”

Now, the reality is that we need more than ever the kind of solid government Trump and his minions have destroyed.

• Another perspective relates to my own perceptions about the role and size of government. In part because of my work as a lobbyist for 25 years, I believe elected officials in government often fail to ask hard and pointed questions about government programs, including whether they should exist in the first place, and, if the answer is yes, whether they produce returns on the investment.

Those questions are still important and government officials should still ask them in the current pandemic.

In the Post piece, Balz expanded on the reality of Trump’s failure to understand anything:

“Federal government leaders, beginning with the president, appeared caught unaware by the swiftness with which the coronavirus was spreading through the country — though this was not the first time that an administration seemed ill-prepared for an unexpected shock. But even after the machinery of government clanked into motion, missteps, endemic obstacles and lack of clear communication have plagued the efforts to meet the needs of the nation.

“’A fundamental role of government is the safety and security of its people,’ said Janet Napolitano, the former secretary of homeland security. ‘To me that means you have to maintain a certain base level so that, when an event like a pandemic manifests itself, you can quickly activate what you have and you have already in place a system and plan for what the federal government is going to do and what the states are going to do.’

“That has not been the case this spring. The nation is reaping the effects of decades of denigration of government and also from a steady squeeze on the resources needed to shore up the domestic parts of the executive branch.

“This hollowing out has been going on for years as a gridlocked Congress preferred continuing resolutions and budgetary caps to hardheaded decisions about vulnerable governmental infrastructure and leaders did little to address structural weaknesses.

“The problems have grown worse in the past three years. Trump was elected having never served in government or the military. That was one reason he appealed to many of those who backed him. He came to Washington deeply suspicious of what he branded the ‘deep state.’ Promising to drain the swamp, he has vilified career civil servants and the institutions of government now called upon to perform at the highest levels.”

The question is whether the weaknesses and vulnerabilities exposed by the current crisis will generate a newfound interest among the nation’s elected officials in repairing the infrastructure of government and a sense of urgency on the part of the public to encourage them to do so.

Or will partisanship and public indifference lead to a continuation of the status quo?

Henry Olsen, also writing in the Post, provides a glum perspective.

Commenting on the next virus relief bill in Congress, if there is such a bill, he said recent action by the House to pass a bill that has no chance of being considered in the Senate “is not how a healthy democracy behaves in a crisis.”

“There will always be partisan differences over how to address a crisis,” he wrote. “But a healthy democracy would debate those differences directly and openly. Voters would know what each party’s values are, and legislators could decide whether there’s enough common ground to forge a compromise.

“With unemployment skyrocketing and state and local governments losing tax revenue by the bushel each day, one would think that something could be worked out that satisfies both sides even as neither is ecstatic. Instead, we have a partisan game that merely entrenches both sides in increasingly hardened silos.”

Only time will tell if supposed leaders in Congress will find a way to make reasoned and fair decisions in the face of a recession and calamity on nearly every hand.

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.

Do you remember where you were when Mt. St. Helens blew its top 40 years ago?

It’s a question like where you were when President John Kennedy was assassinated, when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, or when the Twin Towers went down to a terrorist attack in New York.

With St. Helens, I and two other members of my family – wife Nancy and son Eric – were witnesses to history.

We watched the eruption from our home in Salem, Oregon, though what was saw was the aftermath of the eruption, a cloud that we found out later went up about 14 miles, making it visible about 100 miles south where we lived.

It wasn’t long before ash began falling on our house, the deck, and our cars. Not smart to try to wash the ash off the cars because the substance would leave a trail of scars.

For us, another “eruption” occurred just a few days later.

Our daughter, Lissy, was born and my wife recalls that the labor she went through was quick, as was the birth, thus the word “eruption.”

So, in line with the Mt. St. Helens eruption memories, our daughter is celebrating her 40^th birthday.

The statistics about the St. Helens eruption are staggering.

• The cloud escalated 14 miles up.
• More than 540 million tons of ash were deposited by the eruption, which means that ash landed in 11 states. [To this day, witnesses retain jars of ash, as we do.]
• There was more than $1 billion worth of damage to the surrounding area, including blown up bridges, uprooted timber, and lost homes. The total would equate to almost $4 billion today.
• A total of 57 persons lost their lives in the blast, including a figure named Harry Truman – yes, Harry Truman — who ran a lodge near the mountain and refused to leave in advance of the eruptioin even after being ordered to do so.

I also remember that soon after the blast, one of the rescuers was my brother-in-law, Colonel Dave Wendt, who flew helicopters for the 304^th rescue squadron based in Portland.

As he and his colleagues flew into the damage zone, he took pictures, reporting to us that the ground looked a “moonscape.” Coincidentally, that was same term used by President Jimmy Carter as he toured the site by air a few days later.

Colonel Wendt and his colleagues, in the immediate aftermath of the eruption, were able to rescue several lucky folks who barely escaped death.

[By the way, the St. Helens rescue effort was not Colonel Wendt’s only scrape with tough situations. He flew planes in the Vietnam conflict to rescue downed pilots, was the first officer on a Pan Am jet hijacked to Cuba, and flew cover for the Lake Placid Olympics in New York.  A calling worthy of great respect for his service.]

Regarding President Carter, my business colleague, Gary Conkling, remembers that, at the time, the president was sequestered at the White House, preferring not to leave during the Iran hostage crisis.  For Congressman Les AuCoin, for whom both Gary and I worked, Gary wrote a memo recommending that Carter tour the eruption site from the air in what would be a “presidential act.”

He did and Congressman AuCoin accompanied Carter on Air Force One to view the damage in the West.

Overall, for me, the St. Helens eruption showed again that, however important and capable we think we are, we are not in charge of our own universe.