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 is where you want to be on a golf course.

One of the partners in my old lobbying and public relations firm contends almost every day that ALL Republicans who don’t disown Trump are committing gross sins.

He may have a point, but his generalization goes way too far.

Saying ALL Republicans bow at the Trump altar is like saying ALL Democrats favor the crazy U.S. representative, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.

Both Trump of them appeal to the worst instincts of Americans. They don’t read or study. They just emote. Figuratively, they yell on the street corner to announce their won separatist views and anyone who disagrees with them be damned.

So, to paint ALL Republicans and Democrats with the same brush as Trump and Ocasio-Cortez is to do the citizens a gross injustice.

To be sure, Republicans with any dose of common sense or heart should disavow Trump who continues to defy rational thought or actions in his conduct as president.

But, most Republicans in this country don’t have a soapbox on which to wax eloquent about the evils of Trump. The best they can do is to express their displeasure at the polls next November and that, alone, will be a significant act in and of itself.

At the same time, Republicans with a pedestal should use their position to advocate against Trump rather than, as has been the case so far with most Republicans in Congress, to kowtow before the worst president in U.S. history. That’s why I commend the efforts of such commitments as the Lincoln Project whose members, all Republicans with standing, oppose Trump – and do so out loud with an eye to the fall election.

Democrats, too, have an obligation to oppose the distorted views of Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk who seek to tear this country down, not build it up.

Wall Street Journal columnist William McGurn wrote about Ocasio-Cortez this morning in piece that included this deft line:

“They (Ocasio-Cortez and her ilk) aren’t interested because they don’t build, they only tear down.”

He added: “Her defeat in 2018 of a longtime Democrat Representative Joseph Crowley was a political upset. But her chief contribution to her constituents since then is that she was instrumental in killing a deal in which Amazon would have opened a second headquarters in her district. Her efforts cost her constituents 25,000 jobs, billions in lost tax revenue and the knock-on effects to the rest of the local economy.”

Ocasio-Cortez’s example, McGurn writes, speaks to the priorities of the modern progressive. “She has 7.6 million followers on Twitter and has inspired an action figure, a comic-book anthology and a recurring role in Showtime’s animated comedy ‘Our Cartoon President.’ When she deigns to talk policy, she favors multibillion-dollar pie-in-the-sky ideas, from the Green New Deal to Medicare for All, and tuition-free college.”

So, I say don’t tar all who bear political party labels with the same brush.

Assume they are individuals not wedded to any specific cause. It’s true of many Republicans who are not Trumpians. And it’s true of many Democrats who don’t hew so far left toward Ocasio-Cortez as to be off the political spectrum.

What we need in this country is individuals, from whatever political persuasion, who think for themselves and have the best interests of this country at heart.