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 is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This, remember, is one of three departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit. 

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of “Just Saying.”

For the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, there are many candidates for inclusion, one reason for which is that the conduct of Donald Trump is so far off base from reality that he cannot serve the country by bowing out of office as a loser, which he surely is. So, the commentators wax eloquent.

From columnist E. J. Dionne in the Washington Post:  “…when politics is reduced to all slapping and no reasoning, and when the words ‘take this country back’ mean keeping the loser of a free election in power by manipulating the truth and the law, we have traveled a long way from the democratic tradition.”

Comment:  I don’t often cite Dionne because he is much too far left for me, but this time he has a point.  Trump is retreating so far from democracy traditions and conventions that his conduct is becoming ridiculous.  And, what’s worse is that many Republicans refuse to call him on it.

From columnist Karen Tumulty in the Washington Post:  “The inauguration of a president is a ritual we have gone through 58 times in the history of our country, through periods of war and depression and political strife.

“But there has never been anything quite like the circumstances surrounding the upcoming 59th, which will take place amid a pandemic and shrouded by false conspiracy theories about a ‘stolen’ election that are being spread by the White House itself.  President Trump’s maneuvers to hold onto the office he lost are becoming more and more desperate.

“So what transpires on Jan. 20, 2021, will demand a re-imagination, both of what an inauguration means and of how it sets the tone for the months and years ahead.

“As for the rest of the hoopla — the parade, the gala, the concerts, the balls, the parties, the luncheon inside the Capitol — it almost certainly will be ditched.”

Comment:  Good point.  Make the inauguration simple and straightforward, thus illustrating what it is and should be an official transfer of power in U.S. government.

From the Wall Street Journal:  “Americans are increasingly — and understandably — impatient about tight and even draconian restrictions on their daily lives because of the pandemic.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that they become outraged when those who impose the rules fail to live by them, too.  Case in point:  Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent fancy dinner in Napa Valley.

“It would be bad enough if this were the only high-profile example of a leader disobeying their own pandemic rules. But that’s not the case. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was caught this summer getting a haircut without a mask in a San Francisco salon at a time when normal people in the city were barred from such visits.”

Comment:  These aren’t the only examples of hypocrisy on the part of the public officials.  In one sense, these may be one-off examples, but, when the charges of hypocrisy stick, it makes all of the government look bad, even if that is an inaccurate generalization.

And, this further comment:  The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association is suing Oregon Governor Kate Brown, contending that she has overreached her authority by mandating the closure of restaurants, perhaps forcing many of them out of business.

Beyond hypocrisy – and it should be noted that Brown has not been accused of this – this illustrates another failure of pandemic closure restrictions:  They are not necessarily related to the specific reasons for the increase in virus cases.  In this case, Oregon restaurants stand ready to prove in court that they are not the prime culprits.