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.

I am the kind of person who likes words.  Better than numbers.  Better than charts and graphs.

Of course, both numbers and charts have their place, but my focus is on words. 

That may be because I grew up as a person interested in journalism and, in fact, got my first job after college as a reporter for a daily newspaper in Astoria, Oregon.

Other jobs after that also focused more on words than on numbers and charts, so much so that, in the lobbying and public relations firm I helped to found with two partners in 1990, I remained a “words person.”

One of my partners also liked words, but, well beyond me, developed a way, in what was then called “desk-top publishing,” to merge words with graphics.  It was to his credit.

All of this is a lead-in to the topic of this blog – new words in politics that may deliver messages, but need to be defined.  So here goes.

CANCEL CULTURE:  The term refers to a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be on-line, on social media, or in person.

My view:  Worth avoiding this new phrase in normal speech – and action.

WOKE:  This is a term that originated in the United States, referring to a perceived awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice.  It derives from the African-American Vernacular English expression “stay woke,” whose grammatical aspect refers to a continuing awareness of these issues.

My view:  No problem with this word, though I am never sure what it means despite the definition I supplied above.  I probably won’t use it much, preferring instead to speak directly about social and racial justice.

QANON:  This is a right-wing, pro-Trump conspiracy theory born in a dark corner of the Internet that has crept into mainstream politics.  The theory, promoted by extremists, is based on cryptic postings by the anonymous “Q,” who purported to be a government insider with access to classified information.  The first Q posting appeared in October 2017.

QAnon followers contend that a group of Satan-worshiping pedophiles — that includes Hollywood actors and Democrat politicians — is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against Trump.  They also believe thousands of “deep state” operatives and top Democrats will eventually be rounded up and sent to Guantanamo Bay during a reckoning dubbed “The Storm.”

My view:  I intend to avoid using about this term, or even thinking about it, given its utter depravity.

PROGRESSIVE:  This word has been co-opted by those on the far left who contend it is a political philosophy in support of social reform – and that counts for progress. 

They define the term, more specifically, as “a social or political movement that aims to represent the interests of ordinary people through political change and the support of government actions.”

My view:  I intend to use the word progressive to define government actions that truly represent progress – and that usually stems from actions that some from the center, not either the right or the left. If there is a message here, it is that, when we use new words in the political lexicon, we ought to know what they mean – or at least what listeners believe they mean.  That will lead to careful use of the words of they are used at all.