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.

It would be unlikely for a true political conservative to root for President Joe Biden.  After all, he is a Democrat and not all that conservative.

But, I know of one Republican conservative who will root for Biden.

He is Michael Gerson, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush and now an opinion columnist for the Washington Post.

Here is the way he started his most recent column:

“Many of us not naturally inclined to support a Democrat president have developed a rooting interest in Joe Biden’s political success. This is not mainly due to Biden’s skills or vision; it’s because he is fighting a rear-guard action to save political rationality.

“The president is working from a theory that his party’s mid-term survival and long-term appeal will be based on delivering tangible benefits for the middle class. This has led to spending proposals for things such as Medicare, infrastructure, family leave, child credits and pre-kindergarten programs.”

Gerson admits that Biden’s calculation could be wrong, if only because, advocating similar goals did not gain him much ground among White, working-class voters in the 2020 election.

But, for me, Gerson hits the nail on the head when he writes this:

“Still, Biden treats voters as fundamentally rational beings, who calculate what is best for their families and communities.  His strategy carries the assumption of sanity.

“It could have been otherwise — if Republican warnings about Biden’s intentions had been remotely true.  Biden could have tried to pack the Supreme Court, eliminate the Senate filibuster or sided with more radical elements of his party on police reform (in the direction of defunding).

“Biden might have employed dynamite to solve a jigsaw puzzle — blowing up American politics and hoping the political pieces would come down in their proper places.  Instead, it is Republicans who have taken that approach.

“House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-California.) is not implementing an electoral plan.  He reiterates the demands and charges that come to his caucus in fevered dreams.  His aspiration to the speakership is sad and small — who actually auditions to be in a hostage video?”

Gerson goes farther.

“By what sane strategy would Republicans defend those who attacked the Capitol on January 6 and snub the police officers who stood in their way? By what theory would some demand public release of the name of the officer who defended House members and the House floor, so that he or she could be targeted for harassment or violence?  According to what stratagem would many Republicans fight basic health measures to defeat a deadly virus, thrusting the country back into crisis through their own defiant ignorance?”

Gerson, employing an old phrase, admits that “there may be some madness to this madness.”

He calls Donald Trump a master manipulator “who did not carefully organize his troops for battle, but lit them on fire and hoped they would run into enemy lines.  The collateral damage to our society, norms and institutions means nothing to him.  The traumatized police officers, the harassed election officials, the true believers dying of covid-19, the lives thrown down conspiratorial rabbit holes, the young people confirmed in disfiguring bigotry mean less than nothing to him.”

But Trump and his sycophants could still triumph, perish the thought.

Gerson says American politics has become a contest between those who accept (or are intimidated into accepting) the grand deception, and those on the left, center and right who do not.  “In the political struggle ahead, he asks, “how confident are we that the truth will prevail?”

Like Gerson, I have no idea?

As for “truth,“ I think I know it when I see it.  But, I also did what I often do, which is to check my on-line dictionary.  Here is what it said about truth, which is partly helpful:

“The quality or state of being true.

• Loyalty; trustworthiness.
• Sincerity; genuineness; honesty.
• The quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality; conformity with fact.
• Reality; actual existence.
• Agreement with a standard, rule, etc.; correctness; accuracy.”

Note phrase, “being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality.”

Right!   I hope truth will prevail.

If it does not, our country is in for further trouble.