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.

A few months ago I wrote that you can’t fix stupid because, for me, being stupid was why certain folks continued opposing the Covid vaccine.  At the risk for themselves, their families, and their friends.

But stupid goes beyond vaccines.

Today, I recycle that headline after reading a column by Max Boot that appeared in the Washington Post.

Here are a couple examples of what he wrote:

• “Is there a purer, more perfect expression of the Trumpified Republican Party than the press release that  Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert sent out on September 24?

“It demanded that President Biden be removed from office for ‘colluding with the Taliban.’  This was flagrantly hypocritical because in February she criticized Biden for not withdrawing from Afghanistan fast enough — and then in August she praised the Taliban for building back better.’  But what truly made the release so priceless and preposterous was the logo: “IMEACH BIDEN.”  Boebert is showing her contempt, not just for political norms, but for spelling norms, too.

“No one should be surprised that Boebert, who has expressed support for the QAnon cult, as well as Biden’s impeachment, is a rising star on the right.  Former president Donald Trump’s Twitter feed — back when he still had one — was rife with glaring misspellings,  as well as absurd lies.  Some even suspected the misspellings were deliberate — intended to signal his contempt for eggheads who might care about such niceties.

• “In the 1980s, when I (Max Boot) became a Republican, the GOP took pride in describing itself as the ‘party of ideas.’  But under Trump’s leadership, Republicans have reclaimed their old reputation, dating back to the 1950s, as the ‘stupid party.’  What’s even more telling: This is not a source of shame or embarrassment for the party’s populists.  They’re the stupid-and-proud-of-it party.
• “The covid pandemic has brought forth a corresponding pandemic of right-wing inanity.  Representative Marjorie Greene and other Republicans have compared efforts to vaccinate Americans — i.e., to save lives — to the Nazis’ mass murder of Jews.  Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson said he would support vaccine mandates only if ‘there’s some incredibly dangerous disease.’

Covid-19, which has already killed at least 700,000 Americans, doesn’t qualify.  Johnson just introduced the Prevent Unconstitutional Vaccine Mandates for Interstate Commerce Act.  This raises the obvious question (obvious, that is, to everyone but Johnson):  If mandates are unconstitutional, why is legislation needed to stop them?  Won’t the courts overturn them?

Boot’s work illustrates that there are many – yes, many – examples of stupid these days.  You don’t have to work hard to find them.

And, incredibly, stupid prevails when we need vigorous and reasoned discussion of major issues facing this country.