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.

Anyone who thinks about it for only a minute or two can find something to be thankful for, especially at this time of year.

For me:

• My wife
• My son and my daughter
• My daughter-in-law
• My three grandchildren
• My friends, many of whom enjoy the game of golf with me
• My heritage from a great family, with a mother and a father for whom I only have fond memories, as well as with four siblings
• As a Christian, my relationship with Jesus Christ

But, then, beyond these top priorities which cannot be replaced by anything elkse, I read a column in the Washington Post this week by Dana Milbank that appeared under this headline:

Be thankful that sanity has returned to America — for now

Here is how Milbank started his column based on the use of the timely term for today – being thankful — though his focus was on politics, which also can be worth forgetting these days:

“Did you see what President Biden tweeted?

“Probably not, because they were earnest missives about booster shots and preschool access.

“Did you hear about the latest chaos at the White House?

“Doubtful, because turnover is low.

“Can you believe he insulted the chancellor of Germany and shoved the prime minister of Montenegro?

“No, because we all know Biden never has and never would.”

In this season of thanksgiving, Milbank adds, “let us be grateful that some measure of calm and sanity has returned to the White House.  The United States, at least for now, has a stable, functioning government.  The president is not making everything about himself, nor creating chaos for its own sake.”

So, with Milbank, consider the alternative, which would exist if we were stuck with Donald Trump as president.

“The stock market is higher than it ever was under Trump; the S&P 500 has hit more than 50 record highs so far in 2021.

“Fully 5.6 million new jobs have been created in Biden’s first nine months, a record pace for a new president, and unemployment is down to 4.6 per cent from an estimated 10 per cent.

“Wages for American workers have increased this year at the fastest rate in more than two decades.  Economic growth for 2021 is on course to hit a healthy 5 per cent.

“Life is returning to normal after the pandemic, as the country finally overcomes a delay worsened by right-wing resistance to vaccination and prevention.

“Biden has managed to secure broadband Internet and better roads, bridges, electric power and drinking water for all Americans. Despite fierce Republican opposition,he is within striking distance of securing better child-care assistance, free pre-kindergarten and lower drug prices, as well as requiring the ultra-rich to pay more in taxes.”

Milbank contends – and I agree – that what isn’t happening is almost as important as what is happening.

By this time in Trump’s first year, Milbank remembered that Trump had praised the “very fine people” marching among violent neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, fired the FBI director for investigating his national security adviser;  replaced his national security adviser, chief of staff, press secretary, communications director, chief strategist, secretary of homeland security, and secretary of health and human services, ripped up treaties and threatened to pull out of NATO, threatened nuclear war on Twitter, attempted to impose what aides called a “Muslim ban” and disparaged a “so-called judge” who objected, belittled U.S. intelligence and shared sensitive Israeli intelligence with Russia sabotaged ObamaCare, falsely claimed his predecessor had tapped his phone lines, embraced Stalin’s phrase “enemy of the people” to describe the free press, exposed the “dreamers” to deportation, stood by a Senate candidate accused of sexually assaulting a minor, tossed paper towels (but not the needed aid) at hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico, continued nonsense claims about a “deep state,” insulted hundreds of people in often vulgar and misspelled tweets, made more than 1,600 false or suspect statements, and, yes, shoved the prime minister of Montenegro before a photo op and insulted German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the years of Trump as president, I longed for a return to what I call the “norms and conventions” of regular government, including in the Oval Office.  To work well, government should often be a dull, plodding business of doing the people’s work.  Nothing fancy.  Just the hard work of finding consensus, compromise, and middle ground.

While I don’t agree with everything Biden is doing or has done, I appreciate that he has acted with honesty, decency, and transparency. 

With Trump, his business-as-usual was lying and cheating his way to personal aggrandizement, the country be damned.

With Biden, at least we have returned to the “norms and conventions” of government.  And, as Milbank has indicated, the actual record isn’t too bad either.