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.

“The fight to save American democracy is just beginning.  The outcome is far from certain, but the stakes are clear.  It is a battle for objective truth over paranoid fantasy.  And one of our two major parties, the onetime ‘Party of Lincoln,’ is on the wrong side.  

“We must be blunt about how broadly and deeply the delusions advanced by President Trump have taken hold.  Only then will we be prepared for the real work before us.”

That’s how opinion columnist Eugene Robinson began a recent piece – and he is right.

In the “Trump era” (I hate to call his time an “era,” for it gives him far too much credit), truth became a casualty.

Still, the headline on this blog may be a bit misleading. 

It could be construed to suggest that I do not believe there is anything called “truth.”

No.

I do and there is.  It’s just not Trump or what he stands for.

For this reason, I have hesitated to write and post this blog.  Being misconstrued is a valid concern.

It’s just that, in some cases, with all due respect to Eugene Robinson and going beyond the Trump stupidity, truth is very difficult to define.

Consider the issue of abortion, even as I admit that abortion is a subject I have purposed to avoid in my blogs.  So, this is a one-time violation of that pledge.

What’s truth?

• Is abortion defined as a process that kills unborn infants?
• Or, is abortion defined as supporting a women’s right to choose how to use her body?

Both.  Truth is in the eye of the person who holds a belief on such a subject.

At the same time as I cite this conundrum, I oppose the notion of “alternative facts” as was often enunciated by Trump and his sycophant, Kelly Anne Conway, who both are now out of a job in the Nation’s Capital.

Trump’s standard operating procedure was – and still is — to lie.  The Washington Post Fact Checker tallied more than 35,000 lies, with, no doubt, more to come in his role as a private citizen who wants to cling to power – power for its own sake – even as he contemplates another run for president, perish the thought.

 Usually, the lies Trump told were meant to benefit him personally.

According to the Washington Post, “the Trump presidency began with ‘alternative facts.’  It ended with Trump aide Stephen Miller fantasizing about ‘alternate’ electors replacing the real ones.  And Trump’s congressional cheerleaders have taken up residence in this alternate reality.”

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 at least 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.”

The line that made the biggest impression on me was the third bullet – “the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts or reality; conformity with fact.”

There.  A fact is one thing.  Truth is another.  But they are linked inextricably.

I began thinking about the definition of truth as part of my service on a Federal Ethics Committee formed by Oregon Common Cause.   Our task was to propose ways for the federal government – including both Legislative and Executive Branches — to return to a point where ethical commitments and behavior mattered.

At the time we debated this last year, those of us on the committee were troubled by Trump’s consistent lies, so we thought we should emphasize truth – at least the word truth in what we recommended to national Common Cause.

Then came the rub.  Truth often is in the eye of the beholder as is the case with the example I cited above – the truth about abortion.

For me, the resolution is this – and it lies in the phrase “conformance with fact.” 

If someone says something that does not conform with facts, then that is not truth.  And truth is worth upholding.