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.

As we start the new year – 2022 – it is worthwhile to reflect on how “we” could do better in political activity.

I say that as a former state government manager and state lobbyist who spent more than 40 years involved in lawmaking in the state.  And I say that as a person interested in our form of government which I have watched to descend recently into unprecedented depths of antagonism and despair.

That’s true nationally, but, in different ways, it’s also true in Oregon.

No less an important figure that former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber talked about this issue as he was interviewed by Dick Hughes, former editorial director for the Statesman-Journal and now a writer of useful columns while working on his own.

Listening to what Kitzhaber has to say is worthwhile, though it must be acknowledged that the former governor threatened at least part of his reputation while committing various ethical violations at the end of his last year in office, an end he fashioned for himself.

Still, we should not let those human failures dwarf his solid service and good thoughts for our future.

I lobbied Kitzhaber over the years, first when he served as a state senator and then as president of the State Senate where he often exercised his policy muscles as a former emergency room doctor in his hometown, Roseburg, Oregon.

We didn’t always agree, but he clearly had a good mind for politics, especially to describe how to get things done in a collaborative fashion, as well as how to appeal to all Oregonians.

So, here are excerpts of what Kitzhaber told Hughes:

“We have allowed ourselves to become increasingly defined by our differences and, as a result, our politics have become reactive and deeply transactional.  Each legislative session and budget cycle seem to operate almost in isolation from one another — from what came before and what must come next — with the only certain thing linking the policy and budget decisions of one session with another being the intervening, and increasingly toxic, election cycle.

“The problem is rooted, at least in part, in the long-term economic challenges faced by many rural communities, and in a sense of isolation from the political power centers in the more urban parts of the state. Economic struggle and isolation have been the daily experience of many people in rural Oregon, and they preceded the pandemic by many years.

“Add to this the intersection of state mandates with a group of people who do not react well when ‘told what to do’ by someone from outside — and you have the formula for anger, frustration and division.”

To this, Kitzhaber added his thoughts on one of the most challenging public policy challenges for Oregon, as well as for the U.S. – reforming health care.

“Unbundling the complexity of the health care system starts with a question.  Are we trying to ensure that everyone has access to health care? Or are we trying to ensure that everyone is healthy?  This question is foundational because how we answer it defines the rest of the conversation.”

Kitzhaber’s point was that the health debate primarily has been framed around lack of access to care instead of the greater question of how to ensure Americans are healthy. Access is but one aspect; health is broader.

For me, Kitzhaber’s recipe for better politics in 2022 rests on these elements:

• Look at the big picture, not just the small one.
• Take a longer view than just what one legislative session can do or not do.
• Consider every issue at the Capitol in Salem as it affects BOTH urban and rural Oregon.  In other words, don’t let what has been called “The Two Oregons,” urban and rural, continue to infect political discourse.  Too often, public officials from urban Oregon control the entire political process and seem not to care about rural Oregon.  Rural Oregonians are often angry.  Never the twain shall meet.
• Take a hard look at such issues as health care policy to ask, as Kitzhaber does, what the real issue is – access or health.  Such too-narrow questions are found throughout politics and public policy. For example, the Legislature’s perennial school-budget debate revolves around whether a certain dollar amount is deemed adequate — not whether the money is being spent effectively and in the most essential long-term areas for the benefit of school children.

Here is how the columnist, Hughes, sums up the challenge:

“Oregon seems unable, or unwilling, to address the paradoxes.  Most Oregonians share the same core values, including family, good health, educational and economic opportunity, and a deep love for our landscape.  Yet we, copying the rest of the country, have settled for a political system that focuses on short-term, partisan wins and losses instead of long-term, mutual goals that serve the common good.

“This arrangement primarily benefits politicians and special interests who have a vested interest in gaining short-term victories – getting elected, building resumes, and reaping donations.  How do we turn the conversation toward bringing Oregonians together, regardless of place or politics?  How do we collaboratively create and commit to long-term strategies that invest in an economically, environmentally and socially healthy Oregon instead of short-term fixes that pick winners and losers?”

The point of all this is that all of us can do better in politics in 2022.  So, let the New Year begin with resolve to do just that.