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.

This, remember, is one of three departments I run with a free hand to operate as director of each.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of “Just
Saying.”

For this opening, I rely exclusively on the Washington Post.  For a couple reasons:

• It routinely produces quality writing, which leads a reader to more thought and introspection, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with what is written.

• It routinely produces quality opinions, always labeled as such.  Again, agree or disagree, thought and introspection result

FROM MICHAEL GERSON IN THE POST:  The ritual censure of the sane that came during the winter meeting of the Republican National Committee was another affirmation of Donald Trump’s control over the GOP.  As if we needed one.

The assembled sycophants declared the participation of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on the committee investigating the January 6 siege on the Capitol to be evidence they wanted to “destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022.”

The January 6 committee itself was attacked for leading a “persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”  This seemed to imply that the violent shock troops of an anti-constitutional coup attempt carried a truer version of democratic ideals than the legislators investigating them.  Support for seditious acts is now a normal and accepted element of Republican identity.

But after all this, it is worth remembering the ultimate reason that Republicans in the country and Congress are beating down the credibility of the Jan. 6 committee: because it is an institution that will generate truth.

COMMENT:  Gerson, one of my favorite columnists, produces another well-written treatise.  His support for constitutional government relies on the proposition that there is something called “truth.”  It is what the January 6 committee is intent on producing.  It is not what Donald Trump and his sycophants want.

FROM MAX BOOT IN THE POST:  The dumbing down of America can be traced in the recent controversies involving three well-known opinionators whose influence is in inverse proportion to their perspicacity.

Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream maker with more than half a million Twitter followers, posted a statement that no one needed about the looming war in Ukraine that no one, except possibly Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, wants.  “You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war,” the company wrote.  “We call on President Biden to de-escalate tensions and work for peace rather than prepare for war. Sending thousands more US troops to Europe in response to Russia’s threats against Ukraine only fans the flame of war.”

This tweet, which seemed to blame President Biden, not Putin, for escalating tensions, provoked well-deserved incredulity. Twitter wits suggested that “appease-mint” is their least favorite brand of ice cream and wondered about the foreign policy views of Breyers, Haagen-Dazs, and Blue Bell.

Next we come to Whoopi Goldberg, the talented comedian and actor who was suspended for two weeks from ABC’s talk show “The View” for her ill-informed comments about the Holocaust.  She was under the misapprehension that because both Adolf Hitler and his victims were White, therefore “the Holocaust isn’t about race. … It’s about man’s inhumanity to man.”  

Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Nazi Germany would know that Hitler viewed Aryans as the “master race” and Jews as “Untermenschen,” or sub-humans.  Evidently, however, that is knowledge that Goldberg — a high school dropout whose stage name comes from a “whoopee cushion” — does not possess.

Finally, most egregious of all, Joe Rogan. The No. 1 podcaster in America is constantly apologizing these days — and he has much to be sorry for.  His podcast, which Spotify paid a reported $100 million to carry, is a super-spreader of covid-19 misinformation.  He has discouraged young people from getting vaccinated, announced that he was treating his own case of covid with the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin (not a medically recognized treatment), and featured guests who compared pandemic policies to the Holocaust.

COMMENT:  Boot puts his examples under the label, “the dumbing down of America.”  I agree wholeheartedly with him.  Ben & Jerry’s, Whoopi Goldberg and Joe Rogan don’t need more publicity.  Which is one reason why I hesitated to include this item in this department’s run down.  The most appropriate label for watching these three examples is that “you can’t stop stupid.”

FROM DANA MILBANK IN THE POST:  God bless those crafty wordsmiths of the Republican Party!  The people who gave us “alternative facts,” “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “tender age shelters” and “hiking the Appalachian Trail” have outdone themselves.

The Republican National Committee last week passed a resolution condemning GOP Reps. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Adam Kinzinger (Ill.) for serving on the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection — or, as the RNC called it, “a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”

Legitimate political discourse!  Seven people died in connection with the attack, 140 police officers were hurt and 734 people have been prosecuted on charges ranging up to seditious conspiracy.  Marauders sacked the Capitol for the first time since the War of 1812, threatening assassination, and smashing, clubbing and defecating to the tune of $1.5 million in property damage.  But the Republican Party says it’s all legit. Just a bit of civil discourse.

COMMENT:  Dana Milbank goes where Michael Gerson went earlier – which is to blame stupid Republicans for maligning the January 6 investigation committee.  He does so using shriller words than Gerson, but both columnist make the same point – in many ways, we have lost the goal of thoughtful political discourse in this country.