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 headline on a letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal caught my attention yesterday.

It was the same one I used for this blog.

Why did it catch my attention? 

Simple.  It reminded me of a great quote from one of America’s foremost military and political leaders in recent years, the late Colin Powell.

When, a few years ago, he decided not to run for president, he said the main reason was that he “bemoaned the loss of civility in politics.”

Imagine what he would say today if he saw far into the depths many political leaders have fallen.

Here is the text of the letter to the editor:

“The daily news is full of reports of passengers attacking airline personnel, parents threatening school board members and escalating demands for banning books.  And, of course, there’s the Trump-incited mob’s violent insurrection on January 6 to prevent the confirmation of President-elect Biden.  I find myself seriously wondering if these increasing displays of incivility portend the death of democracy.

“These are not isolated, once-only incidents.  A sizable segment of our population appears to be dealing with the stress and uncertainty brought on by the pandemic by acting out, abandoning rules and decorum. But a large cohort of Americans are the ‘against group,’ that is, against vaccines, science, democratic values and peaceful resolution of differences.

“Their inclinations are in lockstep with an ex-president whose world view appears, for all intents and purposes, to be the perfect recipe for dismantling our democracy by creating a non-existent reality founded on disinformation.

“Democracies cannot survive when its leaders and their followers intentionally flout our laws, abandon societal rules, dismiss courtesy in behavior and speech, and lie with impunity.  The ensuing chaos we are seeing has fractured our society’s cohesion, and our democratic way of life is in serious jeopardy.”

The letter writer was Richard Thompson, from Prineville.

I agree with him.

And, this update about the governor’s race in Oregon, which, in a way, also underlines incivility. 

There were three developments yesterday, two of which were surprising, and one of which was predictable.

The predictable one was that former New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof was not allowed to run for governor on the Democrat side.  The Oregon Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, said Kristof did not meet the “you have to live in Oregon for three years” residency requirement.

The legal basis for the decision seems clear.  But, I had thought that the Court might rule that the “people could decide” and let Kristof run since Oregon has been, at least, his second home.

It will be interesting to see if Kristof decides to endorse anyone and whether that endorsement involves dispensing all or part of the $2.5 million he raised to finance his own run.

The two other developments:

• Bill Sizemore, a controversial Republican, who ran for governor in 1998 and lost by 34 percentage points to the Democrat, John Kitzhaber, filed to run again.
• Bob Tiernan, another controversial Republican who served in the Oregon Senate, also filed.

When they worked in Oregon politics in the past, both Sizemore and Tiernan were polarizing figures, one reason for which was that both practiced being less than civil in their dealings.  And perhaps both figured that, with a crowded field of about 10 primary candidates in the spring election, they could emerge on top.

Still, if I were betting this early in the race – and I’m not – I would bet that Oregonians elect another Democrat to replace Kate Brown who cannot run again.