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.

If you consider the games Republican leaders are playing these days, you would think politics is just that – a game, with not much at stake.

It’s not.

The very future of the form of U.S. democracy is at stake.

No one writes this better than columnist Thomas Friedman whose work appears in the New York Times.  One of his most recent pieces ridiculed “soulless” leaders in America who trash the country in favor of their own ends.

If you wonder about this, look no farther than Donald Trump or his sycophant Kevin McCarthy.

They want what they want because they want it – and the “it” is to be in charge of America and have thousands bow at their feet.

Here’s a summary of Friedman’s column.

“So, here’s my bottom line:  Several years ago, a Hebrew biography of Ariel Sharon was published with the title “He Doesn’t Stop at Red Lights.”  It is a fitting title for our times, too.

“What is so unnerving to me about the state of the world today are the number of leaders ready to shamelessly, in broad daylight — and with a sense of utter impunity — drive through red lights.  That is, to drive through the legal and normative gates that have kept the world relatively peaceful over the last 70 years, during which we had no great power wars, and have enabled more people to emerge from extreme poverty faster than at any other era in history.

“We will miss this if it ends.  To maintain it, though, it’s necessary that we help all those unnamed Ukrainians fighting for their freedom to succeed.  And it is necessary that we make sure that Putin’s quest to find dignity by crushing that Ukrainian freedom movement fails.

“But none of that is sufficient if all those politicians in America who also think that they can run through any red light to gain or hold power succeed.  Who will follow our model then?

“I can’t think of another time in my life when I felt the future of America’s democracy and the future of democracy globally were more in doubt.  And don’t kid yourself; they are intertwined.  And don’t kid yourself; they both can still go either way.”

Back to the games metaphor.

Republicans like Trump and McCarthy behave like children, just playing a game. 

• If they don’t get their way, they pout.
• If they don’t get what they want, they get mad.
• If they say one thing one day, they will say something else – probably the opposite – the next day.

But it is not only self-proclaimed Republican leaders who treat political governance as a game.  Many voters do, too.

On this subject, read words written by the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin this morning and take no solace in them – because solace is not warranted.

“One school of punditry postulates that the rise of the anti-truth, anti-democracy MAGA movement is all about its demagogic leaders (e.g., former president Donald Trump) and opportunistic enablers (e.g. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California).  

“The theory goes that if Republicans offered something ‘better,’ the GOP base would be happy to hop off the delusional, authoritarian bandwagon.

“Skepticism is warranted.  After years of marinating in right-wing media sewage — everything from birtherism to immigrant scaremongering to the ‘big lie’ — Republican voters unsurprisingly show no sign of discomfort with the MAGA mentality. 

“To the contrary, over half of Republicans say they buy into the QAnon child-trafficking conspiracy.  Over half remain convinced the 2020 election was stolen.  When Trump briefly tried to encourage coronavirus vaccination, his crowd booed.

“In other words, the GOP suffers not only from a supply shortage of patriotic, sober-minded, pro-democracy leaders willing to call out lies — but from a demand shortage, too.  If GOP voters were offered candidates ‘better’ than the likes of Trump or pale imitators such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (who delights in using government to retaliate against corporate critics) or Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley (who eagerly smeared Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as soft of child pornography), would anyone vote for them?”

I suggest the answer is yes.  These voters would cast ballot for anyone who catered to their outlandish views.

The issue is not just stupid Republican leaders, though that’s true.  The label stupid also to those who follow them.

It’s time for smart Americans – yes, there are some – to reject political stupidity and take up the just cause of saving America…from itself.

In a spirit of equanimity, this admonition applies to both political parties.  Above, I have written most about Republicans, but Democrats, too, ought to practice high-minded political discourse, not gamesmanship.