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 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.

Atlantic Magazine staff writer Tom Nichols puts it very well again:

“Now, anyone who has ever worked in politics knows that sometimes good bills die for stupid and cheap partisan reasons.  The House GOP’s obstruction, however, is beyond partisanship.

“Republicans are threatening to harm the country and endanger our allies merely to help Trump’s re-election chances, obeying a man under multiple indictments and whose track record as a party leader has been one of unbroken losses and humiliation.

“Trump, of course, cares nothing for national policy.  He has also clearly abandoned any pretenses about democracy, a position that might seem less than ideal heading into a general election, which is likely why Trump’s campaign has tried to ridicule concerns about its candidate’s commitment to the Constitution.

“But the former president’s footmen can’t help themselves, and they continue to trumpet their hopes for a dictatorship.”  

Nothing more need to be said to heap discredit on Trump and his minions.