Perspective from the 19th Hole 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.
The Department of Bits and Pieces, one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit, is now open.
It will house implications from the recent mid-term election, which resulted in a major repudiation of Donald Trump, though there is no way to know whether he will notice or not.
So, the department is now open.
CONFRONTATION OR COMPROMISE: That’s basic choice Democrats face as they take over control of Congress.
Put simply, they could spend time, energy and effort taking on Trump and his ilk. Surely, those scofflaws deserve to be held to account for their misdeeds, not the least of which is taking America into an undeclared war in Iran, one that is costing lives and spiking inflation, especially at the gas pump.
The Wall Street Journal puts it this way: “Once the euphoria fades from Tuesday night, when Democrats decisively won back both the House and Senate, their new majorities face a sobering task: Figuring out how to wield their power in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s tenure.
“With committee gavels in hand, Democrats will be empowered to investigate Trump — and many have already made clear they plan to probe all manner of alleged corruption by the president, his administration, his family and his corporate allies.
“But Democrats also argue they cannot — and will not — only be the anti-Trump party when they take control of both chambers in January with majorities larger and more ideologically diverse than anticipated. They have repeatedly stated they must materially improve the lives of voters or risk quickly losing Congress again.”
PERCEPTIONS FROM HISTORIAN JON MEACHAM: Meacham is one of the best historians going these days, so it is appropriate to pay close attention to what he says or writes.
This time, in the Wall Street Journal, reflecting on election returns, he wrote this:
“What will happen is unknowable. But we do know this: If we choose to see each other as enemies to be destroyed rather than opponents to be debated, we put the entire American experiment at risk. The genius of the founding was to insulate the new nation from a Hobbesian state of nature. As Alexander Hamilton argued, the Constitution was a test of whether a government could be formed not by force and accident but by reason and deliberation. If we are to sustain the democratic project, we must understand America as a covenant, not as a killing ground.”
Well said!
Too often in politics these days, especially in Washington, D.C., but also in my home state, Oregon, Republicans and Democrats see each other as enemies, not debating opponents. This leads to dissension and stalemate, not results. And, with Meacham, I say it’s time for a change.
ELECTION REPORTING PROCESSES AND ONE OF BEST ANALYSTS GOING, STEVE KORNACKI: Democrats weren’t the only big winners in the November 3 mid-term “Blue Wave” elections. So were the TV networks covering them, with NBC News and must-see elections guru Steve Kornacki leading the ratings charge.
NBC News dominated election night coverage over broadcast and cable networks, averaging more than 6.5 million viewers in primetime, according to preliminary Nielsen ratings released by NBC.
On NBC-TV, I watched election returns on November 3 and was amazed by Kornacki’s grasp of detail – detail around the country where he knew about politics in many counties, as well as the likely vote breakdown in those counties.
His grasp of detail was, perhaps, even more amazing than election results themselves.
Just as it is amazing to note that Kornacki also does his analytical deal on TV for the National Football League.
THE LAST WORD: In the New York Times, I’ll let columnist David French have the last word as he summarizes the biggest loser in the election, Trump. Which is important if only to list what many Americans will not happen again.
Remembering the past is one way to a better future.
- To voters who longed for peace, he gave them a unilateral, undeclared war.
- To families seeking relief from high prices, he gave tariffs.
- To voters alarmed about corruption in Washington, he made the swamp so corrupt that barons of the Gilded Age are regretting that they were born in the wrong era.
- To new Hispanic Republican voters who helped Trump win and transformed the Republican coalition, he gave brutal racial profiling and pogroms in the streets of Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles and other cities.
- To voters who were weary of intolerance and cancel culture, he delivered a wave of censorship unseen since Woodrow Wilson imprisoned his political opponents by the hundreds.
- To voters who wanted stability in the world, he gave fractured alliances and embraced Vladimir Putin, the world’s deadliest and most dangerous dictator.
“Trump is an erratic, egomaniac tinpot tyrant in decline who will blame everyone but himself for the loss. In fact, that’s already started. In a Truth Social post, he said that Fox News ‘bears responsibility for these losses by constantly and consistently putting on the Democrat opposition, and worse.’”
