PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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 manage as I see fit. 

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

For the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering, there are many candidates for inclusion, one reason for which is that the conduct of Donald Trump is so far off base from reality that he cannot serve the country by bowing out of office as a loser, which he surely is. So, the commentators wax eloquent.

From columnist E. J. Dionne in the Washington Post:  “…when politics is reduced to all slapping and no reasoning, and when the words ‘take this country back’ mean keeping the loser of a free election in power by manipulating the truth and the law, we have traveled a long way from the democratic tradition.”

Comment:  I don’t often cite Dionne because he is much too far left for me, but this time he has a point.  Trump is retreating so far from democracy traditions and conventions that his conduct is becoming ridiculous.  And, what’s worse is that many Republicans refuse to call him on it.

From columnist Karen Tumulty in the Washington Post:  “The inauguration of a president is a ritual we have gone through 58 times in the history of our country, through periods of war and depression and political strife.

“But there has never been anything quite like the circumstances surrounding the upcoming 59th, which will take place amid a pandemic and shrouded by false conspiracy theories about a ‘stolen’ election that are being spread by the White House itself.  President Trump’s maneuvers to hold onto the office he lost are becoming more and more desperate.

“So what transpires on Jan. 20, 2021, will demand a re-imagination, both of what an inauguration means and of how it sets the tone for the months and years ahead.

“As for the rest of the hoopla — the parade, the gala, the concerts, the balls, the parties, the luncheon inside the Capitol — it almost certainly will be ditched.”

Comment:  Good point.  Make the inauguration simple and straightforward, thus illustrating what it is and should be an official transfer of power in U.S. government.

From the Wall Street Journal:  “Americans are increasingly — and understandably — impatient about tight and even draconian restrictions on their daily lives because of the pandemic.  So it shouldn’t be a surprise that they become outraged when those who impose the rules fail to live by them, too.  Case in point:  Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent fancy dinner in Napa Valley.

“It would be bad enough if this were the only high-profile example of a leader disobeying their own pandemic rules. But that’s not the case. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was caught this summer getting a haircut without a mask in a San Francisco salon at a time when normal people in the city were barred from such visits.”

Comment:  These aren’t the only examples of hypocrisy on the part of the public officials.  In one sense, these may be one-off examples, but, when the charges of hypocrisy stick, it makes all of the government look bad, even if that is an inaccurate generalization.

And, this further comment:  The Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association is suing Oregon Governor Kate Brown, contending that she has overreached her authority by mandating the closure of restaurants, perhaps forcing many of them out of business.

Beyond hypocrisy – and it should be noted that Brown has not been accused of this – this illustrates another failure of pandemic closure restrictions:  They are not necessarily related to the specific reasons for the increase in virus cases.  In this case, Oregon restaurants stand ready to prove in court that they are not the prime culprits.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

On occasion in this blog, I reprint extensive excerpts from a column in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post or New York Times.

The reason is that writers there often convey critical information about public policy issues better than I could.  So, I reprint rather than quote.

This is another example.  This time, the column is by Peggy Noonan, who writes for the Wall Street Journal.  In addition to having a good way with words, she also excoriates Trump for his attempts to undo the election that he lost – actions on his part that risk democracy in this country, for all he cares about that goal.

Trump cannot stand being a loser – a status he deserves unreservedly – so he goes after, not only the winner, Joe Biden, but also ANYONE involved in tabulating election issues around the country.

The headline on Noonan’s column put the stakes this way:

A Bogus Dispute Is Doing Real Damage

Conspiracy theories are damaging the country today and will hurt Republicans tomorrow.

So, now for the rest of Noonan salient thoughts:

**********

No hard evidence of widespread fraud, no success in the courts or prospect of it. You can have a theory that a bad thing was done, but only facts will establish it. You need to do more than what Rudy Giuliani did at his news conference Thursday, which was throw out huge, barely comprehensible allegations and call people “crooks.”

You need to do more than Sidney Powell, who, at the same news conference, charged that “communist money” is behind an international conspiracy to rig the U.S. election. There was drama, hyperbole, perhaps madness. But the wilder the charges, the more insubstantial the case appeared.

More than two weeks after the election, it’s clear where this is going. The winner will be certified and acknowledged:  Joe Biden will be inaugurated.  But it’s right to worry about the damage being done on the journey.

It’s one thing when supporters of the president say, simply, “Let’s go through the process and see where we are.”  It’s not bad to look into how messy the voting system is, not the worst to realize it needs long-term remedial attention.  How did we devolve into a nation that no longer has an election night but an election month?

But the sheer nuttiness surrounding the current mess is becoming deeply destructive. Online you see the websites read by millions saying the entire election system is shot through with criminality.

The headlines read: It was stolen. We have proof of coordinated vote tampering. The president has many avenues to victory. The Trump campaign sent an email under the name of formerly respectable Republican Newt Gingrich, once speaker of the House, saying “The Corruption is Unprecedented”: “It’s time for us to get MAD.” We can’t “roll over.” “Please contribute $45 RIGHT NOW to the Official Election Defense Fund.”

 This isn’t a game. America isn’t your plaything.  Doesn’t Mr. Gingrich realize how dangerous it is to stop people like this, to rev them up on the idea that holding even the slightest faith in the system is for suckers?

Trump staff and supporters should know at this point that in trying to change the outcome they are doing harm—undercutting respect in and hope for democracy. Republican senators and representatives, in their silence, are allowing the idea to take hold that the whole system is rigged. This lessens faith in institutions and in their party’s reputation.

Republicans were once protective of who we are and what we created in this democratic republic long ago.

Now they’re not even protecting themselves; in future years what’s happening now will give their voters an excuse not to take part or show up.  What’s the point?  It’s all rigged.

And they are accepting a new post-election precedent, that national results won’t be accepted until all states are certified and all legal options, even the most bizarre and absurd, exhausted.  Wait until this is used against you, in 2024 or ’28.  You won’t like it.

I found myself thinking this week of the 1960s and the John Birch Society, which had some power in its day as an anticommunist movement whose core belief was that officials of the U.S. government were conspiring with international communism to take down America. They were pretty wild. In time they accused Dwight D. Eisenhower, president of the United States and hero of Normandy, of being a secret communist agent.

Rising conservative leaders, embarrassed by the Birchers, didn’t wish to see their movement tainted. They also didn’t want to alienate voters who sympathized with the Birchers: Every movement has its nuts. Russell Kirk, Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley pushed back, the last calling the head of the society, Robert Welch, “far removed from common sense.”

Even Ayn Rand joined in:  Thinking the country’s woes were due to a communist conspiracy “is childishly naive and superficial.”    Anyway, “they are not for capitalism but merely against communism.”

The John Birch Society faded because all these conservative leaders, and more, sort of congealed and took the larger weight of their movement in other directions. And so modern conservatism was born as pretty much a healthy movement, and not pretty much a sick one.

I’ve been thinking about all this because of the question: What would have happened if the John Birch Society had been online, if it had existed in the internet age when accusations, dark warnings and violent talk can rip through a country in a millisecond and anonymous voices can whip things up for profit or pleasure?

It wouldn’t have faded. It would have prospered.

We’ve all decried this aspect of the Internet for 20 years; our alarm about its ability to enable and encourage extremism is so old, we forget to keep feeling it.  But we’ll look back on this time as one in which the least responsible among us shook big foundations.

Responsible Republican leaders ought to congeal and address the fact that what rough faith and trust we have in the system is being damaged.  Which means our ability to proceed as a healthy democracy is being damaged.

There is no realistic route to victory for the president, only to confusion and chaos and undermining.  He is not going to find the votes in recounts to win the election.  Dominion, the voting-machine company under attack, has not been credibly charged with doing anything wrong.  As the Journal said this week in an editorial, “Strong claims need strong proof, not rumors and innuendo on Twitter. ”

The irony is that this election will be remembered for the president’s attempts to sow chaos, not for what it actually appears to have been, which is a triumph for America.  In the middle of a pandemic, with new rules, there was historically high turnout.  Under stress the system worked.  Voters were committed, trusting, and stood in line for hours.

There was no violence at the polls, no serious charges of voter suppression. In a time of legitimate hacking fears, there were no reports of foreign interference.  Our defenses held.  On top of all that, the outcome was moderate:  For all the strife and stress of recent years, the split decision amounted to a reassertion of centrism.

You’d think the president would take his winnings and go home, because he had them.  He outperformed polls and exceeded his 2016 vote total by more than 10 million.  For one brief shining moment, on Nov. 3, he’d finally expanded his base to almost 50% of the electorate. He found new sources of support.

Imagine if he’d acted even remotely normal in his first term, if he’d had the intellectual, emotional and spiritual resources to moderate himself, to act respectably. Heck, imagine if he’d worn a mask.  He might have won.

He is set on going out like a villain. He and his people would find this Jacksonian—he’s refusing to bow to entrenched establishments! He would think this is what his base wants—the old battler refusing to accept the illicit judgments of a decadent elite.

If he were clever and disciplined, he’d do it differently. He’d accept the election’s outcome, if not graciously at least with finality, go home to Mar-a-Lago, play golf, and have fun torturing his party by plotting his return.  “I’ll be back.” Instead he leaves behind real and politically pointless ruin

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

The pandemic is top-of-mind for almost all of us as the rate of the virus reaches new heights.

No big news here…just a slew of perceptions accumulated in my mind as I had nothing much else to do while driving from Salem, Oregon to La Quinta, California.

PUBLICITY WHERE NONE IS DUE:  Former state legislator Tootie Smith, a Republican legislator from Clackamas and incoming Clackamas Commission chair, made news a day or so ago – news she probably wanted to make.

Here is how the Oregonian newspaper reported the story:

“In defiance of governor’s orders, one of Clackamas County’s top elected officials plans to host a large dinner in her Molalla area home on Thanksgiving despite the raging COVID-19 pandemic.

“Tootie Smith, who will start her term as chairwoman of the Clackamas Board of County Commissioners in January, posted the following to Facebook Saturday:  ‘My family will celebrate Thanksgiving dinner with as many family and friends as I can find. Governor Brown is wrong to order otherwise.’”

She even upped the ante yesterday by going on national TV to herald her opposition.

Now, let it be said that I know Smith, having lobbied her at the Capitol in Salem over the years.  She was always a bit of a loose cannon and she is up to it again.  If you are going to defy a gubernatorial order, why not, as Nike would say, “just do it’ instead of trying to get publicity for it?

DOWN HERE IN LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA:  We got down to Southern California a couple days ago and wondered whether new pandemic control mechanisms would be the same here as up in Oregon.

Looks similar, but not identical, though it’s too early to make generalizations.

At the golf course where I play, for example, those who show up at the Clubhouse wear masks, but, while playing, masks are not required – and that is similar to what occurs in Oregon.

The Clubhouse is open for breakfast, lunch and drinks, but only if consumed outside.  Similar to Oregon.

Beyond golf, no firm perceptions yet, though restaurants are open at least for takeout and, at least to a degree, to outside seating, though that is clearly more likely here with temperatures hovering in the 70s and 80s.

AMAZON TRUCKS BY THE DOZENS:  This may not be just pandemic related, but I suspect it is, in a way.  The “this” is the fact that, while driving south over two days, we saw large numbers of Amazon trucks plying the highway going both north and south.

Americans increasingly want “stuff” to delivered to their homes, which now is more prevalent in the pandemic, but which might occur to a degree anyway.

Just think about it for a moment – you can get almost anything you want from Amazon (including prescriptions soon) and it will be at your house in a day or so after you place your order. That means, of course, that goods have to be transferred from one place to another very quickly – and that means lots of trucks.  Airplanes, too.

It would be fascinating to go behind the scenes and watch how the phone-in orders are translated into delivery.  Fascinating.  But I won’t do it.  Too busy. 

AND, AS FOR BIDEN:  New reports say that President-Elect Joe Biden is taking a mostly cautious approach on his unofficial leading role in the pandemic response, at least a lead role that will be confirmed when he is inaugurated in January.

For now, he has appointed a science panel to advise him on virus issues and has been very pointed in his criticism of Trump, saying that his failure to concede, including by not providing extensive and detailed “pandemic transition briefings,” risks American lives.

If that is true, no surprise, because, for Trump, everything always is about him, not the good of the country.

Oh yeah, I remember that I pledged not to write about Trump anymore now that he is a loser.  Oh well, a pledge broken.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

Though I am not a polling expert, I have arrived at one, major reason why pollsters failed again to predict the outcome of the recent presidential election.  It is this:

Many respondents find it embarrassing to report they intended to vote for the clown in the Oval Office, one Donald Trump.

Or, in these days of aggressive social media, they were worried that, if they responded truthfully, their vote would somehow become public – and, however unlikely that was, they didn’t want to risk it.

From my post in the cheap seats in Salem, Oregon, this may just be a reflection of my antipathy for Trump.  How anyone would vote for him – or admit that they were going to, given his manifest indiscretions  — is beyond me.

Do I have evidence to support my contentions?  No. 

Overall, beyond my contentions, why did so many reputable pollsters — not the ones who engage in “push polling” to produce pre-determined outcomes – miss the mark again this year just as they did in the 2016 presidential election.

One analyst I read provided six reasons why the miss occurred, both in the presidential race, as well as in results for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.

1. In the last few years, Republican voters seem to have become less willing to respond to polls.

2. This phenomenon isn’t simply about working-class whites.  Pollsters were careful to include more of these voters in their samples than four years ago, when the polls also missed, but it didn’t solve the problem. One likely reason: Even within demographic groups — say, independent, older, middle-income white women — people who responded to polls this year leaned more Democrat than people who did not.

3. It’s also not just about Trump. Polls missed in several Senate races even more than in the presidential race, which means they did an especially poor job of finding people who voted for Biden at the top and a Republican lower down the ballot.

4. Most of the easy solutions are probably not real solutions. Since Election Day, some campaign operatives have claimed their private polls were more accurate than the public polls.  That seems more false than true.  Biden, Trump and both parties campaigned as if their own polls matched the public polls, focusing on some states that were not really competitive and abandoning others that were close.

5. Polls have still been more accurate over the last four years than they were for most of the 20th century. As pollsters get more information about this year’s election and what went wrong, they will try to fix the problems, much as they did in the past. A new challenge:  In the smartphone age, poll response rates are far lower than they used to be.

6. Journalists can do a better job of conveying the uncertainty in polls.  Polls will never be perfect.  Capturing the opinions of a large, diverse country is too difficult.  And in today’s closely divided U.S., small polling errors can make underdogs look like favorites and vice versa. James A. Baker III, the nearly superhuman chief of staff to several past presidents, also showed up with analysis in the Wall Street Journal under this headline:

Good Grief, the Pollsters Got It Wrong

Twice they’ve predicted Democratic landslides only to look like blockheads when the votes are counted.

Here are excerpts of what he wrote:

“Too many opinion pollsters have come to resemble Lucy in the cartoon strip “Peanuts.”  Ahead of the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, they held the political football in place to tee up certain Democratic victories.  But at the last second, the ball was pulled away and the entire country landed flat on its back when the Republican candidate fared much better than expected.

“It would be funny if it weren’t a sad reality that American democracy is being undermined by bad polling that consistently favors one side over the other.  Though not as ingrained in our national heritage as politicians and the press, polling is an important component in the governance of the nation, as it presents snapshots of the positions Americans take on the challenges that confront us.

“Elected leaders, candidates for public office and constituents often rely on polling as they make their choices on issues that affect the health of the nation.”

Accurate information, Baker added, “is critical to political discourse, and everyone loses when so many pollsters are consistently wrong. Polls that repeatedly favor one side create false expectations that adversely influence the actions of both sides.  The favored side becomes overconfident and suffers when the results on Election Day don’t meet expectations.  And the disfavored side is disadvantaged in both fundraising and voter turnout by the appearance that the outcome is foreordained.”

Baker proposes actions he believes could help the public discourse.

• Require reputable media outlets to avoid polling firms that do work for campaigns and others with political agendas.  The apparent conflict of interest in such arrangements deserves correction.  
• Consider congressional hearings to gather more information, though attempts to legislate and regulate polling would likely collide with First Amendment considerations, and so the options for regulation may be limited.
• Leave the solution in the hands of those whose livelihoods depend on opinion polling.  Pollsters and those who employ them need to take a serious look at the way polls are conducted. They need to re-examine how to collect a truly representative sample of voters, an admittedly difficult task in a world of new technology where landlines have mostly been replaced by cellphones and the Internet.  They also need to examine whether they are intentionally, knowingly or subconsciously letting their biases influence them.

A set of magic answers?  Of course not.

So, for the moment, the best response of individuals interested in politics – I am one – is to retain a healthy skepticism of polling.  Don’t rely on it totally.  Vote.  They wait for election results to produce the outcome that democracy demands.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

As I write this, I am still recovering from more than 16 hours driving from Salem, Oregon to Southern California.

It was a good trip, as long as you think of it as “an adventure,” as I did.

A few random perceptions along the way of more than 1,000 miles:

• There sure are a lot of Amazon trucks trekking north and south along I-5.  Fascinating to think of what it takes to get products from point A to point B every day. 

Give Jeff Bezos his due – the system seems to work.

• As in past cases of driving south, I noticed all big rig trucks heading south, some of them in my lane in the two-lane stretch of I-5. 

Plus, many of these rigs go by labels that include the word “logistics.”  Not “hauling” or “transporting,” but “logistics.”

What goes logistics mean?  The dictionary defines the term this way:

“The detailed coordination of a complex operation involving many people, facilities, or supplies.”

So, it is accurate.

• On several occasions, cars whipped past me going at least 90 miles per hour.  Where were the cops?

To put a point on it, in all my years of driving, I have never seen a cop pull over a driver who was going so fast over the speed limit.  Sure, seen other pull-overs, but none at high rates of excessive speed.

Where’s the justice in that?

To be sure, there is some solace after 16-plus hours in the car.  When we arrived in La Quinta, California, it was 85 degrees, the sun was out, and the sky was clear.

The next step is golf in the warmth.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

You know what bugs me?  Or, perhaps more accurately, do you care?

Well, I’ll assume, for the moment, that you do care.

It irritates me no end to see how the term “evangelical” has been so perverted these days that it appears only to connote a religious group that supports Donald Trump.

So, to buttress my peeve, I am opening the Department of Pet Peeves, one of three departments I run with full and complete authority to manage them as I see fit.

So, about the word evangelical.

Here is the dictionary definition of the word:

“The term evangelical derives from the Greek word eangelion meaning ‘gospel’ or ‘good news.’  Technically speaking, evangelical refers to a person, church, or organization that is committed to the Christian gospel message that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity.”

These days, however, the term has been perverted to refer to a group of people who support all of lies, distortions and character flaws that have marked Trump’s nearly four years as president.

Here is how columnist Michael Gerson summarized the issue in a piece in the Washington Post that appeared under this headline:

This is a massive failure of character among Republicans — with evangelicals out in front

The reference is to the kowtowing Republicans are doing as Trump continues to refuse to accept reality – he lost the election.

Gerson writes on:  “One of the better speeches I helped produce for George W. Bush was never given.  On election night 2000 — standing outside in the rain, at an Austin victory rally that never happened — I had the copy of a concession speech in my pocket.  As I remember it, the first lines were:  ‘I have just talked to my opponent, who is no longer my opponent.  He is the president-elect of the United States.’

“What America is now experiencing is a massive failure of character — a nationwide blackout of integrity — among elected Republicans.  From the president, a graceless and deceptive insistence on victory after a loss that was not even close.  From congressional Republicans, a broad willingness to conspire in Trump’s lies and to slander the electoral system without consideration of the public good.  Only a few have stood up against Republican peer pressure of contempt for the constitutional order.”

Gerson wonders how this could happen to the GOP?

He answers:  “It is not an aberration.  It is the culmination of Trump’s influence among Republicans, and among White evangelical Christians in particular.  Their main justification for supporting Trump — that the president’s character should be ignored in favor of his policies — has become a serious danger to the Republic.

“Trump never even presented the pretense of good character.  His revolt against the establishment was always a revolt against the ethical ground rules by which the establishment played.  When he mocked a reporter with a disability, or urged violence at his rallies, or attacked a Gold Star family, Republicans accepted it as part of the Trump package.  And some of his most fervent defenses came from White evangelicals.”

Following Trump’s leadership – if that word can be used to describe Trump’s reign – some “evangelicals” went from believing personal morality matters in a politician to ignoring that same morality.

Not all evangelicals, I contend.  But a significant proportion of them.

Certain evangelicals believed they were hiring Trump to do a job — to defend their institutions, implement pro-life policies and appoint conservative judges.  The character of the president was irrelevant so long as he kept his part of the bargain.

Gerson says he believes two lessons can be drawn from “the Republican failure of moral judgment.”

• First, democracy is an inherently moral enterprise.  Yes, politics has a transactional element.  But those transactions take place within a system of rules that depend on voluntary obedience.  Our electoral system and our presidential transition process have flaws and holes that an unprincipled leader can exploit.  Which is a good reason to prefer principled leaders.
• Second, U.S. politics would be better off if White evangelicals consistently applied their moral tradition to public life.  Consider what would happen if White evangelicals insisted on supporting honest, compassionate, decent, civil, self-controlled men and women for office.  The alternative is our current reality, in which evangelicals have often been a malicious and malignant influence in U.S. politics.

For my part, I eschew using the term evangelical to describe myself, though I am one based on the definition above. 

I remained peeved by how the term has been used and abused in public life.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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, 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 use the word “eulogy” in the blog headline because that’s what this is:  A eulogy to the dog, “Boone, the Majestic,” who passed away a few days ago.

He worked at my home golf course, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon, with his master, golf course Superintendent Steve Beyer.

Why the title, “The Majestic?”  Well, if you saw this “German Short-Haired Pointer,” you, too, would call him majestic.

He belonged both to his family, as well as to all of us at Illahe Hills where he “worked” (see below) and made many fast friends, including me.

It must be said that Boone is looking down at us from heaven where he is romping in the fields with our first dog, Hogan, and our friends John and Rosemary Wood’s dog, Tiger.  Great image to store in our minds!

Boone’s passing was uneventful, though Steve reported that Boone had been going downhill lately. 

A couple days ago, Steve carried Boone out to his truck for one last trip to Illahe, then carried him back home where Steve and his family – wife and four kids – were able to say goodbye to Boone as he passed peacefully.

If Boone had to go – and it appeared “it was his time” — what a great way for it occur, naturally and at home with his family.

Boone, simply, was a great dog.  As soon as he arrived at my home golf course two years ago, I fell in love with him and enjoyed seeing him work on “his course.”

He was a member of the maintenance crew and, boy, was he good at what he did.  His job was to keep geese away from the course and he succeeded beyond all expectations. 

As I befriended him, I never knew for sure whether he liked me or the treats I had for him in my golf cart.  Probably both. 

Last summer, my wife and I were sitting on our deck above the golf course and, as we sat in the clear, night air, we had the privilege of watching our maintenance staff work on the course to keep it in playable condition.  Our sightline included one of the stalwarts of the crew, Boone.

His job was to chase geese away and, let me tell you, he was great at what he did!

As we watched, he ran around and around tirelessly one of the ponds on the course, tirelessly, making sure geese would not land or pollute the ground if they did.

In a newsletter article soon after Steve and Boone arrived at Illahe, Steve provided this background:

“Boone was named after the famous Daniel Boone who has been known in history as the American hunter.

“Boone entered my life as a young ‘Bennie’ from the animal shelter in Sand Point, Idaho.  That was what the shelter named him.  Our family decided on the name Boone due to the fact that he is a German Short-Haired Pointer and has been bred to hunt upland bird and game.

“That is important because Boone, literally ‘an employee’ on Illahe’s maintenance crew, will take on a key assignment, one for which he is well-suited and which no other employee could do with such dedication and abandon.

“It is to rid the course of pesky geese – and, in regard to those birds, let me just say that they are better when flying than staying on the ground.

“You know what happens when they are on the ground.  Often.

“At his new home, Boone is intent on learning, not just how to chase geese away, but also “to know where the best rodent areas are.”  He’ll chase those, too, away from our golf greens.”

**********

And, now, I add, I see Boone romping around in heaven with Hogan and Tiger.  And, for I know, Boone may be chasing geese there, too.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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 anyone thought the election was over, it was not Donald Trump.

Most others who matter are moving on to consider the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

Not Trump and his sycophants — some of whom appear on such shows, entertainment shows, not news shows, as the one featuring Sean Hannity — continue to spew rhetoric to cast doubt on the election.

Here is a litany of Trump-led steps that are much worse for the future of our country, with American democracy literally at stake – much worse than talk show blabber:

• Trump refuses to concede the election and may never do so, thus having to be carried of the White House in January by the Secret Service and military.

• Trump refuses to allow his General Services Department secretary to confirm election results, a required first step on the path to enable the transition to proceed.

• Trump refuses to allow national security briefings for Biden, Harris and their staffs, thus preserving for himself access to classified information (and, pointedly, preserving the ability to fire Defense Department Secretary Mark Esper this week).

Of course, all of this illustrate that Trump, the narcissist, cannot tolerate being a loser.

Still, that’s what he is – not to mention was as he led a nation down the rat hole of division and dissension over the last four years.

Does all of this matter?  The answer is yes.

And the confirmation was provided by two persons who served as chief of staff for former presidents – Andrew Card for George Bush and John Podesta for Bill Clinton.

Under this headline in the Washington Post – “The life-threatening costs of a delayed transition” – they wrote about the risks of a lack of a genuine transition>

“We happened to find ourselves on opposing ends of the historic Bush v. Gore dispute in Florida in 2000, one of only four times in U.S. history when the outcome of a presidential election was too close to call.

“While we disagreed about many issues then and have disagreed since, we do agree on one thing:   The 2020 election is not like 2000 and should not be treated as such.

“Election night in 2000 was a blur of confusion. Each candidate had nearly enough electoral college votes to win.  Whoever won Florida would become the next president.  The networks called Florida for Vice President Al Gore, then called Florida for Bush, and then withdrew the call completely.  Gore initially conceded, but then retracted his concession, a first in U.S. history.  In the end, after the recount started and stopped, the two candidates were divided by a margin of just 537 votes in the one state which determined the election’s outcome.

“As a result, while Bush and key staff were provided full intelligence briefings, the Bush transition did not have access to federal agencies and resources for 37 long days.

“President-elect Joe Biden and his transition team should not suffer a similar delay.  The electoral landscape is simply not the same.  The outcome is not the same.  And we have since learned the serious costs of a delayed transition.”

What serious costs?

Well, only eight months after Bush’s inauguration, two planes flew into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 Americans.  Card had fateful duty to whisper into Bush’s ear, “America is under attack.”

When the 9/11 Commission finished its assessment on the attack, Card and Podesta said it found that the delayed transition “hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees in the national security arena.”

The commission also concluded that avoiding future disruptions in transitions was deeply in the national interest.

These days in 2020 which is very different than 2000, the delayed transition (it is fomented by Trump) will hinder economic recovery, slow the distribution of a vaccine and, could put American lives at risk.

Card and Podesta, who fought bitterly over the recount in 2000, said the grim realities of the pandemic underline that the transition process should begin now.

They should tell Trump and company in person.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

Clear results show that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won the presidential election.

But that reality isn’t stopping Donald Trump from acting like he won and ignoring conventional ways to enable a transition from one administration to the next. 

His “administration” (there’s that non-sensical word again, when it pertains to Trump) has not provided any national security briefings to Biden and company.  Nor has it conceded that Biden and team will have access to classified international relations information.

The trouble, of course, is that Trump intransigence, enabled by many Republicans, could feed the interests of terrorists out to disable America, perhaps to the extent as occurred in the 9/11 tragedy.

The fact Trump is now a lame-duck president will not stop him from taking unilateral actions.

I note that I made a pledge earlier that, with his defeat, I would no longer write blogs about Trump.  Now, I revise that pledge to say that I will not write blogs about Trump as president, which is easy to do since he is almost not president.

His conduct, as well as that of his enablers, is too egregious to ignore as all Americans should be making whatever adjustment is necessary to welcome a new president and vice president to their solemn leadership responsibilities.

Here is the way Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson, one of my favorites, wrote about the bad faith of Trump and many Republicans this morning:

“It is not over.

“The presidential election is certainly over and the result was not particularly close.  President-elect Joe Biden won a decisive majority of the popular and likely a considerable electoral college victory.  Claims of widespread electoral fraud would be spurious even if they weren’t made by a prating fool in front of a Philadelphia landscaping firmThe 2020 election is done.  Concluded.  Finished.

“What has not ended — what seems endless — is Republican bad faith and poltroonery.

“I am not referring here to those voters for Trump who have been misled into false hope.  It is not hard to convince people who distrust elites and are prone to conspiracy theories that elites are plotting to deny “real” Americans their influence.  It does not even matter if the vote-counters are Republicans, because that is exactly what a conspiracy would do to hide its nefarious work.

“No, it is Republican leaders who are responsible for poisoning whatever wells of goodwill still exist in our republic.  Having aided Trump’s autocratic delusions, they are now abetting his assault on the orderly transfer of power.  Through their active support or guilty silence, most elected Republicans are encouraging their fellow citizens to believe that America’s democratic system is fundamentally corrupt.  No agent of China or Russia could do a better job of sabotage.  Republicans are fostering cynicism about the constitutional order on a massive scale.  They are stumbling toward sedition.”

Strong words, you may say.  Yes, strong words are in order.

What Trump is doing is sabotaging the future of the country, which based on his last four years, comes naturally to him.

It’s time for Trump, the narcissist, to recognize reality, if that is not a conflict in terms.  It’s also time for his enablers to do the same – for the good of the country.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE:  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.

In a blog yesterday, I said that the victory speeches by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris brought tears to my eyes.

How would that be so for an old, stodgy person like myself – and I use those labels before someone else does?

Two reasons:

• First, both Biden and Harris gave excellent speeches calling on Americans to support decency, cooperation, empathy and truth-telling. 

• Second, television cameras at their speeches in Delaware panned across the faces of those in the audience to show that they were inspired.

I was especially touched by the tear-stained faces of young girls, including Black girls, who saw, in Harris, someone they could aspire to.  Yes, aspire to.  Their faces were amazing as they appeared to feel that they, too, could rise.

Harris, of course, is making history as the first woman to serve as vice president and, also, the first Black woman.

One of her best lines as she spoke:  “’While I may be the first woman in this office, I will not be the last,’ she said to resounding cheers, as several young girls looking on from the crowd waved flags with tears in their eyes.

To put a point on all of this, nothing in the time of Donald Trump ever even approached inspiration.   Blessedly, his time will soon be over, though he likely will never concede.

For me, in viewing Biden and Harris, gender doesn’t matter.  Nor does age.  What matters is leaders like Biden and Harris are calling America to eschew division and hatred and embrace empathy and possibility.

None too soon and I hope Trump will take his reality TV show host gig and recede into the background where he belongs.