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.

Most days, as I look back on 40 years in and around politics, I am just happy to be retired.

The art of politics is no longer an art.

Rather, it is a game played substantially by people who want to win at all costs, no matter the damage they inflict on other human beings along the way.

Honesty and an appeal for the middle ground be damned. 

So, we have Donald Trump, who, at best, is a performance artist uninterested in what is good for the country, but only committed to what is good for him.  He is the epitome of the narcissist.

All of this came back to as I read a column by Philip Bump from the Washington Post who wrote under this headline:  “Trump’s legal issues are bound with a thread of willful dishonesty.”

For me, Trump gets the debit for turning politics in this country on its head and he has done that with malice aforethought all because he thinks he is better than anyone else.

The further unconscionable reality is that his acolytes go along with him, no matter what he has done or the scope of his dishonesty, which would make most sensible human beings blush, if not prepare to be locked up.

It appears to me that many Trump followers have lost their soul to Trump because of what they thought he could do for them, which mainly was to oppose abortion, though he did not do much on that front.

If you want to be worried about the future of politics, join me in considering what Trump will do if he wins the presidency. 

This, according to Tom Nichols in Atlantic Magazine:

“Donald Trump has been promising for two years to return to office and seize the machinery of government in order to exact revenge on his enemies.  He’s not kidding:  The Washington Post reports that Trump’s allies are planning to execute multiple assaults on democracy from the moment he takes office, including the possibility of deploying the United States armed forces on Inauguration Day to put down any demonstrations against Trump’s return to the White House.”

Plus, just ponder for a moment how Trump would pardon all those who have committed crimes against the country and are now in jail.  Under Trump, they wouldn’t be there long.

Just today, Trump is quoted as saying “he will weaponize the Departments of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation” to go after anyone who opposes him.

Back to Bump’s commentary.  Here is how he started his analysis:

Error! Filename not specified.

“You can know nearly everything you need to know about Donald Trump by recognizing two aspects of his life before seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

“The first is that he was the all-powerful head of a private company, granting him sweeping powers that in a political context would be deemed autocratic.  The second is that he applied those powers to the world of New York City real estate, an industry riddled with dishonest actors and larded-on costs.

“Combine those two things and, of course, the result is a president with no apparent regard for the federal separation of powers who will say anything that comes to mind in an effort to close the deal.

“The sense in which Trump is the consummate salesman that he presents himself to be is one in which he consistently overinflates what he has to offer.  His customers are then left in the unenviable position of admitting they got hustled or nodding along with their peers at the emperor’s luxurious new clothes — on those rare occasions, that is, when the dishonesties are even admitted.”

Writing at Substack, Chris Cillizza points out how Trump’s shrugging about this dishonesty should inform our understanding of his approach to politics:  He’s willing to say untrue, baseless things, offshoring the ramifications of acting on those false claims to others.”

So, no surprise that Trump, over his entire life, has practiced dishonesty.  As president, he did the same thing.

And, now, despite his failures, which are being outed in court, he wants to be president again.

Perish the thought.

Politics in this country – not to mention government – is far worse off because of Trump’s intentional failings.

To, to repeat, I am glad I am no longer involved directly.

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.

The question in this blog headline continues to perplex me.

How does Donald Trump thrive against so many accusations in court that would make a normal person worry about their future?

Well, I have decided that Trump is not normal.

He even appears to cast himself as a “new Jesus,” one who deserves worship from followers.  And that strikes me as a major reason why Trump remains as popular as he is – as I call it, “the Jesus factor.”

Washington Post editorial writer Marc Fisher agrees with me – or perhaps I agree with him.

Here, I reprint the entire column he wrote in the Post because it is so good and explains so much.

It appeared under this headline:  “Trump as Jesus?  Why he casts himself as a martyr, and why fans go along.

“The former president has been saying for decades that he’s a victim and portrayed himself as a martyr.  But Trump’s messianic rhetoric is mainly about feeling sorry for himself.”

Here’s the column:

When Donald Trump’s civil trial on fraud allegations began in Manhattan last month, some of his most avid fans pictured him sitting alongside the archetypal martyr, Jesus.  Trump quickly circulated the faux courtroom sketch to his social media followers.

At rallies, in fundraising letters and wherever he can find an attentive listener, the former president — who faces 91 felony charges, four criminal trials and, in the New York civil case, the prospect of a court-ordered dismantling of his financial empire — has taken up a new mantra:  “They’re not after me; they’re after you,” said the headline plastered across the top of Trump’s campaign website when the trial began.  “I’m just standing in the way.”

On his way into the Manhattan courtroom to testify Monday, Trump railed against New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the fraud case against him, declaring the trial “election interference” and “political warfare” and “a very unfair situation.”

On the witness stand, Trump grumbled that “I’m sure the judge will rule against me because he always rules against me.”  Last week, as his two elder sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, testified in the same case, Trump took to social media to slam the judge in the case, Arthur Engoron:  “Leave my children alone, Engoron.  You are a disgrace to the legal profession!”

Trump also portrayed James as a political enemy with an animus against him, calling her a “Corrupt Attorney General [who] sits on her ass in Court all day watching the Trump family be abused by a Trump Hating Judge.”

At a Michigan rally this fall, Trump told striking autoworkers, “Now I put everything on the line to fight for you.  I’ve risked it all to defend the working class from the corrupt political class … I never heard of the word ‘indictment;’ now I get indicted like every three days.”

Error! Filename not specified.

Over the past eight years, Trump has often devoted as much attention to touting his victimhood and the attacks upon him as to expressing his goals or ideals for the country.

The showman who parlayed his personal brand and a life in the gossip pages and on reality TV into the presidency has cultivated an identity as Trump the martyr.  Claiming he has been “harassed, investigated, defamed, slandered, and persecuted like no elected leader in American history,” as he put it in a fundraising appeal last fall, Trump now routinely appeals to supporters to view him as the single figure who will weather attacks on their behalf, standing up for those who’ve been left behind by the country’s wealthy and powerful forces.

Trials — both the literal courtroom variety and the more abstract tribulations that test a person’s endurance — have always made him stronger, Trump has long argued.

Error! Filename not specified.

From his earliest feuds in the New York real estate world half a century ago to his characterization of his 2024 presidential campaign as a “Final Battle” against those who would take him down, Trump has positioned himself as the one who will suffer on behalf of his followers or customers, said Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime fixer and attorney who broke with his former boss midway through the White House years and spent more than a year in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance charges and lying to Congress.

“To protect his incredibly fragile ego, he needs to create this victimization,” said Cohen.  “The problem can’t be him, so who else can it be? That’s where the martyrdom comes in:  He has to shift the blame on someone else, and then he can say, ‘The only one standing in between them and you is me.’”

After his arraignment in New York in April in the case alleging that he made hush money payments to an adult-films actress, Trump clothed himself in the cloak of martyrdom.  His campaign included a fake mug shot on a T-shirt they offered as a fundraising premium, though the Manhattan court had not taken any such photo that day.

Error! Filename not specified.

Then, in August, after officials in Fulton County, Georgia released a mug shot of Trump when he was booked at the Atlanta jail on election interference charges, Trump put the image on his campaign website and his social media accounts — including his first post on X, formerly Twitter, since he was banned from the site in January 2021.  In the 24 hours after that booking, the campaign raised more than $4 million, its largest one-day haul of the campaign, according to a statement by Trump.

With each new charge, Trump sent out fundraising letters in which he presented himself as a perpetual victim of the authorities’ attacks.  “No matter what our sick and deranged political establishment throws at me, no matter what they do to me, I will endure their torment and oppression, and I will do it willingly,” he said in a fundraising appeal last fall.  “Our cruel and vindictive political class is not just coming after me — they are coming after YOU.”

A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Steven Cheung, responded to questions about Trump’s rhetoric by referring The Washington Post to the former president’s recent speeches, which Cheung said provide “a pretty good indicator about how he’s presenting himself.”

Error! Filename not specified.

Although Trump has recently stepped up his portrayal of himself as a martyr, the instinct to tout his suffering on behalf of “the forgotten men and women” has been a mainstay of his rhetorical repertoire throughout his venture into politics.

In his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly offered himself as the one candidate who would absorb the disdain that the country’s elites aimed at the “deplorables,” the mantle many Trump supporters adopted after Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton tarred them with that description in a fundraising speech.

At rallies after allegations emerged that Trump had groped or forcibly kissed women, he recast himself as a martyr:  “I take all of these slings and arrows, gladly, for you,” he told a crowd in West Palm Beach, Fla.  “I take them for our movement, so that we can have our country back.”

That showy language is part of a pattern of self-importance and grievance that Trump deploys to ride the hills and valleys of his turbulent life, said Paul Elovitz, a psycho-historian at Ramapo College in New Jersey who specializes in profiling presidents.

“When he’s on the rise, he talks about how important he is, how he has $10 billion,” Elovitz said.  “But when he’s in trouble, he goes back to this sense of grievance and the grandiose language.  Grandiosity is a coverup for a hurting little kid who can never fill that pit of neediness, that sense of grievance that goes back to when his mother couldn’t give him the love he needed at a very young age.”

Error! Filename not specified.

Trump regularly positions himself as the one man who will selflessly sacrifice on behalf of “the forgotten men and women of this country.”  Yale historian Timothy Snyder has called Trump “the martyr in chief, the high priest of the big lie,” creator of a sacred cause — the re-installation of Trump in the Oval Office — for which his followers sacrificed themselves on January 6, 2021, during the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Although Trump is not particularly religious and privately scoffs at the devout, he has happily adopted apocalyptic language and welcomed comparisons to Jesus.

When Trump was arraigned in New York in April, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Trump acolyte, said he was “joining some of the most incredible people in history” who “have been arrested and persecuted by radical corrupt governments …, including Nelson Mandela and Jesus.”

During Trump’s first impeachment, in 2019, Representative Barry Loudermilk argued to House colleagues that Jesus had been afforded more rights at his trial than Democrats had given Trump during their investigation.

“There is a kind of theological motif to his rhetoric, oddly enough for Donald Trump,” said Roderick Hart, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has written extensively on Trump’s use of language.  “When you see Trump in church, he doesn’t know what to do. He stands there totally perplexed.

“But he uses the language of the martyr, who so thoroughly believes in his propositions that he’s willing to die for it.  But the thought of actually sacrificing himself is not likely to occur to him.  He says, ‘I’m taking this for you,’ but then he says, ‘Now let’s talk some more about me.’”

Unlike many charismatic figures, Hart said, Trump wins supporters not by saying what he will do for them, but by promising to withstand pain for them.

Error! Filename not specified.

Trump’s use of religious imagery has not convinced many devout Christians that he is one of them; rather, many evangelical leaders who have been supportive of Trump say that, although he is a flawed person, he is valuable to their cause because of his willingness to break norms and ally himself with conservative Christian policy preferences, including by installing three conservative justices on the Supreme Court.

Some on the Christian right reject Trump’s use of religious analogies. “For Republicans, Trump’s indictment means admitting that, even if Trump is preferable to Biden (or any Democratic candidate), he is far from the martyr he so often paints himself to be,” Daniel Bennett, a political scientist at John Brown University, a Christian college in Arkansas, wrote in Christianity Today.

But to many followers, Trump’s presentation of himself as a strongman who stands up to the nation’s elites on behalf of the common folk feels emboldening and empowering.

In 2020, when Trump contracted covid-19, he said he felt compelled to fight the illness publicly:  “I had to confront [the virus] so the American people stopped being afraid of it,” he said.  Almost immediately after Trump left the hospital, a commemorative “President Donald J. Trump Defeats Covid-19” coin became available online for $100.

Error! Filename not specified.

Rich Logis, a former right-wing podcaster in South Florida whose show billed itself as “dangerous and inappropriate to Democrats,” voted for Trump four times, counting primaries and general elections.  “I viewed myself as a patriotic soldier in a war to save America, with Trump as my general,” he said.

“My entire life was MAGA:  I woke up thinking about it, spent the day thinking about it.  When they were coming at him, I saw him as fighting for me.  Every attack on Trump strengthened us, made us feel like we’d made the right choice.”

To his supporters, “Trump is a martyr; in his mind, he has been sacrificed,” said Hart, the Texas professor.  “He’s profoundly cynical, but he really believes someone with his stature can’t possibly be rejected by sentient human beings.”

When Trump describes the court cases against him as “an attempt to hurt me in an election,” when he calls polls that show him to be unpopular “fake,” when he contends baselessly that the election he lost in 2020 was “stolen,” he comes off to those who loathe him as a dangerously paranoid narcissist.  But to those who admire him, he is a righteous warrior martyred by people who want to undermine their country.

“He is adored,” said Elovitz, the psycho-historian who has explored the mentalities of every president since Richard M. Nixon.  “The public really looks to presidents to be strong.  We humans struggle with failure, with suffering.  Trump doesn’t even acknowledge failure.  To him, John McCain was a loser.  Trump says, ‘They’re out to get me, but they’ll never get me,’ and to his supporters, he is their savior.”

He certainly was to Logis.  “He was the political messiah to me, the bulwark against the existential threats of Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden,” he said.  “He was like a cult leader, the savior who all those political leaders were trying to take down.”

Error! Filename not specified.

Logis volunteered in Trump’s campaigns, wrote phone scripts for calls to encourage supporters to vote and cut off contact with many Democrat friends. But in the summer of 2021, Logis, now 46, broke with Trump. Logis said he watched Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “flip from pro-vaccine to anti-vaccine, and I never believed the vaccine was killing anyone,” he said.  “I came to see that there was no one coming for our guns, no one coming to replace White people.”

Now, he plans to vote for Democrats “up and down the ballot” even though he doesn’t feel a part of either party.  He’s created a non-profit, Perfect Our Union, seeking to persuade Trump supporters that they’ve been hoodwinked into devoting themselves to a man who cares not a whit about them.

“There is self-doubt creeping in for many MAGA people,” he said, “but it’s hard because we all bought into the mythology that he was sacrificing his friends and money to fight for us.  The attacks on him didn’t make us doubt him; they were why we were there.  My entry into MAGA world came because he was hated by both Democrats and Republicans.  My attitude was, ‘Both parties don’t like him? I’m in.’”

Error! Filename not specified.

Positioning himself as the embattled renegade has worked for Trump for the better part of half a century.

Even in his early days as a developer who fought the municipal powers in Manhattan to renovate a decrepit hotel near Grand Central Terminal and defied the authorities to tear down an old department store so he could erect his gleaming Trump Tower, Trump portrayed himself as the visionary who had to suffer to bring good things to people who didn’t have the financial freedom to say what they really believed.

Now, as he travels to early primary states, Trump repeatedly pounds the message that he is under attack like no previous politician, and that his people will thank him for taking the heat.

“I’ve been investigated by every investigator in the history of our country,” he told a rally in Waterloo, Iowa, last month.  “I’m the only man in the history of politics in the United States of America who got indicted four times … I’m the only one who got indicted whose poll numbers shot up through the roof, because the people of our country, they know me, and they say, ‘Wow.’”

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.

An article in Oregon Public Broadcasting’s (OPB) on-line edition caught my eye the other day.

It dealt with the subject of dredging.

Dredging? 

Yes, it is a subject near and dear to me based on an achievement for my colleagues and myself as we lobbied for the Port of Portland at the State Capitol in Salem, Oregon, a number of years ago.

Our assignment was to work in the Oregon Legislature to gain appropriation of Oregon’s share of the multi-million dollar cost to deepen the Columbia River channel from 40 to 43 feet between Portland and the Pacific Ocean.

The new depth would allow deeper-draft ships to ply their way 90 miles upriver from the Coast to five ports – Portland, Vancouver, Longview, St. Helens, and Kalama – and then back out to sea again.  The deeper channel was a key to maintaining the maritime economy for Portland and Southwest Washington and, by extension, to both states because so many companies relied on import and export shipping.

But, once the channel was deeper, maintenance dredging would have to occur on a routine basis to maintain the depth.  Both in the riverbed and at the mouth of the Columbia River.

So it was that the OPB story dealt with this kind of dredging.

Here are excerpts from the story that appeared under this headline:  “Life aboard the boat that keeps the ‘Graveyard of the Pacific’ clear and Oregon’s economy moving.”

“Simply getting aboard the Essayons (the name of the ship which does the dredging) is a hairy proposition this time of year (as it focuses on keeping the mouth of the river open).

“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dredge ship stretches the length of a football field and surges through the surf.  To reach it, a motor launch pulls alongside, matching the Essayons’ speed, and two enormous hooks are attached.  Then the whole launch — passengers included — is hoisted up and out of the water.”

Ocean-going transportation is a key to Oregon’s economy.  For bulk products like wheat and cars, there is no more efficient way to get goods to market.  Last year, $22 billion worth of cargo was shipped through Pacific Northwest waterways.

“But,” the OPB story continues:  “Sand silts up many rivers, including the Columbia, making them dangerous to navigate.  That’s where the Essayons comes in, dredging up sand to maintain a 43-foot-deep navigation channel. During this time of the year, it’s working along the Columbia River Bar, a treacherous stretch at the mouth of the river known as the ‘Graveyard of the Pacific.’”

Why graveyard?

Some 2,000 vessels have met their demise here, where the river meets the ocean.

The problem is the mixture of bad weather, complex ocean currents, large volumes of water flowing out the Columbia River, and massive Pacific Ocean waves that have been building momentum for 3,000 miles.

On the Essayons, arms drag along the ocean floor, sucking up sand like two enormous vacuum cleaners.  They empty into cavernous holds on the vessel causing the whole ship to gradually — and rather ominously — sink toward the waterline as it fills.

The Essayons heads to the Columbia Bar during the fall because the weather is comparatively calm, and the crew is less likely to disturb migrating salmon.

But, nearly at the same time, the risk is that, as fall changes to winter, storms start rolling in.

“One of the main rules of dredging is you always have to be making headway,” reports a deck hand on the Essayons.  “If you go backwards, you could break a drag arm.  And when those swells get big enough, sometimes you go up a swell and come back down the other side.  That will make you slide backwards.”

When that happens at full power, it’s time to pack up for the year.

Back to our work lobbying work in favor of a deeper channel.

At the Capitol in Salem, the point I made above is worth emphasizing — we cast the project as one designed to improve Oregon’s and the region’s maritime economy.  It worked.  But, we also had to counter two issues:

1. One legislature is barred from committing the next legislature to an action.  But, the size of the financial request to deepen the channel would take more money than would be possible in one biennial budget.  So, our solution was to build into the first legislative bill a contract for future revenue.  While that contract also could be broken, it would be more difficult to do so.  The gambit worked.  The bill passed and it, essentially, remained in effect for three more biennia.
2. We also had to counter objections from the environmental lobby.  The approach here was to emphasize the clean quality of the sand that would be dredged and to indicate that it would be placed on acceptable land-based sites.  That’s where it could be sold, given its clean quality.  This approach worked to blunt environmental lobby opposition.

The OPB article brought all this back to me, a good thing because achieving the “deepen the channel” task was a proud day for me and for those with whom I worked to accomplish the objective.

The state of Oregon and the region are better for it.

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.

It’s about time that Donald Trump found himself in an unpleasant surrounding.

He deserves to be there.

Where is “there?”

It is in a courtroom today where he will take the stand in a civil fraud trial in New York where he, his family and others have been charged with inflating his net worth to defraud banks.

Consider this difference as pointed out this morning by the New York Times:

“Donald J. Trump took the rally stage on a scorching August day in New Hampshire, a political shark, brazen and sly, as he ridiculed his legal opponents as ‘racist’ and ‘deranged.’

“On Monday, the former president will come face-to-face with one of those opponents, but on a stage where he is far less comfortable.

“New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, will call Trump to the witness stand at his own civil fraud trial in Manhattan, where, under oath and under fire, the former president will try to convince a single skeptical judge — not a jury — that he did not inflate his net worth to defraud banks and insurers.”

Supposedly and privately, the Times says Trump has told advisers he is not concerned about his time on the stand.  He held preparation sessions when he was in New York attending the trial and did so again over the weekend before he makes his appearance after court begins this morning.

More from the Times:

“The former president believes he can fight or talk his way out of most situations.  Frequent visits to the courtroom have also given Trump familiarity with the unwieldy proceeding, where he projects control, often whispering in his lawyers’ ears, prompting their objections to the attorney general’s questions.

“Yet, Trump is deeply, personally enraged by this trial — and by the fact that his children have had to testify, several people who have spoken with him said — and he may not be able to restrain himself on the stand.

“The testimony will push Trump far outside his comfort zone of social media and the rally stage, where he is a master of mockery, a no-holds barred flamethrower who relishes most opportunities to attack foes.  He leveraged that persona during his days as a tabloid businessman and fixture of New York’s tabloids and found that it worked just as well in the 2016 presidential race.

“He has since taken control of the Republican Party, and his style has become a defining influence in contemporary politics.”

The witness stand is a different venue.

It’s a seat that requires care and control, where lying is a crime and emotional outbursts can land you in contempt of court.

As he heads to court this morning, it will be fascinating to see how Trump fares when, to his consternation, he is not in charge of the platform.

I, for one, hope he performs badly, for that he is what his over-the-top conduct requires – a comeuppance that destroys his ego.

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.

For me, the answer to this blog headline is that a lot of stuff goes through my mind.

One reason is that I use some of my time any morning to read the Oregonian newspaper, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

So, this morning, based on those reads, here a few thoughts.

IS THERE ROOM FOR HUMOR IN POLITICS?:  Humorist Dave Barry says “yes” – and, of course, he would because that’s the way he makes his living.

I always read Barry at least once a year, when he writes his month-by-month synopsis of politics in the previous year.  My reading is usually marked by guffaws because Barry uses words very well to make me laugh.

He and Post columnist Kathleen Parker got together at the University of Charleston the other day to talk about whether it is even possible for humor to be involved in politics these days.  He says “yes,” as long as you don’t have a thin skin.

Nobody escapes Barry’s humor.

He believes that poking fun at people — left, right, center or otherwise — is a constitutional right, not to mention the American Way.  

Parker writes:  “Barry has never needed a reader warning, in part because he approaches topics as any 13-year-old boy would and in a way with which all humans can identify — such as the sheer terror of one’s first colonoscopy.

“Several years ago, something called the Colossal Colon arrived in Miami. It was large enough to walk through and was intended to educate people about their interiors and the frightful events that can occur there.

“’If you are a professional humor writer, and there is a giant colon within a 200-mile radius, you are legally obligated to go see it,’ he said at the time.  His column not only escaped reader ire, but received an award from an august organization of gastroenterologists.”

I am looking forward to next Barry’s next good work – 2023 in review.

ARE TODAY’S TIMES WORSE THAN ANY OTHER?:  It is possible to believe the answer is yes.  But the truth may lie elsewhere.

A few weeks ago in a meeting, a friend made a comment that he thoughts today’s times were worse than at any other time.

Another friend ventured, “no, that is not the case.”

The difference between now and the past revolves, this second friend said, around the influence of social media.

It is so pervasive.  Much more is known today than in the past, even if what is known can be put down to rumors and lies, not fact.

Regarding the rise of social media, the proportion of U.S. adults who use social media increased from 5 per cent in 2005 to 79 per cent in 2019.  Even on a global stage, the speed of diffusion is striking:  Facebook surged from covering around 1.5 per cent of the world population in 2008 to around 30 per cent in 2018 – and higher today.

Wall Street Journal columnist Karl Rove performed a service a few weeks ago by writing about bad things in the past to help make the point that today’s challenges are similar to the past, not necessarily worse.

The difference:  We know so much more today than did our forebears.  Good?  Who knows?  Bad?  Who Knows?  Worth considering?  Yes.

ANOTHER GREAT VISIT TO BROOKS WINERY:  I have written about Brooks before, but it is one of Oregon’s best.

My wife and I proved it again by going out to Brooks for a mid-afternoon splash of wine yesterday, along with great food.

On the wines:  “From crisp and refreshing whites to bold and complex reds, Brooks selection has something to suit every palate.”

On the Brooks ethic:  “It is the living legacy of the founder, Jimi Brooks.  In all Brooks does, ‘it endeavors to uphold his beliefs in caring for each other and the land.   From Biodynamicfarming on the estate to planting trees around the globe, from looking after the people of Brooks, to making sustainable choices that impact all of us, these commitments live on in the work we do each day.’”

So, if you have a chance, visit Brooks.  You’ll find it to be worth the trip.

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.

A so-called “Christian nationalist” is now in charge in the U.S. House.

At least that label has been attached to U.S. Representative Mike Johnson as he now functions as Speaker of the House.

Originally, I wrote about Johnson, suggesting that I would give him the benefit of the doubt in his new job until he performed badly.

I said that, at least in part, because one of his firsts acts in the job no one else could get was to reach out to the U.S. House Democrat leader, Representative Hakim Jeffries, to say he wanted to work with the Ds on issues facing Congress.

Might have been a platitude.  It hasn’t taken long for him to eschew bi-partisan actions.

So far, he has performed like any other hard-right Republican, so hopes for some type of middle ground appear to have been misplaced.

Columnist Kate Cohen, writing in the Washington Post, goes farther.  Not a surprise because, in past columns, Cohen has advocated for atheism as a major answer to all of this country’s problems.

In Johnson, she sees the opposite.

She wrote under this headline:  “Mike Johnson is a pro-gun Christian nationalist. Yes, be afraid.”

Cohen went on:

“The day after he was elected Speaker of the House, which was also the day after 18 people were shot to death in Lewiston, Maine, Representative Mike Johnson smoothly executed the rhetorical three-point turn that Republicans often use after mass shootings:  (1) invoke prayer; (2) declare that now is not the time for politics; and (3) dismiss the foolish notion that gun violence is related to guns.

“To that point, Johnson told Sean Hannity, “At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart.”

Perhaps.

But, in the fallout from the most recent gun deaths, it also is clear the House, under Johnson, will continue to ignore calls to ban assault weapons — a ban the majority of Americans want — not only because its new speaker is a Republican, but also because he is a “Christian nationalist.”

Cohen defines:  “A Christian nationalist is someone who, like Johnson, believes the United States is a Christian nation and does not believe in what Johnson dismisses as the “so-called ‘separation of church and state.’”

For example, part of Johnson’s Christian nationalism is that Americans – all Americans – deserve to keep their guns.

I challenge you to tell me in Scripture where you find the notion that every citizen has the right to carry – and perhaps use – a gun.  You can’t because such a reference doesn’t exist.

As for me, I am a Christian.  But I staunchly refuse the “Christian nationalist” label.  And I believe in a clear separation of church and state. 

If I was in public office, my Christian faith would motivate how I looked at public policy issues, but I would not wear my faith on my sleeve.  And I would not join those who want Christianity to become just another political movement, one where those involved seek to impose their views on others.

I reflect on this back to my tenure at Salem Alliance Church here in Salem, Oregon, where I served on the Governing Board of Elders for a number of years, including 12 as chair.

Our agreement then was that we would not allow “our church” to become just another political organization. 

We would emphasize the role of Christ in our lives, either for those who might be making a decision to accept his free gift of salvation or for those who already had done so.

We were emphasizing Christ, not politics.

Speaker Johnson goes the other way.

As Cohen puts it:  “Experts project that this kind of nonsense will spew from the Capitol now that the most powerful man in Congress is someone who has said that every Christian should seek to bring industry, government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness.”

So, back to the main point of this blog post:  I may have been wrong to want to give the new speaker space and time to take over the job. 

If his avowed Christian faith is personal, not political.  Good. 

But, if he continues to aver that God wants him to do all that he and the right want to do – in  other words, use Christianity as a political movement — then, with Cohen, I say we are in trouble.

THIS CONCLUSION:  There is an easy fix, but one that never will happen, given the current state of politics in the Nation’s Capital.  I twould be to assign the U.S. House Speaker, once elected, to be the leader of the entire body, not just those from his or her party.

Easy?  Yes.  Workable?  No.  Will it happen?  No.

If it did, we’d have a branch of Congress that spent its time legislating, not one that spent its time using every opportunity to pine for the next election.

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.

The secret?

Sam Skillern, who has served as executive director of the Salem Leadership Foundation (SLF) for many years.  He is taking a well-earned retirement.

As Skillern heads off into the sunset – though, no doubt, he’ll find a way to continue contributing in retirement – he wrote a final newsletter the other day.

Here is how Salem Reporter described his tenure:

“If you ask Sam Skillern to take his photo, he’ll suggest meeting you outside Salem First United Methodist Church.

“Skillern doesn’t have a particular tie to the congregation.  But its location – at the intersection of Church and State streets – sums up how Skillern has spent the bulk of his career.

“He’s the executive director of the Salem Leadership Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in 1996 to help local churches and faith communities find ways to improve their neighborhoods.”

SLF often flies under the radar in Salem, but has had a hand in helping many other organizations get off the ground, including Salem for Refugees, homeless service provider Church at the Park, Salem Free Clinics, and Family Promise.

Does credit for all these accomplishments go to Skillern?  No. In his typical style, Skillern deflects credit to others, and to God.

SLF’s origins date back to 1993, when Salem Senator Peter Courtney convened a task force to address a rise in youth gang activity in the city.  Clergy weren’t present at the first meetings, and when Courtney asked they be invited, it led to confusion.

More from Salem Reporter:

“There was no organized association of clergy or churches for civic leaders to reach out to, Skillern said.  At the time, many Salem faith leaders didn’t believe they had a role to play in addressing gang violence or other social problems in the city.

“The leaders didn’t know who the church leaders were so there was all this clumsiness around who to invite to work on this problem.  When the invitations landed, most of the pastors and priests and rabbis said, ‘No thanks.’  There wasn’t hostility in those days between church and state.  But there definitely was disconnect.”

Skillern helped to bridge that gap and, as they say, the rest is history.

In his final newsletter as executive director, Skillern wrote this:

“Words are wonderful.  Language is a huge part of the human experience in biology, sociology, anthropology, history, and culture.  Not to mention theology.”

No surprise that I agree with Sam.

He went on to include a list of what he called words – phrases – that underscore the SLF intent to emphasize “bridge building, neighborhood development, and church-community partnerships.”  The SLF record, under Skillern, underscores the commitments.

I am reprinting some of the phrases because they are worth pondering in your own way.

• Show up and stick with it

• Look out your front door, look out your back door

• If it’s in sight, it’s in mind

• Candor without malice or sarcasm is good

• Speak with care – don’t be easily offended

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – but always hone

• Bridge-building over activism

• Fix problems and manage issues, not the other way around

• Delight in telling the stories of others

• Always leave the up place cleaner than when you found it

Think of your own reactions to these Skillern-sayings.  There is no magic answer, just food for thought.

The Salem Reporter’s final thought about Skiller:

“Foundation leader reflects on 25 years of helping Salem churches practice what they preach.”

That’s exactly what one of Salem’s best kept secrets has done.  Kudos to him.

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.

I suspect my friend who gave me a present for my birthday knew what I would do immediately:

Go to the Internet to seek more information or find another way to do research, as if there is another way.

The present was this:  An actual contestant badge for the 1967 Oregon Golf Open Tournament, which was played at my home course here in Salem, Oregon, long before I became a member.  It came framed and ready to mount on my golf-themed wall.

Yes, 1967. 

It was only six years after Illahe Hills Golof and Country Club opened as the only private golf course in Salem.  The winner that year – see below – helped to cement the golf course as a solid one so soon after its opening.

So, armed with only that much information, I decided to write a blog about the contestant badge and its context.  Why?  Writing helps me remember what I found out.  Plus, it was a fascinating journey into the past, made via the Internet and few other contacts – a journey that allowed to reflect again on how lucky my family and I are to be involved at Illahe.

In 1967, I didn’t know a thing about Illahe – not the name, not the location, not the nature of the golf course.  I was in my first year of college in Seattle, Washington, preparing in four years to enter the work-a-day world.

A lot happened after that, but it was not until 1979 that I moved to Salem with my family – wife, Nancy; son, Eric; and daughter, Lissy.  Three years later we joined Illahe.  It was a great decision.  Our two kids had a great time at the Club in their growing-up years in Salem.  Eric became – and still is – one of the top golfers at the Club where he is now a member on his own.  Daughter Lissy loved the Club, too, especially the swimming pool.

Back to 1967.

Frankly, information is a little sketchy that far back, but I did learn that the Oregon Open winner that year was Bob Duden, arguably one the best golfers ever in Oregon – and some would say perhaps even the greatest, though that might spark an argument about other contenders such as Peter Jacobsen, Bob Gilder, and a few others.

The 1967 event turned out to be the only time Illahe hosted the Oregon Open, so it remains an important milestone.

To illustrate his stature, Duden won the Oregon Open eight times – his fifth was the one at Illahe — to leave his mark on the Pacific Northwest golf scene.

He played the Professional Golfers’ Association Tour periodically in the 1950s and 1960s.  He won a 54-hole tournament event in Las Vegas one year and tied for the second in three tour tournaments between 1959 and 1964.

But it was in Pacific Northwest regional competitions that Duden was at his best.

He was a consistent title contender for more than four decades.  His playing record encompassed 23 major tournament titles, including the eight victories I mentioned in the Oregon Open.  He also won the Northwest Open three times, the Oregon PGA three times, the Washington Open three times, the British Columbia Open twice,

Beyond tournaments, Duden also is given credit for inventing the croquet- style putter, which he named “The Dude,” and for which he got a patent.  Eventually, Sam Snead used that putter.

I wish there was someone around at Illahe who could recall the 1967 tournament, including the field for the event — Duden and others.  But all the founders have gone on to their reward.  The simple fact that Duden played and won will have to be enough.

The current Illahe golf pro, Steve Bowen, himself a golf memorabilia collector, knew about Duden’s win and told me he might be able to find a program for the 1967 event.  If he does, I’ll see if it contains any additional useful information.

So, it turns out the contestant badge I now have commemorates the time Bob Duden came to the course to (a) play his own winning game, and (b) help convey credit for a new course – Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club.

And, as they say, the rest is history. 

The 1967 contestant plaque easily will find a place on the wall in my golf-themed office.

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.

The place where I play most of my golf, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon, just got an award – and it is worth emphasizing the award and the reasons for it.

The Oregon Golf Association (OGA), Oregon’s largest golf promotion organization, recently designated Illahe as “Facility of the Year.”

It’s a high honor, if only because there are more than 200 golf clubs in Oregon and Southwest Washington that could have received the award.

Illahe received the honor for these reasons:  [And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I am a member of the OGA Board of Directors Executive Committee, though I did play a role in the selection.]

• Illahe’s continuing support of junior golf in at least two ways – (a) running its own junior golf program at the course, and (b) serving as host course for several OGA junior tournaments.

• Illahe’s willingness to host the OGA Annual Meeting in October, a hosting decision that was made on the fly when another course had to back out of the responsibility.

• Illahe’s intent to communicate well and often with Club members, including in a well-read newsletter, as well as making sure Board and committee members are available to talk personally with members.

• Illahe’s decisions to hire the best and the brightest for top jobs at the Club, including the golf course superintendent, Steve Beyer, and the golf course head pro, Steve Bowen.  Both bring a wealth of experience to their jobs – and the reality is that experience matters.

• Illahe’s range of programs for members, starting, of course, with golf on one of the best courses in the region.  But also – pickleball, tennis, swimming, bocce ball, and an excellent clubhouse with a variety of dining options.

• And, Illahe’s overall commitment to programs for the good of golf in Oregon and Southwest Washington.

I am proud of the honor and know that it speaks well of the Club where I have been a member for about 35 years.

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 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 a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and 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.

……….This is the second blog recently dealing with golf rules, a hot-button issue for me……….

I have written about this before, but it still surprises me, even rankles me, that the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient (R & A) produced a new set of golf rules in 2019 that includes absolutely stupid words on bunkers.

If you read the rule – Rule #12 – I suspect you’d be surprised, too.

The worst inclusion:  You are now allowed “to strike the sand in frustration and anger.”

For the life of me, I cannot understand why the two excellent golf associations – they govern the game of golf around the world – would allow such a phrase to be included in a set of rules.

My friends at the Oregon Golf Association (OGA) told me that, if a player in an OGA tournament was seen “striking the sand in frustration and anger,” that player would receive either a two-stroke bad-conduct penalty or be disqualified.

All of this came to mind for me when I read an article in my on-line edition of the Global Golf Post (GGP).

According to the GGP, the following is not allowed in a bunker – and all prohibitions sound familiar for those of us who try to avoid the sand, but sometimes reach it:

• Grounding your club immediately in front of or behind the ball

• Making a practice swing that touches sand

• Touching the sand in making a back swing

• Taking any other action purposely to test the condition of the sand

Also, according to the GGP, the following is now allowed in the sand:

• Putting clubs down in a bunker

• Touching the sand accidentally [whatever that means]

• Raking the bunker to take care of the course

• “Striking the sand in anger and frustration”

Seems to me that these allowances amount to testing the sand before a shot, just as what is prohibited.

And, one other major change has been included by the USGA and the R &A.  It is that, if you are in the sand and don’t want to hit your next shot from there, you are now allowed to remove your ball from the bunker and drop it back outside the bunker on a line between where the ball was and where the hole is. 

To do this, you would take a two-stroke penalty, which could strike some amateur golfers as welcome relief from a bunker.  But, even I, a regular amateur, would not opt to take such relief.

The fact that I am focusing on this will strike some as strange. 

It illustrates two motives:  (1) I love golf and love focusing on the arcane rules of the sport, which exist in substantial detail if only because the game is played outdoors on large tracts of land, not inside a stadium or pavilion; and (b) and I don’t have much else to do in retirement.

So, if you are in bunkers as you play golf, take advantage of the new rules and, as pro golfer Sergio Garcia did a year ago or so in a tournament in Saudi Arabia, feel free to “strike the sand in anger and frustration.”

Just hope a rules official isn’t watching.