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.

George Will has a point.

In a recent column in the Washington Post, Will skewers Democrats for falling all over themselves to advocate for a totally government-run health care system, even if that meant some citizens would lose private health insurance coverage – coverage they might value.

But Will’s point is one that could have been made for years as policymakers in Washington, D. C. have labored for years over health care policy usually with more regard to politics than to policy.

Will used the recent D presidential “debates’ by Senator Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California, to criticize Harris and most of her colleagues on stage. Here is what he wrote:

“If Senator Kamala Harris is elected president in 2020 and re-elected in 2024, by the time she leaves office 114 months from now, she might have a coherent answer to the question of whether Americans should be forbidden to have what 217 million of them currently have: Private health insurance.

“Her 22 weeks of contradictory statements, and her Trumpian meretriciousness about her contradictions, reveal a frivolity about upending health care’s complex 18 per cent of the U.S. economy. And her bumblings illustrate how many of the Democrat presidential aspirants, snug in their intellectual silos, have lost — if they ever had — an aptitude for talking like, and to, normal Americans.”

My point in this blog is not to rail against Harris and her ilk. Rather, it is to make a point I have made for years, including my more than 25 years as a lobbyist for Providence Health System, including its insurance arm, as well as its special programs.

My point?

What we need is a process that produces a product. What I mean is that smart minds on both sides (or more than just two) – and, yes, there are some smart minds left even as many pander to one extreme or the other – should gather in a room with a round table.

There, they should find the middle ground on health care policy, a middle that doesn’t take away your doctor (as President Barack Obama said he wouldn’t do, but did, under his :”Affordable Health Care Act”), doesn’t take away your private insurance (as Harris and others among the D presidential candidates would do), and – very importantly – finds a way to provide health care services to as many Americans as possible, if not every American.

This can be done, but it cannot be done if Democrats start over, if Republicans oppose everything (as they are wont to do), and if no one heads toward the middle.

As the “Affordable Health Care Act” comes under increasing attack, including in court (one reason is that the act no longer includes a key underpinning – an individual mandate to buy insurance much as what already exists when it comes to driving a car…you have to have insurance or you’ll pay a penalty – it is past the time for cooler heads to prevail.

I am not an optimist on this, but I choose to think that compromise is still possible.

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.

I wrote portions of this blog a few months ago as lawmakers were gathering at the Capitol for the start of a six-month run in Salem.

Given what happened in the session, which ended on June 30, I think it makes sense to recount again my notion of reforms that I thought months ago and think now would work to improve the process in Salem.

Would they correct the various abuses and miscalculations we saw in the last six months at the Capitol? No.

First, how to characterize the session? I think the reputation of the Legislature lies in tatters after one of the toughest six months on record.

The in-charge Democrats couldn’t convince minority Republicans that they – the Ds – care one whit about R priorities, including those in rural Oregon. Yet, it always is fair for one measure rating the majority to be how it deals with the minority in a two-party system. On this measure, it would appear the Ds failed.

At the same time, Senate Republicans couldn’t figure out a way to express their views without running away from the Capitol – twice. The walkouts were legal, but, from the standpoint of the general public, it appeared some legislators were behaving like kids –“taking their toys and going home.”

To be sure, rural constituents of the Senators probably think their representatives stood up to huge, Portland-centric pressure in Salem, so Republicans probably thought leaving was worth it.

One of those who walked, Senator Cliff Bentz from Ontario, put it this way in a column that run this week in the Oregonian newspaper:

“In a democracy, the majority rules. But when the Democrat majority decided to trade Oregon’s economic free-market system for one of central government control – while ignoring our constitution and making a shambles of Oregon’s rural and low-income economies – we walked.”

Further, prior to all of the to-ing and fro-ing over the walkout, things got so bad early in the session that several leaders almost lost their jobs because of what was labeled the negative sexual harassment atmosphere at the Capitol.

What to do? The early solution was to pay reparations to those who said they had been harmed. And, then late in the session, the in-charge Ds felt the only approach was to pass a law requiring better behavior – not just to expect mature behavior, but to legislate it.

Well, on to my reforms that would make the legislative process more open to the public, as well as might even produce better law.

Reform #1: Make every legislative committee a JOINT COMMITTEE.

The example for this is the current Joint Committee on Ways and Means, the entity responsible for preparing a balanced state government budget each two years.

The joint character of the effort – joint in terms of membership by both Democrats and Republicans, as well as by members of the House and the Senate – means that legislators have no choice but to work together earlier in a legislative session to achieve consensus.

Think how much time and effort could be saved by requiring the otherwise faint notion – working together – of all legislative committees.

Reform #2: Require the governor and the legislature to prepare a “CURRENT TAX” BUDGET FOR EACH TWO YEAR BUDGET PERIOD.

As it is now, governors now produce a “recommended budget,” which often includes new taxes, not state spending based on current taxes.

If it were up to me, I’d require a “no-new-taxes” budget so it would be clear how much government would cost for another two years if legislators did not do anything – no new taxes, no new spending cuts. I’d require this, first from a governor, then expect the same from the Legislature through its Joint Committee on Ways and Means.

Reform #3: Require the governor and legislators to PREPARE AND RELEASE IN PUBLIC SPECIFIC PLANS FOR “NEW TAXES” they want to impose, including those who would PAY the new taxes, WHAT the new money would fund, and WHY those who would be asked to pay the new taxes should accept that reality.

Under the current approach, new taxes are buried in the overall budget and, though they may come up for consideration in the House and Revenue Committees – yes, separate, not joint, committees – the rationale for the new taxes is often understated, if stated at all.

Reform #4: Require the governor and legislators to PREPARE A SPECIFIC PLAN FOR “THE CUTS” they would propose to make in state government so it is not just business as usual for another two years.

This final reform – listing specific spending cuts – does not get the profile it should in a legislative process. In this blog, I am not advocating for specific cuts; I am just saying that the governor and the Joint Ways and Means Committee should spend more time adjusting state spending to fit a new two-year reality.

A by-product of this type of effort could be that it would generate more support for tax increases if it were patently clear, first, what cuts would be made, and second, what those proceeds would fund.

As it is at the moment, there is no spending cut plan under consideration in a typical legislative session.

If there is good news in all of this, it is that the Oregon Constitution requires a balanced budget. That means, whatever the process, legislators have to balance spending against revenue. Good, but it’s just a process could be far more transparent – and, in turn, that would produce better laws.

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.

On July 8, the Wall Street Journal published a special section commemorating its 130-year anniversary.

Kudos to the Journal for its positive impact on real journalism in this country.

At least, one item caught my attention. It was a photo of President Ronald Reagan delivering memorable words in a speech, as follows:

“For decades America has led freedom-seeking people around the world in their struggles to destroy and dismantle the oppressive barriers that divide countries and restrict liberty. Today, many of those battles have been fought and won – the barricades that once stood between countries no longer exist and their citizens are able to live together in freedom and prosperity. With this in mind, we – as Americans – are faced with a new challenge. The Cold War is over and now we must break down the tariff walls that restrict the free flow of trade on our continent. The North American Free Trade Agreement can bring us that victory.”

Of course, Reagan, in another speech in Berlin in 1987, uttered the now famous line – “Tear Down This Wall,” referring to the wall separating East and West Berlin.

The Berlin Wall, referred to by the President, was built by Communists in August 1961 to keep Germans from escaping Communist-dominated East Berlin into Democratic West Berlin. The 12-foot concrete wall extended for about miles, surrounding West Berlin, and included electrified fences and guard posts. The wall stood as a stark symbol of the decades-old Cold War between the United States and Soviet Russia in which the two politically opposed superpowers continually wrestled for dominance, stopping just short of actual warfare.

So, turn to today.

What do we have?

Every other word uttered by “our” President Donald Trump seems to call for building new walls, not tearing down walls.

Some of the walls advocated by Trump pertain to tariffs.  Some pertain to a wall he wants to build between the U.S. and Mexico, his supposed solution to what he calls the problem with immigrants from the south.

Trump’s trait is to build walls that separate people, not tear down walls, as Reagan put it, “to dismantle oppressive barriers that divide countries and restrict liberty.”

God bless Ronald Reagan.

Not the same for Trump.

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.

There are number of reasons why what used to be a bedrock of political activity – compromise — has become, to many, a dirty word.

Whatever the reasons are, the decline of compromise is a sad commentary on America.   It means we disagree almost all of the time and don’t develop middle-ground solutions to pressing national problems, including, for example, immigration.

It is why we have leaders who yell and scream at each other rather than trying to solve problems.

It is why, to make another generalization, we, as voters cannot seem to find a way to support and elect persons who will hew toward the middle. We only want to vote for those who will espouse our own, individual views, whatever those views are, even if the views spark only division and distrust.

For some, fighting politically is an end in itself. Representative Alexandra Ocaxio-Cortez espouses this view. She wants to trash the country that so many built over the years, thus becoming the “Trump of the left.” For her and those of her ilk, the fight is what she wants, not solutions.

Trump, on the right – if that is where he belongs – holds the same view. Disagree with him and Trump will call you a dolt and worse.

If it were up to me, I’d put Ocasio-Cortez and Trump in the same room and allow them to fight, which is what they’re good at.

In a piece in the Washington Post this week, Jeh Johnson, former director of the Department of Homeland Security, called for a new approach to one extremely divisive issue – immigration.

I’ll leave detail on that huge subject – immigration — for another day, but, for now, here is a quote from Johnson’s article:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) has attracted criticism from the left for accepting earlier this month a more moderate version of legislation to provide humanitarian aid to migrants at the border.

“The media sensationalized the speaker’s agreement as a ‘striking defeat and a ‘capitulation.’ Give her a break. Those who govern in a democracy know that progress requires compromise, and the speaker made the obvious calculation that it was more important to deliver prompt help to those facing inhumane conditions on the border than it was to delay and hold out for everything House Democrats wanted.”

Though I am not a fan of Pelosi, I refuse to criticize her when she makes compromises. If she values that political art, point made. Point taken.

So, with that introduction, here is my summary of reasons why compromise has fallen into the dustbin:

1. The media, as illustrated above, calculates everything in win or lose propositions. There is almost no effort to give credit where credit is due for those elected officials who gravitate toward compromise. If elected officials compromise, the media says they lose.
2. Elected officials play the same win-lose game, plus set out to represent the views of their so-called constituents, even if those views sow resentment and discord. To win re-election, officials believe they have to kowtow to their base – and, unfortunately, in our tension-ridden political system, they are often right.
3. As voters, we often want only those who will support our views. We don’t want to vote for officials who say they will find middle ground solutions.

Consider the very definition of the compromise in politics.

To compromise is to make a deal between different parties where each party gives up part of their demand. Compromise is a concept of finding agreement through communication, through a mutual acceptance of terms — often involving variations from an original goal or desires.

Great challenges of contemporary democracy have become more difficult in the era of the permanent campaign. Office-holders are competing more to remain in office than to do the hard work of compromise and, worse, we, as voters let them get away with it.

Compromise is frequently said to be an agreement with which no party is happy because the parties involved often feel they either gave away too much or received too little. As in the case of Pelosi above, compromise often is referred to as capitulation, even a “surrender” of objectives, or principles.

What I value in politics these days is a return to compromise, not as a dirty word, but as the act of finding middle ground that serves the public, not just the vocal and obstreperous sections of the public.

Though it may sound immodest, that’s how I tried to conduct myself as a lobbyist for 25 years. Not just win or lose. Middle ground. And my firm’s clients were comfortable with that posture.

As voters, we should find a way to respect compromise rather than trash it in pursuit of our own individual goals.

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.

This, remember, is one of three departments I run as dictator – er, director. This one exists because I like each of the “bits and pieces” below, but don’t want to write individual blogs about them.

So, here goes.

BERNIE SANDERS STILL HAS NO ANSWER ON HEALTH CARE: On the debate stage with other Ds running for president (was it actually a debate? I say no), Sanders didn’t have an answer for the big question about his proposal – the fact that his plan would do away with private health insurance, which many policy holders value.

Another debater asked why even successful health plans have to be outlawed under the Sanders plan. Sanders had no answer then; he has no answer now.

Which, for me, underlines what I think is necessary in the debate over health care: Get smart people on all sides of the issue in the same room and find solutions in the middle.

Sanders wouldn’t be there. Neither would Donald Trump.

BIDEN GETS CENSURED FOR WORKING TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO DON’T SHARE HIS VIEWS: At a recent a fundraiser in Manhattan, Biden made comments that no reasonable person would interpret as racially insensitive — and was immediately censured by his Democrat competitors as though he had defended Jim Crow.

Biden recalled working as a young Democrat with Senator with James Eastland (Mississippi) and Herman Talmadge (Georgia), both segregationists and unrepentant critics of the civil-rights movement. Biden’s point was that he is able to work with people with whom he had profound disagreements to achieve constructive results – on issues other than, for example segregation.

“You have to be able to reach consensus under our system,” he said, and he’s a consensus builder.

“Well guess what?” Biden added. “At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didn’t agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and you’re the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We don’t talk to each other anymore.”

For that comment, Biden came under attack and it is not clear that he will recover from a comment that has riled up his competitors.

But his point is worth considering. In politics, it often is a reality that you have to work with other elected officials with whom you patently disagree. Don’t work with them, in Biden’s case, on racist issue; work with them on other issues.

It’s called compromise, the art of politics.

CLOSER TO HOME, WHAT ABOUT SENATOR BRIAN BOQUIST?: When Senate Republicans walked out of the Senate denying a quorum over concern about an anti-rural “cap-and-trade” bill, Boquist, a Republican from Dallas, issued what could have been considered a threat against State Police who had been sent to round up he and his colleagues.

He told the governor: Send only bachelors because I won’t become a political prisoner.

No one knew whether he was kidding or not.

When the Senate Rs returned to the Capitol, two Democrat senators would not remain on the Senate floor with Boquist, saying they were concerned for their safety if Boquist was “carrying” – a gun, that is.

Eventually, he left, but he will still be subject to a censure vote in a Senate committee tomorrow, Monday.

This is an example of how bad politics has become in our state — another sad story.

AND ABOUT LEGISLATIVE WALKOUTS: Say what you will about the Republican tactic this time around — that is, if you care at all – but just know that the tactic has been used before by both Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats have left the Capitol in the past. Republicans did this time around.

My only point is that it has gone both ways in the past.

Should walkouts be allowed? For my part, I say no. Stay and do the work of legislating, win or lose. Win some. Lose some. But, walking out is, at the moment, a legal tactic.

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.

It always has struck me as strange, if not worse, when elected officials express disdain for the private sector.

The most recent one to do so is Senator Elizabeth Warren as she runs for president on what often appears to be a far left platform.

Wall Street Journal editorial writers skewered Warren this week by saying this:

“Democrats used to at least try to conceal their contempt for the private economy, but open hostility is now a political tactic. This week’s example is a broadside from Elizabeth Warren on a former Trump Administration official who dared to resume his career after leaving government.

“Warren blasted Scott Gottlieb, who might have thought he was returning to private life when he stepped down as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the spring. Warren admits that, unlike ‘other administration officials,’ Gottlieb worked ‘to strengthen protections for Americans on issues like transparency and tobacco use.’”

But then, Warren averred, Gottlieb committed the sin, after leaving government, of joining the board of directors of Pfizer Inc.

Warren wrote: “That kind of revolving door influence-peddling smacks of corruption, among other barbs.

Warren says Gottlieb should rectify his mistake and immediately resign from your position as a Pfizer board member. Or else what? Progressives will boycott Lipitor?

I believe elected officials of all stripes should value the private sector, if only because it is the private sector that creates the jobs where the holders of those jobs pay taxes to fund government, including the government the Ds want.

Now, of course, all private sector leaders are not sweetness and light. They make mistakes frequently and should be held to account for those mistakes, either, in the extreme cases, serving time in prison and paying restitution, but also losing stock value when they under-perform.

But, to be made scapegoats by the likes of Warren? No.

An irony is that one of Gottlieb’s signature projects, when he was FDA administrator, was speeding up approvals for generic drugs that compete with branded pharmaceuticals and drive down prices for consumers. He often called out regulatory “shenanigans” by big companies that reduced competition.

Warren cites no evidence that Gottlieb favored Pfizer; her game, reports the WSJ, is innuendo.

None of this is about the merits. Warren, again according to the WSJ, “wants to disqualify anyone from serving in government unless they’re public-interest lawyers or have spent years camping out at progressive (I hate that word when it is used to describe groups that are not interested in progressing in anything but their own agenda) groups like Public Citizen. The outrage over ‘revolving doors’ is absent for, say, Democrats who moved between environmental groups and the Obama Administration.”

To Warren and others of her ilk on the far left, I say, compliment the hard work of the private sector or, at least, if they cannot stomach a compliment, then avoid the politics of corporate destruction, which should be a losing battle politically.

Today, at least on the left, trashing the private sector is assumed to be a winning game.

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.

The question in the headline resonated for me yesterday on July 4^th, a national holiday worth celebrating each year.

President Donald Trump, of course, has made the holiday into a celebration of his own worth, not America’s. So, at least for now, forget Trump, which is one of the highest acts of citizenship in this country, even though news reports from the Nation’s Capitol suggested that, in his formal remarks, Trump stuck to a patriotic script.

For me, America means something more elegant that a military exhibition:

• Freedom to work and produce.
• Freedom to live in an open society.
• Freedom to express religious convictions without fear or reprisal.
• Freedom to work together with neighbors, the community, the church and others institutions for the common good (though, for this point, I’ll leave politics off the list as elected officials continue to practice the “art” of division, not inclusion)
• Freedom to speak and be creative. [On this issue, I remember a poignant comment made by out tour guide in Prague recently. With the fall of communism in the Czech Republic, she said she relished the new freedom to think and be creative for herself, not some monolithic, central state.]

All of these freedoms are under attack in the today’s political system.

On the right – if that is really where Trump is — he wants acquiescence and worship from all citizens because he, of course, is great and will lead America to be great again…a phrase that often reminds me of Adolph Hitler’s Germany after World War I and leading to World War II, including the Hitler-led atrocities which tried to exterminate an entire race of people – the Jews – from the face of the earth. Trump’s approach to immigrants strikes, unfortunately, a similar chord.

Let me insert a quick point on immigration. My family on both sides comes from immigrants who came to America for a better life. My wife’s parents, when they were young children, emigrated from Scotland and we still honor that heritage.

On my side, my grandparents came from Norway to settle in Minnesota and, in that case, too, we honor the heritage.

Just think of what immigrants have done for our country over the years. Of course, we need a better system for allowing them to enter this country legally, but instead of developing that gateway, our “leaders,” especially Trump, denigrate all immigrants as “criminals,” or, if they recognize the reality the concentration camp-like holding centers, don’t develop the wherewithal to develop a better system.

On the general issue of the political system challenging our freedoms, the left is no better than the right. From Senators Bernie Sanders to Elizabeth Warren, the left wants to make America into a socialist country. No more freedoms. Just salute the federal government as the provider of all things free – college, health care and a so-called “green economy.”

As both sides yell at the other, with no middle ground, I worry about the future of America as a democracy.

So, on this July 4^th holiday weekend, it is worthwhile to reflect on the values of this country, which ought to be nurtured, not destroyed by Trump and those on the left.

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.

Several facts:

• In a previous post, I commented on the absolute stupidity of President Donald Trump’s plan for an Independence Day celebration that focuses, not on the incredible record of America, but rather on Trump himself.
• I believe Trump be mimicking Adolph Hitler, not leading America to celebrate its existence.  Hitler appeared before what he considered to be Germany’s military might which led to his bid to conquer the world.  Now, under Trump, we have the specter of tanks rolling through Washington, D.C. as, somehow, that shows Trump is all powerful.  Of course, as usual, Trump knows nothing about the history of July 4^th celebrations, including those associated with the French Bastille Day (see below), which was a celebration of working together as countries, not going it alone as is the case with Trump.
• I will not waste a moment watching the Trump debacle, preferring, instead to focus on the worth of America, despite Trump.

Further, the Washington Post showed up yesterday with an excellent piece reporting that “Trump’s Fourth of July celebration was a bad imitation of Bastille Day.

Rather than write more about that myself, I hereby print the Post’s piece.

**********

Tanks arrived in Washington this week, ahead of the July 4 parade that President Trump has dubbed a “Salute to America.” He’s boasted about putting on such an event since he attended the 2017 Bastille Day celebration in Paris, which he called “one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen” — appreciating, in particular, its “military might.”

Though last year he failed to execute his plans to match, or explicitly “top,” France’s parade, he’s finally getting what he wants.

But Trump’s comments about his aims for the event — “showing to the American people, among other things, the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the World,” as he put it on Twitter — reveal that he fundamentally missed the point of Bastille Day. Enchanted by the tanks and flyovers, he overlooked other aspects of the French celebration that make it quite different in tone and tenor from the displays of martial force put on by autocratic regimes like Russia and North Korea, whose garish displays he now risks echoing.

A bit of history reveals the complexity of France’s Bastille Day fete — and clarifies how the military fits into the picture of what’s essentially a celebration of French national identity. Bastille Day, of course, marks the 1789 fall of the notorious prison that for centuries symbolized royal authority, and which served as home to many of the king’s unlucky targets, often relatives whom the monarchy deemed inconvenient.

The storming of the Bastille is widely considered to have ignited the French Revolution. Pro-Republican French organized annual commemorations in the years that followed the revolution. When Napoleon seized power in a 1799 coup, he repackaged the event as a military parade. Then, after his fall in 1814, the restored monarchy did away with the celebration altogether, pushing it underground, and it became a sort of act of Republican dissent.

What’s more, the contemporary parade celebrates not just the fall of the Bastille, but the sweeping, anti-monarchist victory that followed a century later, in the crucial 1880 elections. The left-wing National Assembly that emerged from that vote declared July 14 a national holiday to honor citizens’ empowerment; a military side of the parade was revived to showcase France’s pledge to regain the territories it lost to Germany in 1871.

So, yes, echoing that past, France’s parade today features elite military regiments. But the event as a whole is more about citizenship and unity than about showing the world the country’s military power — Trump’s vision of what his own parade would project. Moreover, the military element has deep historic roots, unlike Trump’s concocted show of force, even if its meaning has shifted over time.

France’s annual event has a decidedly international flavor that Trump would be hard-pressed to embrace. It has included troops from around the world, and not only from French territories or former colonies but also India, Mexico, Singapore and Japan — plus delegations from international organizations, including the United Nations. French soldiers have in past years brandished the European Union flag, honoring allies and advertising a commitment to international institutions. It’s about France, but also about its role in the world. And it’s meant to proudly champion the values of the liberal international order on which Emmanuel Macron has staked his presidency, and which Trump has so brazenly sought to destroy.

Some have drawn parallels between the 41-year-old French president and his 73-year-old American counterpart: Both campaigned as political disrupters, both love the pomp of the presidency, and both share an evident disdain for the media. But Macron, a staunch defender of the European project, has denounced Trump’s “America First” nationalism as a “betrayal of patriotism”; at last year’s Armistice Day celebration, Macron said,“By saying ‘Our interests first. Who cares about the others?’ we erase what a nation holds dearest, what gives it life, what makes it great, and what is essential: its moral values.”

Those ideals, against which Trump has declared war, are central to the parade that runs along the famed Champs Elysees avenue every year in Paris. Bastille Day, in roughly its current form, has taken place annually since 1880, independent of politics or partisanship; Trump’s July 4 equivalent would mark the first such American military parade since 1991, which was held to celebrate the U.S. victory in the Persian Gulf War. And Trump appears to view it as yet another campaign rally — this time with a hard militaristic edge — that glorifies his own presidency, not as a celebratory tribute to those broader American values he often emphatically disregards.

Bastille Day was Trump’s inspiration, but he seems to have confused that event with the Soviet-style military parades now parroted by authoritarian leaders from China to North Korea. His objective isn’t to celebrate the U.S. presence on the world stage, tip a hat to allies and celebrate the nation’s rich democratic history. Rather, it’s to show off a “new” America unencumbered by what he sees as a bygone commitment to the international order and the civic values it represents. Trump may have watched the French parade, but he failed to look past its shiny military surface.

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So, today, on this July 4th, enjoy your family, friends and America.  Pay no attention to Trump.

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.

Under President Donald Trump, the annual Independence Day celebration in Washington, D.C. is turning into re-election campaign event for himself.

What’s more, government money is being used to heap supposed esteem on this most mercurial of presidents.

And, what’s even worse, Trump’s order for a full military display – with tanks rumbling down the street in the Nation’s Capitol – conjures up images, for me, of what Adolph Hitler did in Germany to rally citizens there to support his unjust cause.

He wanted displays of military hardware, plus millions of soldiers, to show how strong he was…against the world.  By historical footage, I know Hitler relished seeing all the assembled military hardware and personnel arrayed to support him.

And, we know what Hitler produced – World War II and his incredible campaign to rid the world of an entire race of people, the Jews.

I have used the Trump-to-Hitler comparison before, especially as I returned from a trip to Europe, including Germany, where, again, I saw first-hand the history of the Hitler atrocities.

Too much to compare Trump to Hitler? No. To me, the comparison is apt.

The Washington Post reports this morning that the National Park Service is diverting nearly $2.5 million in entrance and recreation fees primarily intended to improve parks across the country to cover costs associated with Trump’s Independence Day celebration on the Mall.

Trump administration officials have consistently refused to say how much taxpayers will have to pay for the expanded celebration , which the president has dubbed the “Salute to America.”

The diverted park fees represent just a fraction of the extra costs the government faces as a result of the event, which will include displays of military hardware, flyovers by an array of jets including Air Force One, the deployment of tanks on the Mall and an extended pyrotechnics show.

Further, for Trump’s planned speech at the Lincoln Memorial, the White House is distributing VIP tickets to Republican donors and political appointees, prompting objections from Democrat lawmakers who argue that the president has turned the annual celebration into a campaign-like event.

Just another part of a continuing Trump infomercial, which like Hitler, heaps “required” praise on an individual, himself.

For an annual event that should be a celebration about America, Trump has turned everything into a toast to him.

I’ll give the Post’s “Politics 202” column almost the last word this morning:

“Celebration is what July 4 is supposed to be about. Instead, Americans are squabbling on Independence Day Eve over whether it condones slavery to honor the third president or to put the Betsy Ross flag on Nike sneakers. More significantly, has ordered tanks and other military assets into the nation’s capital for a new kind of ceremony that critics fear will be as much a celebration of himself as the nation’s birthday.”

My last word: Don’t expect me to drinking a toast to Trump.

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.

The headline to this blog makes a point what won’t be true for me.

I will not vote for Trump in 2020, give his complete lack of character and the continuing untruths of his “act” as president, which resembles an infomercial for his brand – whatever that is.

What may be good for Trump is that many Democrats are lurching so far left you would have to design a new political spectrum to place them on it.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the leftward lurch is apparent on issue after issue, as follows:

• Climate change is now an urgent crisis that demands eliminating not merely the coal industry but all fossil fuels.
• Enforcing immigration laws that were once passed by bi-partisan majorities in Congress is now inhumane.
• Free health care for Americans isn’t enough; now it must also be an entitlement for any foreign migrant who enters the U.S.
• College loans must be forgiven in part or whole, and tuition now must be free.
• Taxes must be raised to rates unheard of since the 1960s because, as New York Mayor Bill de Blasio put it, money is “just in the wrong hands.”
• The Electoral College must be killed to save American democracy, and the Supreme Court must be packed with more Justices because the left now sometimes loses decisions.

The WSJ adds that it is not clear why the Ds have gone so far left so fast.

“Perhaps,” according to WSJ editorial writers, “it is changing demographics led by the millennial socialists scarred by the Great Recession. Perhaps Trump’s conservative populism (if that label, populism, is accurate) has inspired its counterpart on the left.

“Whatever the cause, this Bernie Sanders’ issue list triumph is the single most important development in the 2020 campaign. Trump should be grateful. If this is the opposition agenda next year, he might win a second term.”

He also will benefit from what WSJ columnist Peggy Noonan says is the reality in America that “elites in politics, media and the academy have grown oblivious to ‘the average Joe’s intense disgust’ at being morally instructed and ‘preached to.’

“Every day, Americans are told of the endless ways they are falling short. If we don’t show the ‘proper’ level of understanding according to a talking head, then we are surely racist. If we don’t embrace every sanitized PC talking point, then we must be heartless. If we have the audacity to speak our mind, then we are most definitely a bigot. These accusations are relentless.

“We are jabbed like a boxer with no gloves on to defend us. And we are fed up. We are tired of being told we aren’t good enough.”

To my friends, Noonan and WSJ editorial writers, I say this: We need someone in this country – R, D, or independent – who will lead us to the center and then operate from there.  Not the extremes of the left or the right.

For me, the center is a good place to be in politics these days, but I the center is growing smaller and shallower every day.

And the smaller and shallower it goes, the more Trump, the buffoon, benefits.