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.

President Donald Trump is mostly show, with little tell. He functions like a showman, someone who continues to preside over a reality TV show.

Columnist Gary Abernathy made this point today in a piece that ran in the Wall Street Journal.

“With Trump,” Abernathy write, “we get the cheesy, the shocking and sometimes the uncomfortable — just like a good drive-in movie. Trump never seems to study the script or know his part, at least as defined by those previously cast as the ‘President of the United States.’ His riffing and ad-libbing are endless sources of dismay from Democrats, the media and, quite often, Republicans. But drive-in movies never depended on good scripts.”

But, Trump, true to his showman form, loves the display.

“…Trump appeals to Americans,” Abernathy continues, “who were never invited onto the red carpet, a snub that was due in part to their lack of formal training in political theater. His fans are particularly offensive to highbrow critics.”

Trump benefits from the fact that establishment political figures in Washington, D.C. have been engaged in performances that seemed designed for their own edification, not the public’s benefit from good government. The audience – you and me – often seemed to be taken for granted or ignored outright.

That was one of the main factors that led to Trump’s presidential election win.

Even today, dismayed by the success of Trunp’s performance, the old guard’s faithful political ushers prowl the aisles, shaking Trump supporters by the shoulders and insisting they ‘wake up’ and give up on Trump.

To Trump, Abernathy writes, “invitation-only black-tie premieres are out; Friday nights at the drive-in are in.”

The drive=in metaphor may not resonate today because, to put a point on it, there aren’t many anymore. Still, whatever the comparison, the notion that Trump is a performance artist sticks.

Those who follow him appear to do so precisely because he defies most expressions of the “political order,” thus appealing to their perspective that “normal” political figures acted for their own aggrandizement. So, we Trump, the showman.

For me, the problem is that Trump’s performance wears thin because, in fact, it is thin.  And the country continues to be at risk.

To make this point, let me quote from comments from William H. McRaven, a retired Navy admiral, who was commander of the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command from 2011 to 2014 and who oversaw the 2011 Navy SEAL raid in Pakistan that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

“Like most Americans, McRaven wrote, “ I had hoped that when you (Trump) became president, you would rise to the occasion and become the leader this great nation needs.

“A good leader tries to embody the best qualities of his or her organization. A good leader sets the example for others to follow. A good leader always puts the welfare of others before himself or herself.”

Not 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 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.

It was about 10 years ago now that I made a decision to become independent politically – it is called “unaffiliated” now – which means that I would be neither a Republican or a Democrat.

At the time, I took this action for at least a couple reasons.

• One was that, as a lobbyist, I felt it was better expressly not to identify with either party because I had “to work the middle,” not just those affiliated with one party or the other, at the Capitol in Salem.  Many policy issues are decided in that space – the middle.

• A second reason, frankly, was that I was tired being identified with either party since “party politics” is not my first love. I also disliked being identified with the excesses of either the Ds or the Rs.

All of this came to my mind this morning when I read a column in the Wall Street Journal by Joseph Epstein, author of “The Ideal of Culture and Other Essays” and the forthcoming “Charm: The Elusive Enchantment” to be published in October.

This was the headline:

Don’t Invite Me to a Party If It’s a Political One

A good friend of mine says he ‘hates’ Paul Ryan. Hates! What motivates such an unseemly passion?

And here is more from Epstein:

“The other day, sorting through my always ample junk mail—pleas for donations to save the armadillo, to conquer dandruff, to fight elegance—I noted an envelope from the Illinois Republican Party. The GOP wanted to know if I intended to register as a Republican in the coming election, and, while we were at it, wanted to know my age, income, whether I owned my residence, and other information that was not any of its business.

“Without a moment’s reflection, I threw this bit of mail, too, into the garbage. Even though I haven’t voted for a Democrat for president since 1976, I have never considered myself, nor ever shall, a locked-in member of a political party. In 2016, I could not bring myself to vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, and with every passing day I feel better about that abstention.”

With Epstein, I admit that it is difficult, given America’s history, to imagine the country functioning without political parties. But it is equally difficult to imagine, as Epstein put it, “political truth and America’s larger interests lying chiefly with either Republicans or Democrats. To sign on with one or the other is to give away too much in independence of thought, feeling, integrity.”

Epstein writes, “If you have signed on as a Democrat in our day, for example, you have to retain a certain sympathy for, among others, Bernie Sanders, Robert Menendez and Maxine Waters, or at any rate you cannot come out strongly against them.”

Yet, he adds, “if you have signed on as a lifetime Republican, you are stuck with the Freedom Caucus, John Bolton and Ted Cruz. One party lashes you to the moral certainty of Elizabeth Warren, the other to the overconfidence of John Kasich, who, if pressed, will tell you that as governor he wiped out Islamic State in Ohio.”

Point made.

I disliked – read, “hated” – to be identified with either party, given that parties have become haters…one sides hates the other which makes it almost impossible to find the mart middle ground.

Party politics, Epstein continues, “also conditions you in ways that often do not make much sense. A good friend of mine—a lifelong Democrat, though one flexible enough to have been against President Obama’s Iran deal—told me not long ago that he hates Paul Ryan. Hates! I didn’t press him for his reasons. But Mr. Ryan, the best representative both personally and ideationally of intelligent Republicanism, seems, with such a large pool to choose from, a strange man to hate. Only membership in a political party could motivate such unseemly passion.”

I agree, again.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan has faced an almost impossible job in the nation’s Capitol – herding cats among Republicans, facing off against Democrats (such as Representative Nancy Pelosi who appears to hate Ryan), and contending with the worst president in U.S. history, Republican Donald Trump.

All of this has made it impossible, unfortunately, for Ryan to show the policy chops that made him a solid figure in the U.S. House, not to mention a candidate for vice president.

To avoid the hate of both sides, Epstein says chose to be an independent.

And, as he concludes: “Easy enough to understand why those thoroughly committed to one or another of our political parties, heavily invested emotionally in them, would look down on someone who declares himself an independent, content to sit away from the struggle far off in the bleachers.

“My own feeling, though, is that the view of the game is better and more amusing from up there, and the air a lot cleaner.”

So, from my own spot above the “hate game” — some no doubt would call them the “cheap seats” or the “peanut gallery” — I agree.

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.

Foe me, the question in the headline arose in response to a Washington Post piece about the fact that, yes, more and more legislators are doing just that – turning their back on the will of the people expressed at the polls..

Is it wise to do so? Well, the answer depends on the specific, individual circumstances in various states.

In Oregon, the answer is probably not a wise move in general, but, during my career as a lobbyist, I was involved in one of the major cases where legislators asked voters to decide an issue a second time.

This was a controversial one – the voter-backed initiative to allow physician-assisted suicide in Oregon back in 1994. Oregon was the first state to allow the practice, though the proposed law passed at the polls by only a 51 to 49 per cent margin.

In the spirit of full disclosure, the company where I was a partner ran the opposition campaign and I was heavily involved in what eventually was an unsuccessful effort NOT to allow physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.

So, to put it specifically, I have a bias in what I am writing here, given my role in the ballot measure campaign.

In 1994, the measure passed only by a couple percentage points, so legislators agreed to send it out to the people again, which some said was a violation of the “will of the people.”

As I remember it, legislators took the action for at least two basic reasons:

• The margin was so close.
• And, assisted suicide was a very controversial procedure that, up to that time, was not legal anywhere in the country,

In November 1997, in the second time around, voters expressed a clear preference, passing the measure by a 60-40 margin.

Here’s the way the Washington Post described the national situation today:

“The strategy of putting policy questions directly to voters has become more popular in recent years. In 2016, some 76 initiatives appeared on ballots across the country. That’s the highest number in a decade.”

NOTE; In Oregon, initiatives, by contrast to the national scene, have been a way of political for more than 20 years.

“So have attacks on the results. In the past two years alone, legislators have filed more than 100 bills across 24 states aimed at reversing ballot measures, according to the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which focuses on advancing progressive priorities through ballot initiatives.”

To close the loop in Oregon, let me recite one last development. After passage of assisted suicide by a landslide in 1997, I went to the Capitol on behalf of my client, Providence Health System, to contend that, in what passed at the polls, the “immunities clause” was poorly drafted.

The “immunities clause” we wanted to revise would better allow, for reasons of ethics and conscience, an organization to avoid becoming involved in assisted suicide. In this case, Providence, which was and is a health care provider affiliated with the Catholic Church, wanted to get out from under operating with a law it considered unethical.

With help from one of the best legislators at the Capitol, Senator Neil Bryant, R-Bend, we crafted language that allowed Providence and others to avoid assisted suicide if they chose to do so on ethical grounds. This pertained to assisted suicide:

• On the grounds of property it owned.
• By employees who worked for Providence.
• By contractors for Providence “within the course and scope of their contract.”

In return, Providence and others had to agree out to refer patients out to reputable assisted suicide resources if patients wanted such services.

Given the political reality that the “people had spoken,: it was an excellent compromise, though referral was hard for Providence to swallow because it felt it was unethical to refer out for such a practice. Still, with Senator Bryant’s credibility, we were able to usher the protections toward final passage and they remain in law today.

If there a moral to this story? Probably not. Except to say that, in Oregon’s specific circumstance back in the mid to late 1990s, legislators recognized the will of the people, but took steps to improve on what had passed at the polls

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.

In one of my previous blogs, I wrote about a lesson I learned from one of my bosses years ago. It was this: Every day, try to thank someone for doing something that helped you.

Just a bit of etiquette? Yes. But a good one.

Then, last week, I read a post from a professor at Drexel University. It appeared in the Wall Street Journal under the headline, “The Lost Art of the Apology Letter.”

The piece began this way:

“’Dear Mr. and Mrs. DiGioia,’ ,the letter begins. ‘We received a phone call from Sachs Dress Shop in New Haven today inquiring about the ‘duns’ we mailed to you. We immediately investigated the matter, and found, to our extreme chagrin, that $2 payment which you had made was mis-posted on our records to some one else’s account. This explanation is not intended as an excuse, for there can be no excuse for such errors, even though they do occur due to the tens of thousands of accounts which we handle.’”

The writer went on to say that such apology letters tend to be few and far between these days. She labeled the rarity the “disappearance of civility.”

I could add that, beyond thanks you and apology letters, civility is often missing from politics in America these days. That is no doubt due, in large part, to the most uncivil of presidents in our history, Donald Trump.

That is why one of my favorite quotes is attributed to General Colin Powell when he decided, a few years ago, not to run for president. Then he “bemoaned the loss of civility in politics.” Just imagine what he would say today!

The apology letter advocate when on to say that she bemoaned “the growing tendency toward thoughtless or rude behavior. Even seemingly well-brought-up people these days fail to write thank-you notes (or even emails) in response to gifts. They neglect to RSVP to invitations to parties (or even weddings). They act nasty on-line (or even in person) toward people who happen to disagree.”

Back to the lesson I learned some years ago. Try to say thank you to someone every day and you’ll be the better for it.

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 one three departments I run. The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.

I am the director of these three departments with an absolute free hand to decide when they are open and, if they are, what they will consider. Just call me a dictator.

So, Bits and Pieces is open again.

CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS GOLF TWOSOME?

In the recent British Open – knowledgeable golfers, especially those from across the pond, call this “The Open” – there was an incredible twosome, at least by name. Two letter names, to boot.

One was Kevin Na. The other was Beyong An.

So, the twosome was Na and An. Not hard to pronounce.

Why do I notice stuff like this? Well, the answer is too much time on my hands in retirement.

“ROARING AND BROODING”

The Washington Post labeled Trump with this phrase about a week ago.. And that is cause for concern for all Americans.

Who knows what Trump will do when he broods? In this case, the worst act was to call out none other than pro basketball player LeBron James because, in a TV interview, James didn’t support Trump.

I say, who cares? Doesn’t Trump have better stuff to do than to rail against a basketball player?  I would hope so.

One just has to hope that Trump won’t do something really bad as he broods.

WANT TO BE TRUMP’S LAWYER?

Speaking of an impossible task, consider this one. Almost every time Trump bangs out another tweet, he gives his counsel a new, steep hill to climb. This time, Trump, perhaps without thinking about what he was doing – which isn’t unusual – admitted that his son had met with Russians to get dirt on Hillary Clinton, then almost admitted that he knew about the meeting.

If I was Trump’s lawyer – perish the thought! – I would quit. Can’t represent someone who thinks he is his own best lawyer, which amounts to “having an idiot for a client.”

A GREAT DECISION BY THE OREGON GOLF ASSOCIATION!

I just returned from a afternoon-long stint as an official for a junior golf tournament at Mallard Creek in Lebanon, Oregon. The news here is that the Oregon Golf Association (OGA) displayed its usual good sense by allowing a handicapped junior golf to ride in a golf cart in order to be able to play in the event.

Having volunteered for the OGA for a number of years, I have found the leaders and staff there to be well-organized and smart, especially when it comes issues like treating handicapped persons with respect and sensibility.

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 have been trying for some time to come up with a short, apt description of President Donald Trump. Tough because there are so many options.

Some of them dominate the columns of commentators from the left and the right and in-between. For me, none of them do a perfect job of capturing the actions and vicissitudes of the most disagreeable president in U.S. history.

I even wonder if we will be able to survive his four-year term in office, must less a second term if he were to win one.

Thus, a story in the Wall Street Journal caught my attention this morning. It was about the life of mid-20th-century England’s most raffishly bohemian writer, Julian MacLaren-Ross.

His career in flummery and flimflam was launched when he left reform school at age 14 to work as a Coney Island pitchman, then joined Dr. W.H. Long’s Big Indian and Medicine Show.

“The bigger the lies he told, the more avidly people seemed to embrace them. Alas, such brazen trumpery succeeds even now.”

To me, that sounds a lot like Trump who functions with “flummery and flimflam” more like the host of a bogus reality TV show than a world leader.

After trying and failing for months to describe Trump, here is my one-sentence description:

Trump lives in a vacuous reality he creates for himself, regardless of facts or truth, thus believing that he himself is the master of all, and anyone who disagrees with him is a follower of fake news worthy of only disdain and criticism.

This sentence includes four key characteristics of Trump:

• He creates his own make-believe reality.
• He doesn’t care about facts or truth.
• He is the master of all, at the center of his own self-created universe.
• Anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and worthy of biting criticism.

Now, to all of this, some may want to add that the America’s economy is percolating along nicely under Trump. True – and that’s good news for all of us.

But the news pages of the Wall Street Journal put it this way this morning as reporters assessed coming elections:

“Republicans have gotten little political traction from their tax cuts, as other economic changes — rising gas prices and blowback from Trump’s tariffs — have offset any financial lift. Instead, as a three-month sprint to November begins, Republicans are focusing on the fear of ‘open borders,’ tax increases, the MS-13 gang, and Pelosi (former Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, from San Francisco, who continues to lead Democrats) back in charge, overseeing a liberal caucus.”

Expect more flummery and flimflam from Trump on the months ahead.

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.

One of the best pieces I ever got as a lobbyist in the State of Oregon came from one of our firm’s mentors, the late Chuck Frost, once a vice president for then Oregon’s largest private company, Tektronix.

Frost provided three pieces of great advice as he we started our company, CFM Strategic Communications – advice, which was goof for all 25 years of my run with CFM. Here is summary:

+ Build and bank good will. Establishing a pattern of service will serve you well with clients and in the community. Tektronix, under Chuck’s leadership, set out to do that in the Oregon Legislature and in Congress, earning credit that allowed the company to be seen as Oregon’s high-tech business leader.

This approach used to work in the lobby game, but, for all sorts of reasons, it is not as effective these days with a far more confrontational style of politics.

Let me emphasize this, too. If we tried to build or bank goodwill, we expected nothing specific in return. No quid pro quo. But we did hope for consideration for the viewpoints we expressed to officials on behalf of our clients.

+ Integrity is your main credential — don’t lose it! Always do the right thing. Honesty in business relationships will stand you in good stead regardless of the business environment.

This sounds far removed from reality today. Integrity seems to be often a mostly lost credential. Many political figures get by without much in the sense of honesty, ethics or integrity. But, as lobbyists, we felt our integrity was crucial to potential success. We fought hard to maintain it.

+   Advance principles that are not just in your self-interest, but in the public interest, as well. For our firm over the years, this was a critical test in any lobbying or public relations task.

Over the years, we couldn’t always this perspective, self-interest being what it is, but we tried hard to do so. Lobbying was easier when you could argue from two bases – (a) the benefit to your clients who were solid members of a community; and (b) the benefit to the general public.

For the moment, at least, these three credentials seem to be missing from today’s public policy process. Some of this is due to President Donald Trump who may be on the way to impeachment if Democrats control Congress next year.

His misdeeds and untruths are becoming legendary, marked, as always, by hate and disdain for anyone who has the temerity to disagree with him because he knows all and is always right.

The principles outlined above served us well as lobbyists in my company for more than 25 years. As you review them, you may come to think of them as potential axioms for life, as well as for lobbying.

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.

In one of my most recent blog posts, I listed a number of phrases used by lobbyists, including me when I was a lobbyist at the State Capitol in Oregon.

I forgot one – a very important one. It is this:

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

It is important because it describes a truism about the role of a lobbyist. What happens one day can repeat itself the next day.

In other words, don’t hold grudges or long memories. You may lose one day, but might win the next as “what goes around comes around.”

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.

Listing popular lobbyist phrases is possible because I was one — a lobbyist — for many years, including 25 years for the private sector.

That gave me a bunch of experiences, including understanding various phrases which were used by lobbyists and conveyed meaning, at least in the lobby world.

This may be a repeat of what I have written before but, oh well, here goes again.

ALL HAT AND NO CATTLE

I love this phrase. It prances off the tongue and into the ear. What it means is that many politicians don’t have deep policy perspectives, but, just the same, make vast pronouncements.

A CAMEL’S NOSE UNDER THE TENT

This is a phrase meant to indicate that, if you are lobbyist opposing a bill, the first step toward passage often is used by advocates to stair-step an idea toward final action. Thus, the camel’s nose is under the tent, which is a bad thing.

THE FIRST STEP DOWN A SLIPPERY SLOPE

This phrase, borrowed from skiing, has the same connotation as the one above. If action is taking in favor of a piece of legislation, it may not be possible to stop the movement toward passage.

DODGING, BOBBING AND WEAVING

During my career, I used this phrase to indicate the various actions opponents of one of “my ideas” (actually my clients’ ideas) could take to express that opposition. And, if you think about the phrase for a few minutes, each of the three actions – dodging, bobbing and weaving – connotes a different movement.

THIS PROPOSED POLICY VIOLATES LEGISLATIVE SIDEBOARDS

When I was walking the halls of the Capitol with a client who was not familiar with the legislative process, he told me, “It’s good to have someone (me) who knows the legislative sideboards.” It was meant to suggest that, in any legislative arena, there are typical processes to follow to promote passage or failure of any bill.

Knowing the “sideboards” is key to what any good lobbyist does.

There are other phrases, but these come quickly to mind. The funny ones – especially the “all hat and no cattle” example – often made life easier for me in the rough and tumble of the State Capitol in Salem.

I even may try to use at least some of these phrases in my every day life as a retired lobbyist.

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.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the political system in this country doesn’t work anymore.

Most of the dysfunction is due to President Donald Trump who cannot act like a real president who places heart over disdain and who works to find common ground of the sort that ought to be required of a leader of the free world. Trump does neither.

Even to call Trump a world leader is a phrase that gets caught in my throat.

Consider these recent thoughts from commentators on the sad state of our democracy.

From Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post: “As for the Trump administration, neither temporal nor geographic distance improves one’s perception of the president’s multitudinous and outrageous misdeeds. To the contrary, on the ground in Western Europe, ordinary individuals, media and political leaders reacted with amazement and horror at the series of events that have occurred over a fortnight.”

From William A. Galston in the Wall Street Journal: “In the wake of President Trump’s press conference with Vladimir Putin, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich condemned the equivalence Trump drew between U.S. intelligence services and the Putin regime, calling the remarks ‘the most serious mistake of his presidency.’ Gingrich is wrong. Though Trump withdrew his slap at the intelligence community, his embrace of Russia was no mistake. It represents the distilled essence of his presidency.

“Hours before the meeting in Helsinki, Trump tweeted the following message: ‘Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt.’ It took the Russian Foreign Ministry just a few hours to overcome its amazement and re-tweet Trump’s message along with their terse addition: ‘We agree.’”

From Roger Cohen in the New York Times: “President Trump, in concert with several European leaders, including those of Hungary, Poland, Austria and Italy, is intent on dehumanizing immigrants and refugees. The aim is to equate them with terrorists and criminals ready to ‘infest’ – Trump’s word – American and European civilization, defined as a threatened white Judeo-Christian preserve.

“It’s a consistent policy buttressed by insinuation and lies about the supposed threat, and designed to manipulate fear and nationalism as election-winning emotions in a time of rapid technological change, large migrant flows and uncertainty. Vermin infest, not humans.”

From Dan Balz, chief correspondent for the New York Times: “The November election could be about many things. Immigration. Tax cuts and the economy. The Supreme Court and the future of abortion rights. Trade and tariffs. The menu changes with the cascading of events. Ultimately, the midterms will be about intensity. On that factor, Democrats ought not to underestimate President Trump.

“Trump dominates like no president in recent memory. He dominates the daily conversation in the country. He manufactures diversions and distractions, starts brush fires or all-out conflagrations. He creates stirs constantly with tools his predecessors never had or imagined using. He says whatever he wants to say, regardless of the truth. He puts the news media on the defensive and calls journalists the ‘enemy of the people.’ He makes himself impossible to ignore. His supporters love it.”

I could go on, but let me stop there and suggest the conclusion in the headline to this blog: The political system in this country is in trouble.

The main reason is Trump. He defies explanation. Truth is not his friend. Everything revolves around him as the center of his own universe regardless of truth or facts.

Inaction and stalemate in Congress adds to the dislocation as members try to one-up each other with hate, disdain and acrimony.

I have tried to maintain a sense of equilibrium in the face of all things Trump and Congress, but it is very difficult to do so. Still, I hope good Americans, wherever they are, will help democracy rise above hate and acrimony. One of the actions to take is to elect better leaders.