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 work up this morning to mostly clear skies, then remembered it was July 4^th, American Independence Day.

How do I feel on this day?  Well, the sky was still clear and the sun was still up.

How you feel is a good question these days as America faces a variety of national and international challenges, the toughest of which are often the national ones where Americans appear to hate each other more often than like each other.

For me, there little doubt but that the angst is fomented by one Donald Trump who capitalizes on fear and loathing to continue his march to what he hopes will be a second term as president of these United States.

Still, despite his apparent aspiration, he acts like he mostly hates the country he wants to lead.

Perish the thought that he would be in the Oval Office again practicing his craft as more showman, than political leader.

But, this morning, rather than focus on Trump, I prefer to do what I do every morning, which is to read the Washington Post.  There, I encountered two columns worth noting – one an editorial and a second a column by Megan McArdle.

Both are worth contemplating on this Independence Day, so I reprint them in whole.  For me, I prefer not to pessimistic about this country and these two articles help me achieve that objective today.

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BY THE EDITORIAL BOARD

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The United States finds itself in a funk as it celebrates its 247th birthday. Fewer than 4 in 10 U.S. adults describe themselves as “extremely proud” to be American, according to fresh Gallup polling, essentially unchanged from last year’s record low and down from about 7 in 10 two decades ago.

This is understandable given the unremitting pace of alarming headlines. There is a tide of worry about a lack of civic cohesion, intense partisanship and, to some, a sense of hopelessness. July 4^th , however, is a day to celebrate, among other national virtues, the United States’ proven capacity for renewal and self-improvement. The staying power of our system comes from its ability to correct and recalibrate. Free elections and open markets create dynamism that increases political and economic freedom.

The genius of America is that it’s built for give and take, accommodation and compromise, checks and balances, reform, and reaction. People in China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba aspire to freedom. But their systems don’t tolerate constructive dissent.

Yes, we hear people who should know better say things have never been this bad. That’s as historically myopic as it is objectively wrong. Measured by almost every metric, the United States is better off than 200 — or even 20 — years ago. Start with economic well-being:  The U.S.-led global order has brought millions out of poverty. America remains the capital of medical, technological, and artistic invention.

The framers designed a self-healing system that also allows for moral growth. We carry the scars of the Civil War, the Jim Crow era, the Great Depression, McCarthyism, Watergate, and Vietnam but came out of them a better people. The country that initially counted enslaved people as three-fifths of a person twice elected a Black president. The newest member of the Supreme Court is not only the descendant of enslaved people; she’s married to the descendant of enslavers in a marriage that could have been illegal until 1967.

So why are many Americans no longer as proud of their country?

Corrosive partisanship is no small part of the answer. Until 2018, Donald Trump’s second year as president, majorities consistently expressed extreme pride in America when Gallup ran its annual pre-July Fourth poll. But many Democrats lost faith in their country after the 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville and failed to reclaim it after their party won control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. Today, only 29 per cent of Democrats say they’re extremely proud to be American, compared with 60 per cent of Republicans.

Alarmingly, across party lines, just 18 per cent of 18-to-34-year-olds say they’re extremely proud of this country. This generation grew up amid the dislocation of the Great Recession, seemingly endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, school shootings and active-shooter drills.

More recently came the disillusionment that accompanied pandemic isolation; George Floyd’s murder; the casual cruelty of Trumpism; the January 6, 2021, insurrection; the opioid and fentanyl crises; and warning signs that the effects of climate change are real and growing. With these frames of reference, fear and hopelessness are unsurprising.

A decline in national pride ought not be viewed in isolation from daily events, but these events also provide evidence of this nation’s resiliency. While Trump remains the dominant force inside the GOP, democracy held in 2020 despite his efforts to overturn the election and voters rejected the most egregious election deniers in 2022. January 6, 2021, was one of the darkest days in U.S. history, but a House select committee conducted a thorough investigation and the Justice Department has charged more than 1,000 people with participating in the Capitol attack. All of this reflects a triumph for democratic institutions and the rule of law.

Even the chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border — a flash point for the left and the right — is a reminder that this country remains a beacon of opportunity so powerful that people around the world are willing to take enormous risks to move into what they understand to be a promised land. They still want a shot at the American Dream.

Then there is the indispensable supporting role that the United States is playing in Ukraine. American leadership in the world remains as essential as ever.

Between baseball and barbecue, let’s all take a deep breath before the presidential election season kicks into high gear. Despite the corrosiveness of self-doubt and political tribalism, there is much to celebrate. American values have matured and endured, and while our union is still far from perfect, we continue to believe it’s an experiment worth pursuing.

This Editorial Board often highlights ways in which America falls short of her ideals. A newspaper’s role is to hold leaders accountable and to measure America against her promises and potential. The unfettered freedom to do so is one of many reasons we’re extremely proud to be citizens of this country.

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BY COLUMNIST MEGAN McARDLE

Her words appeared under this headline:  Why there’s reason to believe American democracy has a bright future

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As July Fourth approaches, I’ve been thinking about a question that was put to the table at a recent lunch I attended: What big things are you optimistic about? I think my answer won the prize for most surprising: I am bullish about American democracy.

I’ve no doubt that many readers will find this answer a bit counterintuitive. To conservatives who are concerned about “woke capital,” the “deep state” and the ideological capture of the expert institutions that inform government policy, it might even sound crazy. And no less so to liberals who worry about a conservative Supreme Court rolling back decades of progress, as well as Donald Trump.

So in honor of 247 years of American independence, let me lay out why I am still optimistic about our country’s future.

To people on the right, I would note that capital appears to be undergoing a Great Unwokening, and the hated deep state is the same bureaucracy that validated the Hunter Biden laptop suspicions and spent years investigating him. As for expert capture, yes, it is real. But over the long run, I’m more worried that political showboating will discredit experts who have true and important information to share, as happened with public health officials during the pandemic, than I am that some PhD will bullyrag parents into letting their kids identify as cats.

To the left, I would point out that the republic has survived many sudden reversals of Supreme Court precedent, as well as the discovery of all sorts of new rights, under the Warren and Burger courts. Disliking the results of judicial fiats is not the same as proving they are incompatible with a functioning democracy.

As for Trump, yes, he would, if he could, bulldoze every American institution that stands in his way — but note how conspicuously he has failed to do so. When he was president, American institutions were tested, but while they creaked a bit here and there, they ultimately held strong.

Will they continue to do so? Many on the left see Trump’s failings as the natural outgrowth of various troubling currents on the right and therefore fear he is a harbinger of even worse to come.

Perhaps, but I think this worry ignores how unique Trump’s successes have been, how dependent on things such as his celebrity, his wicked genius for dominating a screen, and a too-crowded primary field where that talent mattered enormously. It is, of course, a depressing sign that even after Jan. 6, 2021, he still dominates the coming GOP primary. But it’s also heartening that his pale imitators aren’t having anything like his success. There is no Trumpism; there is only Trump. And Trump will eventually leave the stage.

U.S. democracy has rebuilt itself from centuries of chattel slavery and another hundred years of Jim Crow; from the Trail of Tears and the Japanese internment; from the Palmer Raids and the Comstock Act and the Red Scare. It recovered from anarchist bombs and urban crime waves and any number of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wilder schemes, including his plan to pack the Supreme Court. No matter how bad you think things look right now, you can find worse in American history — emphasis on “history.” Americans got through it. We can again.

Sure, maybe this time is different and America has finally broken itself. Maybe the antidemocratic talk has gone too far; maybe left and right hate each other too much to come together as a nation ever again. But let me close with the story I told the lunch table to explain why I don’t find all the dialed-up-to-11 online rhetoric so worrisome.

In the early 1930s, a sociologist named Richard LaPiere spent two years traveling across the United States with a Chinese couple — a fraught activity, given then-pervasive bigotry against Asians. Fortunately, they were refused service at only one of 66 hotels and none of the 184 restaurants they entered. Afterward, however, La Piere followed up with a questionnaire to those establishments, asking whether they would accept “members of the Chinese race.”

Of those who responded, more than 90 per cent said they would not.

We all know that people sometimes pretend to be better than they are — for example, by saying they care about racial equality while choosing segregated neighborhoods and schools. But this can also work the other way: Sometimes, people will confess an abstract hatred they’d never act on with an actual human being in front of them. So when I wonder whether Americans really hate each other too much to live as one nation, I look not at what people are saying online but how they behave in person.

Watch Americans dealing with one another day-to-day and you will mostly see them going out of their way to be nice. There are far more random acts of kindness in this country than there are drive-by shootings, and far more people acting with honesty and integrity, even when no one’s looking, than there are con men and thieves. We focus on the latter precisely because they are rare.

Which is why, for all the bad, America is better than it thinks itself. And I dare to believe that, in the future, it will be better still.

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.

President Joe Biden is known these days for his advanced age, for the gaffes he continues to produce, and for the criminal trials of his son.

But, for those who are paying attention, there are solid economic results all around.  And, some of them are due to Biden and his Administration.

I wish Americans – me included – would know more about the good news of what has come to be called “Bidenomics,” the current record of solid economic news.

Is “Bidenomics” all good news and a magic answer?  Of course not.  Plus, some critics of the Biden Administration point to what Biden has done as just more liberal spending, thus raising the federal deficit.

There may be at least some truth in that rendering, but, for now, I think Washington Post writer Jennifer Rubin has performed a service with her most recent column that appeared under this headline:  Bidenomics is transformative. Biden needs to ensure voters know it.

Here is how Rubin started her column:

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“Some presidents don’t have a strong story to tell about their record, so they deflect, distract, and demonize their opponents.  Other presidents’ records almost speak for themselves. President Biden, however, finds himself in an unusual spot:  An economic record that has been working far better than most people anticipated but that the electorate doesn’t yet recognize.”

Rubin’s list of accomplishments for the Biden Administration:

“The economy has created 13 million jobs, inflation has been more than cut in half, huge investments are being made in infrastructure and green energy, wage growth has begun to outpace inflation, the first drug price controls are going into effect and the biggest corporations will finally be forced to pay something in federal taxes.

“Yet, polls show voters incorrectly think we are in a recession and remain negative about the economy.”

The White House is aware of the problem, so it is making a focused push to narrow the gap between performance and perception.

On Monday, senior Biden advisers Mike Donilon and Anita Dunn released a four-page memorandum explaining the president’s vision, which they call “Bidenomics.”

Dunn and Donilon wrote:

“Bidenomics is rooted in the simple idea that we need to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up — not the top down. Implementing that economic vision and plan — and decisively turning the page on the era of trickle-down economics — has been the defining project of the Biden presidency.”

Then, they ticked off the list of accomplishments:  An economic recovery five years earlier than expected; 13 million jobs since the president took office — including nearly 800,000 manufacturing jobs; a higher job-participation rate for working-age Americans than at any time in the past 20 years; and others.

In a speech in Chicago, Rubin says Biden launched a renewed focus on the two most significant bi-partisan legislative accomplishments of his term, the infrastructure bill and the CHIPS and Science Act.

He hopes these measures will help brand him as the cross-aisle deal maker he sold to voters in 2020, appeal to political moderates who formed a core of his winning electoral coalition, and impress upon tuned-out voters what he has done in office.

Seasoned New York time columnist David Brooks entered this fray the other day, writing under the headline:  Why Biden Isn’t Getting the Credit He Deserves.

“The misery index is a crude but effective way to measure the health of the economy.  You add up the inflation rate and the unemployment rate.  If you’re a president running for re-election, you want that number to be as low as possible.

“When Ronald Reagan won re-election, it was about 11.4, when George W. Bush did so it was 9, for Barack Obama it was 9.5, and today, as Biden runs for re-election, it’s only 7.7.

“Biden should be cruising to an easy re-election victory.  And that misery index number doesn’t even begin to capture the strength of the American economy at the moment. The economy has created 13 million jobs since Biden’s Inauguration Day.  According to the Conference Board, a business research firm, Americans’ job satisfaction is at its highest level in 36 years. Household net worth is surging.

Why, then, Brooks asks, does Biden suffer from low poll results.  Then, answers his own question this way:

“…the main problem is national psychology.  Americans’ satisfaction with their personal lives is nearly four times as high as their satisfaction with the state of the nation.  That’s likely because, during the Trump era, we have suffered a collective moral injury, a collective loss of confidence, a loss of faith in ourselves as a nation.”

The national malaise, despite good economic news, revolves around Donald Trump.  As nothing more than showman, he has capitalized on the national fear, the loss of confidence, and even encouraged it.  He says he wants to lead government, yet, every day, he runs squarely against it.

So much so that he has persuaded usually smart Americans to support him, no matter what he has done to anyone – and especially to women in this country, treating them as nothing more than objects.

Also this:  Remember, it was a number of Republicans who helped pass the major economic bills that have contributed to “Bidenomics.”

So, in theory at least, it will be difficult for them to continue going after Biden.

The way Rubin puts it:

“While GOP presidential candidates and the Republican National Committee continue to paint Biden’s economic stewardship as a rolling disaster, Republican senators who helped shape the legislation say they anticipated that those accomplishments would accrue to Biden’s political advantage — as well as to their own.”

Still, just wait for the partisan criticism.  It will be there.  In all of politics these days, it’s never the middle.  Never credit for good work.  Never consensus to solve national problems.

Always personal criticism.

I say, if you look at politics, try to focus on facts, not dissension.  There is too much of the latter and not enough of the former.

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Closing Note:  I have said in the past that I don’t intend to write any more about Donald Trump.  But, I guess, I have lied.  I cannot help myself but to mention his stupidity as I have done again in what appears above. 

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.

As I write this blog headline, am I biased?

Yes. 

I represented Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) at the Capitol in Salem for about 10 years and my old firm still has the lobbying contract.

OPB is the best journalistic outfit going in the state, not just because newspapers are dying, but because of the way it practices its craft.  Accuracy and context are critical and, every day, OPB journalists excel at both.

Now, as for the end of the recent legislative session, there is no better way to mark the close than to reprint the OPB story.

Here goes.  This is a long piece, so may be more than you may want to read?  But, in legislative sessions, lawmakers  write new laws on the books, so what they choose to add matters to most Oregonians – including to you.

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By Dirk VanderHart (OPB) and Lauren Dake (OPB)

June 25, 2023 4:36 p.m.

The Capitol this year felt like a tale of two legislative sessions.

It was the best of times: In the first three months, lawmakers quickly and smoothly passed bipartisan bills to pave the way for more housing and attract new semiconductor activity.

It was the worst of times: Fractured over proposals on abortion and guns, the Senate saw the longest legislative walkout in state history. The six-week boycott ratcheted up rhetoric and pushed the session to the brink of collapse. It also will likely ensure 10 conservative lawmakers can’t seek reelection.

And in a final bewildering sprint that ended at 4:27 p.m. on Sunday, the session was chaos.

Over the course of eight frantic days, the chambers rushed to pass hundreds of bills, most with little or no discussion. The session concluded less than eight hours before lawmakers were required to adjourn under the state Constitution.

The tumult left some lawmakers with little overtly positive to say when asked how they’d encapsulate the session.

Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, called it “untidy.” To Monmouth Democratic Rep. Paul Evans it was “a challenging, exasperating, impossible-to-accurately-explain kind of ride.”

Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, nodded to a $500 million renovation that turned the Capitol into an active construction site throughout the session. “We’ve got all the normal egos, pressure and challenges with half the space and constant pounding and grinding going on,” he said. “What could go wrong?”

Acrimony and delay tested the abilities of a new crop of legislative leaders, and will be a big piece of the session’s legacy. But lawmakers had done a lot by the time the final gavels fell — from putting record funding toward schools and housing, to trying to prop up a deeply broken public defense system, to granting Oregonians permission to pump their own gas.

“Sometimes it’s not pretty along the way,” Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said shortly after the session adjourned. “But the evidence is the bills that we pass, the budgets that we pass.”

His counterpart in the House, Speaker Dan Rayfield, D-Corvallis, called it “one of the most exciting and meaningful sessions I’ve ever been a part of.”

Republicans were also feeling accomplished.

“Senate Republicans were finally able to give the nearly 2 million Oregonians we represent a voice in the Senate and a seat at the table,” Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, said in a statement. “We protected the rights of parents and law-abiding gun owners, restored the rule of law, and forced good-faith bipartisanship to get good things done.”

Here’s a rundown of some of the session’s highlights.

New personalities and major battles

For the first time in two decades, the Senate had a new leader. Wagner took over the gavel from Peter Courtney, the longest-tenured chamber leader in state history.

The learning curve was steep. Even before the session began, Wagner was attacked as “untrustworthy” by Knopp, the Republican leader. The relationship only got worse from there.

Knopp announced in an early-session press conference that Republicans would insist on requiring Democrats to read bills in full before a vote — a delay tactic used to give the minority party leverage.

Republicans were soon accusing Wagner and other Democrats of violating state law requiring bill summaries to be written at an eighth-grade reading level and of queuing up extreme bills.

“If someone isn’t willing to follow the rules or the law, the public should be deeply disturbed,” Knopp said of Wagner.

Democrats paid little heed to the Republican objections until May 3, when GOP senators launched a walkout to block a bill on abortion and gender-affirming care.

The maneuver set off a 42-day slog in which negotiations between the parties broke down repeatedly. An effort to broker a peace by Gov. Tina Kotek — brand new to her role, as well — went nowhere.

Finally, on June 15, the parties finalized an agreement. In exchange for a series of notable concessions by Democrats, enough Republicans returned to the Senate to allow the chamber to pass bills.

If the GOP won back some ground, the victory came at a hefty cost. By walking away, 10 conservative senators ran afoul of a new law and are likely unable to run for reelection.

Things went far more smoothly in the House, Rayfield and Minority Leader Vikki Breese-Iverson, R-Prineville, began cultivating a working relationship during last year’s legislative session. The leaders navigated their members through the session with comparably little controversy.

“I think we have formed a friendship if you will,” Breese-Iverson said of Rayfield midway through the session.

Rayfield returned the sentiment Sunday, calling Breese-Iverson “wonderful to work with.”

The housing and homelessness crisis, a top concern

Lawmakers were optimistic in January, in part because there was agreement from both parties on the most pressing issues facing the state: housing and homelessness.

Before the walkout and political scandals overshadowed the session, lawmakers passed an ambitious $200 million housing package. The measure, approved in March, gives cities across the state an infusion of cash to address the housing crisis and earmarks $27 million for rural counties.

Cities will also be required for the first time to set and meet affordable housing building targets. In addition, the bill contains a larger philosophical shift when it comes to the state’s land-use laws and aims to streamline the often-litigious and lengthy process of bringing more land inside the urban growth boundary.

House Majority Leader Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, said the housing package will have a real impact on those living on the streets or struggling to stay housed.

“The work we accomplished over the last six months will make a real difference in the lives of Oregonians,” she said in a statement. “We laid the foundation to build more housing and get people off the streets and into shelters.”

Besides the marquee housing package, lawmakers passed a stricter rent-control measure, ensuring rental costs can’t increase by more than 10%, regardless of inflation. There also were bills to make it easier for renters to stay housed and to help first-time homebuyers purchase a home.

On the final day of the session, lawmakers considered House Bill 3414, a measure to allow cities to unilaterally expand urban growth boundaries, cutting through a lot of red-tape in what is usually a lengthy process. This measure would have sidestepped the normal process for expanding urban growth boundaries.

A standoff over the bill, and heartburn from some Democrats over what it would do, delayed votes for hours on Saturday. The bill was a priority for Gov. Tina Kotek, who has set ambitious housing production goals.

In the end, enough Democratic senators voted against the measure to kill it, a stinging loss for the first-term Democratic governor. A visit by Kotek to the Senate chamber shortly after the vote was not enough to revive the bill.

The defeat was, in a way, a tangible political casualty of the walkout. Ironically, the five conservative senators still boycotting Salem may have been the key votes to turn the tide in Kotek’s favor.

An unprecedented tool to boost semiconductors

Oregon lawmakers may have come into the session optimistic, but they were also feeling insecure.

Once a national darling for its semiconductor research prowess, the state in recent years has sat spurned as states like Ohio and Arizona notched major projects. Lawmakers were bent on reversing that tide.

One of the session’s first major acts was to set Oregon up to be competitive for some of the $52 billion in federal cash made available by the CHIPS and Science Act. By early April, the Legislature had approved a whopping $210 million to help local companies develop projects that could qualify for even more federal money. Lawmakers kicked in another $50 million after a revenue forecast showed the state had nearly $2 billion more to spend than anticipated.

In a controversial move, the Legislature also gave Gov. Tina Kotek unprecedented authority to rejigger the invisible lines that dictate where development can and cannot occur under the state’s 50-year-old land use laws. The tool will be necessary if Oregon finds itself in desperate need of hundreds of acres of new industrial land to be competitive for federal funds — something that’s far from certain at this point.

Lawmakers didn’t stop with that early package. Cheered on by business groups, they worked up a new tax credit that will benefit semiconductor companies that expand their research and development activities in the state.

But the $4 million maximum tax breaks per company they eventually passed were far lower than the $10 million credits initially proposed. Total tax credits to all applicants will max out at $35 million over the next two years — a number business lobbyists will work to grow in the future.

“I think at one point they wanted a $300 million research and development tax credit,” Rayfield said last week. “That was never, ever realistic.”

Parental rights, at the heart of the legislative walkout

The measure at the heart of the longest legislative walkout in state history does a lot. It protects medical providers from prosecution if they provide an abortion to people traveling from anti-abortion states and it expands insurance coverage to include laser hair removal and facial feminization surgery for people seeking gender-affirming care.

But the part of the measure that spurred Republicans to boycott the Senate chamber centered on parental rights. As originally drafted, the measure would have made it explicit that minors under the age of 15 didn’t need a parent’s permission for an abortion. Republicans and their allies railed against that provision, calling it an affront to parents’ rights.

As part of the deal to bring Republicans back to the Capitol, Democrats agreed to keep in place a legal requirement that parental permission is required for children under 15 to end a pregnancy. But that requirement can be overridden if health care providers conclude informing parents would be harmful to the child, according to a briefing with key players engaged in the negotiations.

Democrats also agreed to nix portions of the bill expanding abortion access on university campuses and in rural parts of the state.

Banning ‘ghost guns’

Republicans won significant concessions on the session’s major gun control bill. Democrats had hoped to increase the age to purchase and own most guns from 18 to 21 and allow cities to ban concealed weapons in public buildings. But in order to end the legislative boycott, Democrats scrapped those two components in the session’s major gun control bill.

The only part of House Bill 2005 to make it into law, will be the component banning “ghost guns,” 3-D printed firearms without serial numbers that are assembled at home and can be easily purchased online.

Democrats also agreed to kill Senate Bill 348 and a handful of other gun bills that would put some provisions of Measure 114, a gun safety law approved by voters last year, into statute. The ballot measure is currently on hold amid court challenges. It banned the sale or transfer of extended capacity magazine clips and required a permit to purchase a gun, among other restrictions.

Tweaks to Oregon’s drug decriminalization law

Oregon has long had one of the nation’s highest rates of substance abuse, and overdoses are soaring as cheap fentanyl floods the drug market.

After two sessions where they put more than $1 billion of state and federal money toward addiction and mental health services, lawmakers were more measured this year. They levied a 40-cent monthly tax on phone lines as part of a $153 million spending plan. The tax is expected to raise roughly $33 million over the next two years, and will be used to fund the 9-8-8 crisis hotline and community mobile crisis teams.

With House Bill 2395, the Legislature also ensured that the overdose-reversal drug naloxone will be far more available to the public.

And lawmakers passed a couple bills that tweak Measure 110, the drug decriminalization measure passed by voters in 2020.

One gives the Oregon Health Authority a more muscular role in funding treatment services around the state. The other makes it a misdemeanor to possess more than a gram — or five or more “user units” — of a substance containing fentanyl. Unlike other drugs, fentanyl had no misdemeanor-level possession under Oregon law following decriminalization. The tweak is designed to levy criminal consequences for small-time dealers of the drug.

Democrats refused to consider more sweeping changes to Measure 110, including an insistence by many Republicans that criminal consequences to drug possession should be brought back while the state expands its treatment options. Recent polling suggests most Oregonians would favor that change.

A public defense crisis demands attention

Lawmakers have known for years that the state’s threadbare public defense system is likely unconstitutional. Now it’s worse than ever, with hundreds of people languishing in jail without an attorney.

The ongoing crisis was one of the most pressing issues facing lawmakers this year. In response, they poured more than $100 million into the system to increase pay for public defenders, and fundamentally shifted the structure of the state system. Under Senate Bill 337, the state will move away from contracting for public defense with outside groups, and instead hire more defense attorneys itself.

“This is a step in the right direction towards a more sustainable approach to public defense in Oregon,” said Jessica Kampfe, who runs the state’s Office of Public Defense Services.

Lawmakers also took steps to ensure that people convicted by a nonunanimous verdict in Oregon — a practice that the Supreme Court has deemed illegal — can petition for a retrial.

And they passed bills creating news consequences for domestic terrorism and “paramilitary activity.” House Bill 2772 made it a felony to damage “critical infrastructure,” or disperse toxic substances in some circumstances. Under House Bill 2572, the state could investigate paramilitary activity — regardless of the politics attached — and ask a judge to block planned actions.

Sending a historic amount of money to K-12 schools

In May, lawmakers received very welcome news: Tax revenue was up, and by a lot.

The dramatic spike in funds meant lawmakers had more money to work with as they built the state’s next two-year budget. One of the beneficiaries: the K-12 school budget.

Lawmakers have approved a record amount of spending, putting $10.2 billion into the state school fund, which is $700 million more than current service levels and the most ever put into the fund, according to Democrats. Combined with local property tax revenues, the state’s public school budget should reach about $15.3 billion to be put toward educating the state’s students.

Lawmakers also carved out $140 million to help improve literacy for the state’s youngest students. The money would provide a wide range of support, from funding summer-and-after-school programs to curriculum. Lawmakers also passed a measure requiring Oregon high school students to take courses on how to create a budget, open a bank account, understand taxes and other general personal finance skills.

Once again, no action on campaign finance limits

Democrats now have a well established pattern when it comes to reining in political giving in Oregon: After touting new campaign finance rules as a top priority early in session, they fail to act.

While most people agree Oregon’s current system of no contribution limits is broken, no one can agree on what restrictions should look like. Top Democrats, including Kotek, floated proposals for a new campaign finance system this year, but the issue once again fell by the wayside. The ongoing gridlock on the issue means voters are increasingly likely to be asked to institute limits via a citizen-written ballot measure — perhaps in 2024.

Lawmakers weren’t idle on other election changes though. Democrats passed a bill that will expand Oregon’s pioneering “motor voter” law, which registers people to vote when they interact with Oregon Driver and Motor Services. Under House Bill 2107, people signing up for the Oregon Health Plan could also be registered. That step first needs to be approved by the federal government.

The state also took steps toward using ranked-choice voting — in which voters can pick candidates in order of preference — for statewide and congressional contests. Voters will need to give final approval to that system next year.

Lawmakers also banned the practice of making large campaign contributions in cash, after Willamette Week reported that two cannabis entrepreneurs were giving top Democrats bags full of cash. The practice, while legal, raised questions because such exchanges are difficult to track. As one part of Senate Bill 166, donors could give no more than $100 a year to a candidate in cash.

Capitol rocked by multiple scandals

Early in the session, an internal investigation by the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission revealed top employees at the state agency diverted specialty bourbons away from public consumption for their own personal use for years. The longtime leader of the agency, Steve Marks, stepped aside once the news was revealed. But Gov. Tina Kotek had already demanded his resignation before she learned of the abuse within the agency. Republicans asked the governor to launch an independent investigation into the state agency and the revelations raised more questions about the agency’s costly efforts to build a new distribution warehouse.

The OLCC impropriety was quickly eclipsed, however, by a more shocking moment: the downfall of Secretary of State Shemia Fagan. A rising star in the Democratic party, Fagan resigned after Willamette Week revealed she had accepted a $10,000-a-month consulting contract from cannabis entrepreneurs and owners of La Mota while her office was auditing the cannabis industry.

Later in the session, lawmakers approved House Joint Resolution 16, asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment in 2024 that would allow legislators to impeach statewide elected officials. The Legislature also proposed creating an independent commission that could set the salaries of lawmakers and other state-level elected officials — partly a nod to Fagan’s complaint that her $77,000 annual salary was not adequate.

Money for the I-5 bridge, changes to self-serve gas, banning Styrofoam and more

With thousands of bills introduced early in the session, there is almost no limit to the issues lawmakers took up this session. Among other notable bills that are finding their way to Kotek’s desk:

• Funding for a new Interstate Bridge: Lawmakers committed to borrowing $1 billion in bonds over the next eight years to fund the state’s share of the mega-project to replace the Interstate Bridge over the Columbia River connecting Portland and Vancouver. The Legislature’s move to approve funding comes at a critical juncture: Oregon and Washington have the chance to leverage state money to qualify for up to $2.5 billion in federal funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bridge is one of the key bottlenecks along Interstate 5 between Canada and Mexico, and it’s the only drawbridge on the freeway.
• Styrofoam container ban: Under Senate Bill 543, restaurants will need to ditch the wasteful to-go packaging by 2025. Foam coolers and packaging containing so-called PFAS are also on the way out.
• Action on efficient buildings: The session’s major climate bill was actually an amalgamation of more than a dozen proposals. House Bill 3409 set goals for installing more heat pumps in Oregon and will require more energy-efficient buildings, among many other provisions. But Democrats punted on language that would have set stricter greenhouse gas reduction goals in order to avoid a standoff with the GOP.
• Self-serve gas: After more than seven decades, drivers in every corner of Oregon will soon be allowed to pump their own gas, under House Bill 2426. The bill allows gas stations in the state’s most populous areas to designate up to half their pumps as self-serve. Many rural areas already allow the practice.
• Animal protections: Lawmakers passed a bill that bans retail stores from selling puppies and kittens — a move to curtail irresponsible breeding operations. Driven by horror stories of cruel deaths at the primate research center operated by Oregon Health and Science University, the Legislature also passed a bill requiring OHSU to be more transparent about animals in its possession. And they took steps to block the availability of cosmetics that have been developed using animal testing.
• No TikTok on state phones: The controversial app, owned by a Chinese firm, is the subject of mounting political concern in some circles that it could be used for surveillance. Oregon joined a growing number of states banning use of TikTok — and products from several other vendors — on state-owned phones.
• Candidates can shield their addresses: Driven by concerns over increased political polarization, lawmakers passed a bill that allows political candidates to block the release of their home addresses when they file for office. That information still must be released under a formal public records request, but it will make the task of ensuring candidates reside in the district they are running to represent more onerous.
• Set hospital staffing rules: Dodging what looked like it might be a major conflict, hospital managers and labor groups found an accord on new rules that will ensure hospitals meet minimum staffing levels. The aim is to cut down on burnout from employees and ensure adequate care for patients.

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 is not necessarily a well-known fact, but the designer of Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club in Salem, Oregon was a golf course architect of some renown.  His name:  Billy Bell.  Actually, Billy Bell, Jr.

He has been credited with designing more than 50 courses, most in the Western United States, including, especially, in California.

Billy’s father, William Bell, Sr., was a more accomplished golf course architect, but appears to have passed down his ability to his son.

The father and son tandem have been described this way:

“The Bells: California’s First Family of Golf Course Design.  

While literally hundreds of golf course architects have designed or re-designed courses in California, few have had the lasting impact of William P. and William F. Bell.  [The former is the senior Bell; the latter, the junior.]

Bell, Sr. served as a construction superintendent for two famous architects, Willie Watson and George Thomas, Jr., before eventually stepping up to golf course architecture on his own.  He spent his first years as a course architect collaborating with Thomas on his great designs of the 1920s, including the Bel-Air, Riviera, and Los Angeles Country Clubs, the latter of which just hosted the U.S. Open.

Along the way, his son had a top-rated tutor in the golf course design business.

Bell, Sr. died in 1953, leaving behind his vision for the design of Torrey Pines, which his son went on to complete.

It was Bell Jr. who then worked on Illahe Hills, which opened in 1961. 

I have not been able to talk with Illahe’s founding members about why they hired Bell, nor how they enticed him to come to Salem to design a new course in a small city compared to major enclaves in California. 

But it was a good decision, given Illahe’s stature today.

Based on Bell’s design, the course where I live in Salem, Oregon has come to be a landmark in the state, a course known for its manicured fairways, hundreds of trees that come into play on every hole, about 80 re-worked bunkers, and greens that register among the best in the state as they often run to 11 on the stimp-meter.

If anyone plays Illahe for the first time and I get a chance to speak to them before they tee off, I always say this:  Try to stay below the hole on each of the 18 greens.  If you do, you’ll have a chance to score.  If you don’t, say goodbye to a good round.

It’s good advice for regular players, as well, including me.

Here’s what the Illahe Hills website says about the course and Bell, Jr.: “Welcome to Illahe Hills Country Club, providing a challenging golf experience in a grand setting.  A backdrop of trees line the traditional layout, designed by renowned golf course architect William Bell and opened for play in 1961.  Illahe Hills has played host to many of Oregon’s major golf events, as well as USGA Championships.”

Am I biased?

Sure.

I have been a member at Illahe for about 35 years and, during that time, one of my favorite sayings is this:  I never get tired of playing the course.

It offers something new every time I arrive at the 1^st tee.

So, thanks to Billy Bell, Jr. for a great golf course design.

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.

390

390

390

1,170

What do these numbers mean?

Well, glad you asked.

They refer to the number of golf balls hit by 130 young players between the ages of seven and 15 who were at my home golf course, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club yesterday for the regional Drive, Chip and Putt competition, which is sponsored jointly by the United States Golf Association and the national Professional Golfers Association.

Yes, 130 players were on hand.

Here’s what they did:

• Each of the 130 players hit drives on our range – and, if you add that up, it comes to 390 drives.

• Each of the 130 players hit chip shots on our chipping green – and, if you add that up, it comes to 390 chips.
• Each of the 130 players hit putts on our putting green – and, if you add that up, it comes to 390 putts.
• In all, that means 1,170 shots were hit by junior players during the six-hour event at our golf course.

At Illahe, we were glad to host these junior golfers because, to put a significant point on it, they are the future of the game we love.

The main purpose of the event was to create a fun atmosphere for kids.  But, of course, there were winners who will now go on to regional and sectional events, which, for some of them, will lead to the national Drive, Chip and Putt competition held in conjunction with the Masters Golf Tournament in Georgia next spring.

All of this comes on top of what Illahe Hills already does to support junior golf.

About 75 young people are involved in junior golf every week at the course.  They get instruction from Illahe pros and get to play three, six, or nine holes, depending on their ages.

At Illahe, junior golf matters.  And, I hope it does at all other courses.

Mr. Google puts it this way:

“Kids can benefit from the sport mentally, physically, and emotionally.  The sport can set them up for success as they get older.  Many of the skills learned on the course translate to real life.”

As a volunteer for junior golf programs in my home state, Oregon, I have seen the benefits first-hand.  The vast majority of junior golfers I have seen have used golf to prepare them for life.

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.

How does the lack of bi-partisan cooperation rank on your list of major public policy issues facing this country?

Does it make your list at all?  Rank up there with abortion, gun control, and immigration?

If so, good.

If not, consider putting it on your list.

The headline in this blog summarizes the results of a new PEW study on America’s top problems, at least in the view of those who were polled.  [PEW, by the way, is a family name, not an acronym.]

And, for me, there was one surprising and welcome conclusion from the PEW study: Americans are concerned about the lack of bi-partisan cooperation among those who represent us in Congress and elsewhere.

I believe it is high-time Americans recognized this reality, which threatens the very democracy many of us say we hold dear.

Here is a quick summary of the PEW results, based on a survey conducted June 5-11 among 5,115 members of the organization’s American Trends Panel:

“The public’s list of the top problems facing the nation includes inflation, health care affordability, drug addiction, and gun violence.

“Yet, the ability of Republicans and Democrats to work together rates about as high on the problems list as these other concerns.  And it is one of the few, among 16 problems on which there is no partisan divide.

“Inflation remains the top concern for Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, with 77 per cent saying it is a very big problem.  The state of moral values, illegal immigration, and the budget deficit also are seen as top problems by at least two-thirds of Republicans.

“For Democrats and Democrat leaners, gun violence is the top concern, with about eight-in-ten – 81 per cent — saying it is a very big problem. The affordability of health care ranks second.

“Democrats are more than four times as likely as Republicans to say that climate change is a very big problem in the country.  Democrats are also much more likely to say gun violence and racism are very big problems.

“By contrast, Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to say that illegal immigration is a very big problem.  They are also about 30 percentage points more likely than Democrats to say that the state of moral values and the budget deficit are very big problems.”

My career as a lobbyist underlines that bi-partisan cooperation – or, today, the lack of it – should be a top issue for all of America, no matter where you live.

All of us watch Congress melt down most of the time.  Then, we anticipate a presidential political campaign next year which is still taking shape, but which will underline the idea of differences, not agreement, on policy.  Criminal charges also will roil the campaigns.

In Oregon, we have witnessed political dissension, too, though Republicans and Democrats finally found a way to agree in Salem, which meant the end of the current legislative session occurred on time, June 25.

I hope the conduct of government will remain a top concern for all Americans, or if it is not already on your list, consider adding 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.

We need Chris Christie now more than ever.

Why?

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and once a strong supporter of Donald Trump, is now running for president.

And, so far, he is basically the only Republican who has been willing to go after Donald Trump.

Good for Christie.

By the way, a friend of mine asked me the other day why I still use my blog to write about Trump after my pledge several months ago not to do so.  Well, the answer is that, like Trump, I lied.

Better put.  I think Trump is such a threat to the nation that he deserves to be called out, even though my voice is only a small one out in the sticks in Oregon.

So, I aver, this blog is not about Trump.  It is about Christie.

In the New York Times a couple days ago, here is how columnist Frank
Bruni wrote about Christie:

““”“Chris Christie made a complete fool of himself back in 2016, fan-dancing obsequiously around Donald Trump, angling for a crucial role in his administration, nattering on about their friendship, pretending or possibly even convincing himself that Trump could restrain his ego, check his nastiness, suspend his grift and, well, serve America.

“But then Christie, the former two-term governor of New Jersey, had plenty of company.  And he never did style himself as some saint.

“It’s all water under the George Washington Bridge now.

“The Chris Christie of the current moment is magnificent.  I don’t mean magnificent as in, he’s going to win the Republican presidential nomination.  I don’t mean I’m rooting for a Christie presidency and regard him as the country’s possible salvation.

“But what he’s doing in this Republican primary is very, very important.  It also couldn’t be more emotionally gratifying to behold.  He’s telling the unvarnished truth about Trump, and he’s the only candidate doing that.  A former prosecutor, he’s artfully, aggressively and comprehensively making the case against Trump, knocking down all the rationalizations Trump has mustered and all the diversions he has contrived since his 37-count federal indictment.”

Bruni wrote that none of the other candidates comes close to what Christie is doing.  For the most part, he adds, “they’ve gagged themselves or decided to play laughable word games about who Trump is, what he has done, and what he may yet do.”

Here are other paragraphs from Bruni’s column, which I could have placed in the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering that I run.  But, I decided the Bruni words were worth highlighting on their own.

• Christie is to DeSantis (Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and presidential candidate) what a Roman candle is to a scented votive. He explodes in a riot of color.  DeSantis, on his best days, flickers.
• Christie’s prosects are about the hugely valuable contrast to other Republican presidential candidates that he’s providing.  The health of American democracy hinges on a reckoning within the Republican Party, and that won’t come from Democrats saying the kinds of things that Christie is now.  They’ve been doing that for years. It’ll come — if it even can — from the words and warnings of longtime Republicans who know how to get and use the spotlight.
• Did you see Christie’s CNN town hall last week?  Have you watched or listened to any of his interviews?  He’s funny.  He’s lively.  He’s crisp.  And he’s right. Over the past few weeks, he has described Trump’s behavior as “vanity run amok.” Trump himself is “a petulant child.”
• At the town hall: “Trump is voluntarily putting our country through this.  If at any point before the search in August of ’22 he had just done what anyone, I suspect, in this audience would have done, which is said, All right, you’re serious?  You’re serving a grand jury subpoena?  Let me just give the documents back,’ he wouldn’t have been charged.  Wouldn’t have been charged with anything even though he had kept them for almost a year and a half.”

If Christie qualifies for the Republican primary debates, a question has emerged about what he will do when asked what he will do about the required pledge that he support whoever winds up getting the party’s nomination.

“He has,” Bruni writes, “apparently found a solution that’s suited to Republicans’ willful and nihilistic captivity to Trump, the stupidity of the pledge and the stakes of the race:  He’ll sign what he must and later act as he pleases.”

Chris Christie, superhero?   No.  He has his own supersize vanity.  He is arguably playing the only part in the crowded primary field available to him.  

As for other Republican candidates – Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley – they appear to be so concerned about offending Trump supporters that they won’t criticize him.

So, we are left with Christie – and I say do more truth-telling in this presidential campaign.  Trump deserves 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.

The question in this blog headline has stumped me for years, though, on occasion, potential answers have crossed my mind.

Many who supported Trump just wanted someone who would oppose government.

But, why would reasonable Americans support a man who has no experience in government, who actually detests those in government, who holds women as nothing other than sexual objects, who criticizes everyone who doesn’t agree automatically with him, who practices racism, and who…?

You could go on and on.

Now, this epitome of narcissism wants to be president again.

Perish the thought.

Well, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan came up with some additional answers in a column she wrote last week.  Here are key excerpts that appeared under this headline:  The Indictment Can Only Hurt Trump:  Even his loyal supporters will understand that his mishandling of documents endangered U.S. security.

Noonan reviewed columns she had written about Trump eight years ago, in the summer of 2015, when he first sought to enter government life.

• In early July, just after his public announcement, Noonan saw him this way:  “Donald Trump is an unstable element inserted into an unsettled environment.  Sooner or later there will be a boom.  He has poor impulse control and is never above the fray.  He likes to start fights.  That’s a weakness.  Eventually he’ll lose one.”
• But, she added, Donald Trump has a real following, and people make a mistake in assuming his appeal is limited to Republicans.  His persona and particular brand of populism have hit a nerve among some independents and moderate Democrats too.
• “They think he’s real, that he’s under nobody’s thumb, that maybe he’s a big-mouth, but he’s a truth-teller.  He’s afraid of no one, he’s not politically correct.  He’s rich and can’t be bought by some billionaire, because he is the billionaire.  He’s talking about what people are thinking and don’t feel free to say.”
• Noonan said she grappled with what she saw as a spreading movement. “His rise is not due to his supporters’ anger at government.  It is a gesture of contempt for government, for the men and women in Congress, the White House, the agencies.  It is precisely because people have lost their awe for the presidency that they imagine Trump as a viable president.”  
•  “When citizens are consistently offended by Washington, . . . they become contemptuous. They see Trump’s contempt and identify. What the American establishment has given us the past 20 years is sex scandals, money scandals, two unwon wars, an economic collapse, an inadequate recovery, and borders we no longer even pretend to control.  They think:  What will you give us next, the plague?”  Trump voices their indignation.

So, now we have Trump under two indictments, the second of which, at the very least, raises a question about his ability to protect America’s national security interests.  Apparently to indicate his own importance, he sequestered a variety of classified documents at his Mar-A-Lago retreat in Florida, open for nearly anyone to see.

He has no instincts to support America’s well-being.  What he wants is for everyone to know how important he is – or at least he was.

For my part, I hope the “was” remains.

And, I cannot imagine what still prompts smart Americans to support this stooge.  In light of his antics, if that is what they are, there is no rational explanation.

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.

As a long-time reader of newspapers – I guess I like to get ink on my hands – I rue the day some time ago that the Oregonian newspaper quit writing editorials, at least most of time.

Not because I always agreed with the viewpoints of those who wrote the editorials.  But, rather, because they got me to think.

Last weekend, the Oregonian showed up with an editorial that appeared under this headline:  Legislators’ compromise a win for Oregon.

I agree with the basic thrust of the editorial as it commended a compromise between Democrats and Republicans that allowed the Oregon Senate to get back to business with only a few more days to go until the required end of the session, June 25.

Here is the way the editorial started:

“The agreements that ended the Republican-led walkout at the Oregon Legislature won’t please the ideological purists or the one-issue voters who equate compromise with betrayal.

“But for the millions of Oregonians who live with compromise as a reality of daily life, the re-start of the legislative session is an enormous relief. Oregonians need legislation that helps provide more housing and removes barriers to construction.  They need behavioral health investments that answer the urgency of the mental health and addiction crises playing out across the state.  They need reforms to Oregon’s broken public defense system to ensure representation for those charged with crimes.  And they need the Legislature to act this session ­– not wait for next year’s.”

Democrats, the writers said, made the right call to compromise on abortion and gun-safety bills to allow time address numerous emergencies facing Oregonians.

“Oregon is already among the most liberal states in the country on ensuring abortion access and has adopted several laws in recent years that help reduce gun violence.  And, while Democrats hold majorities in both chambers of the Legislature, they need enough Republican or Independent legislators to attend Senate floor sessions to meet the constitutionally required two-thirds minimum of legislators to vote on bills.”

The editorial contended that legislators cannot keep playing “a game of chicken,” where Oregonians are the ones who end up caught in the collision of agendas, left and right.

So, the newspaper suggested that the best option was reducing the minimum for a quorum in the House or the Senate.

That may sound good, but it would require another vote by the people to achieve the objective.

So, how about this?  My view is that the best ways to avoid further legislative walkouts are to:

• Expect Democrats and Republicans to find a way to work together rather than hew only to the left or the right.  That’s why we elected them – to represent us in Salem.
• Expect them to accept that compromise is a useful vehicle to achieve results because the best solutions often lie in the middle, not either extreme.
• Expect Democrats who are now in charge and are likely to remain so in the near future to find a way to deal directly and authentically with Republicans.  That will require two things:  First, finding out more about rural Oregon (because Republicans represent that area of the state) and, second, once they find out, care about rural perspectives.
• Expect Republicans to play the role of a genuine minority, recognizing that they are not in charge and, therefore, will have to settle on occasion for what the majority wants.

Easier said than done.

Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether some legislators in Salem will ever get behind the idea of compromise.  Several Republican and Independent senators failed to show up for the floor session last Friday.  While they may already be disqualified from running for re-election under Measure 113, it is possible that a few of them don’t care.

Or, they intend to rely on courts to overturn the voter-passed “walkout prevention” law on the basis that, if nothing else, it is confusing.

The Oregonian continues:

“Oregon used to pride itself on leaders’ ability to find solutions through bi-partisan pragmatism.  But we’ve moved away from the ‘Oregon Way’ to a legislative philosophy that might makes right.  

“Certainly, the majority – whether Democratic or Republican – has the power to do as it pleases.  But Oregon’s civic health, frayed from divisive national politics, disinformation campaigns and mistrust among fellow Oregonians, needs a more magnanimous strategy that seeks to pull people into the circle rather than pummel an agenda through.”

Agreed.

As a retired lobbyist who held that title for about 40 years, I am just glad I am no longer involved in the legislative process. 

I hope it improves – or, perhaps better put – goes back to the old way of doing things when compromise was not a dirty word.

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.

If you want a little relief from political wrongdoings, just look at recent developments in sports.

Sportswriter John Feinstein wrote about three very positive developments:

• Novak Djovick won the French Open tennis tournament for his 23^rd grand slam title, the most of any player in history.
• Canadian golfer Nick Taylor sunk a 72-foot on the fourth hole of a playoff to win his country’s open, the first Canadian to do so in nearly 70 years.
• Serbian player Nikola Jokic led the Denver Nuggets to their first National Basketball Association title in years, doing it by almost literally carrying his team on his back in the final game.

Great sports, all.

And, there was one more today. 

I just finished watching the U.S. Golf Open at Los Angeles Country Club and former University of Oregon golfer Wyndham Clark produced a tight win against other top players, including by one stroke over Rory McIlroy.

In winning, Clark gave credit to his late mother who died a few years ago after a battle with breast cancer and told her son, before she left this life, to do something beyond himself, thus becoming a role model for others.

He lived up to that dream today, looking up to the sky often during his 18-holes, as if his mother was looking down on him.

The scene on the 18^th green after his two-putt for par was emotional.  He greeted his family and gave great credit to his caddy, John Ellis, who left a job as assistant golf coach at the U of O to take a job as Clark’s caddy.

They performed very well together.

Focusing on these developments game me a respite from too much politics, especially all the developments in the multiple indictments Donald Trump faces.

Better to revel in sports than be repelled by dumb politics which seem to be all around us these days.