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 thought of the question in the headline on the last day of our Danube River Cruise that is due to end in Budapest, Hungary.

Along the way, my wife and I visited several sites in Germany which called to mind, again, the evils of the Nazi role in World War II, which, of course, started with Adolph Hitler’s vision to take over the world.

So, I thought, Hitler committed war crimes that should have subjected him to a trial along with many of his minions (see below). U.S. President Donald Trump also has committed crimes, though not in war, at least not yet.

Why not subject him to a political crimes trial?

I supposed you could call that impeachment. The risk is that, however much he has earned impeachment, subjecting him to it would tend to cement his re-election to another four-year term. All the so-called “Trumpians” would really to his cause.

Still, who knows? An impeachment trial might produce enough facts that even, (a) the Senate would have to consider going along with the House to convict, and (b) American voters might even learn that Trump is evil enough to avoid casting ballots for him again.

On our river cruise, one of mid-trip stops was at what is called “The Documentation Center” in Nuremburg, hard by the Zeppelin Field where Hitler held rallies to call thousands of Germans to support his vision.

Of course, it is possible that few German citizens knew at the time that Hitler’s vision called, not just for restoring the German economy after World War I and its aftermath, but for exterminating an entire race of the people, the Jews, which he nearly managed to do, killing more than six million of them.

A number of Hitler’s aides were called to account in a War Crimes Trial in Nuremberg just after the war. Twelve of them were sentenced to death and many others to long prison terms. It’s unfortunate that Hitler could not join them, for he had committed suicide in his “bunker” as the war ended, thus avoiding a fate that would have shown his evil to the world.

He deserved a War Crimes trial and a death sentence, which he managed to produce at his own hand.

So, you may ask, what has Trump done – or not done – that warrants a political crimes trial?

Here’s my list:

• He has not defended human dignity.
• He has not called on Americans to respect other peoples and other races.
• Rather, he has sown discord and dissension at every turn.
• He has denigrated immigrants, labeling all of them to be criminals not deserving a new chance in America.
• He has considered women to be objects for whatever he wants to do with each of them.
• He has ridiculed anyone who doesn’t agree with him, including, incredibly, U.S. war heroes such as the late Senator John McCain and Seal Team leader William McRaven.
• He has refused to negotiate with Congress on anything, believing that his way always in the right way.
• He has refused to recognize middle ground. Either his way or the highway. So, compromise be damned.

Given all of the uncertainty of a Political Crimes Trial for Trump, perhaps the best approach would be limit him to one term in office. Let’s hope for that outcome in 2020 regardless of whether he gets what he deserves, which is the trial.