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.

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.

To say that Trump goes overboard is an understatement.

He did so again yesterday when he had the temerity in Europe to suggest that “Britain should go for a no-deal Brexit with the European Union and refuse to pay the agreed upon” money in the divorce bill.

I write this as I am sitting on the Scenic Amber, our river cruise ship as we travel down the Danube toward Budapest.

Now, what I know about Brexit could be written on the head of a pin – or least summarized in Wall Street Journal and Washington Post newspapers, which I read daily.

But, the following Trump comment says volumes:

In negotiating deals when it comes to Brexit, Trump said, “If they don’t get what they want, I would walk away. If you don’t get the deal you want, then you walk away.”

That is not negotiating.

It is juvenile behavior. It’s the “take your toys and go home when you don’t get what you want” idea.

Trump fancies himself a supreme negotiator.

He is not.

He is a dictator.

I can hear him saying, “I want what I want and I am going to get it whether you like it or not.”

No wonder leaders in Congress have difficulty negotiating with Trump.

Some say it is like “negotiating with jello. Poke it one way and it pops out the other way.”

Let’s say that, in “negotiating” with Trump, you establish a tentative agreement somewhere in the middle. You get something. You give something.

For Trump, this agreement represents only a new floor. He then ups the ante as he tries to get what he wants, no matter what the other side wants.

That’s not negotiating. It’s just another sign that Trump is not up to holding the top political job in the U.S.

I wish he would shut up in the United Kingdom. Too much to ask, you say. No doubt. But at least that’s half-way around the world and not at home where what he says would tend to matter more because a variety of folks pay attention him,

In the U.K., not so much.

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.

Startling.

Appalling.

Abominable.

Grotesque.

Come up with your own word.

I came up with these after visiting the Documentation Center in Nuremberg, Germany, which is near the Zeppelin, a field Hitler used as a Nazi rallying point to spread his gospel of hate back in the late 1930s.

On our river cruise on the Danube, we were told here that the field and the Documentation Center exist to help make sure Germans and the rest of the world don’t forget the atrocities of Nazism and, thus, with memory, don’t repeat them.

From 1933 to 1938, the National Socialist Party in Germany held its rallies in Nuremberg. Remains of huge structures still bear witness to how Hitler formulated a propaganda machine to spread his gospel of hate as he emerged from an orifice above the huge crowd to salute “Heil Hitler” and expect salutes in return.

Some call the Documentation Center a “museum,” but that term is a bit inaccurate because the word museum could conjure up positive images. This exhibit is not positive; it provides a horrific glimpse into the gross misdeeds of a despot, Hitler – misdeeds that almost exterminated an entire race of people, the Jews, and misdeeds that many Germans today want to remember so such an atrocity never happens again.

The last exhibit in the Center is a summary of the Nuremberg trials, which found 12 high-level Nazi officers guilty of atrocities that resulted in the death penalty, plus found a number of other officers guilty of crimes that produced long prison sentences.

The executions were carried out in Nuremberg, but, unfortunately, the acknowledged #2 Nazi, Herman Goering, escaped execution at the last by swallowing a cyanide pill that no knew he had somehow obtained.

Of course, the architect of the holocaust – Hitler – escaped standing trial for his crimes when he killed himself in a bunker just after Germany had lost the war. There has been a dispute as to whether Hitler actually killed himself or, instead, somehow escaped. Our guide said most Germans believe he succeeded in committing suicide, which, if you think about, was a good way for him to go – perhaps not what he deserved in the sense of the fitting character of an execution, but, still, an ignominious end.

I have been in Germany a couple times in the last few years and, each time, my mind races along to draw comparisons between Hitler and Donald Trump.

For me, the parallels are stark, though there is at least some distance between the two. Hitler was guilty of genocide and Trump is not. I also hesitate, other than through this blog, to talk to some of my friends about this because they appear to revere Trump, believing he is the answer to the future of the our country.

I don’t believe that, so here are the parallels I see between Hitler and Trump (and, for this use, I use present-tense verbs, which pertain to Hitler as if he were here today, as well as to Trump who, unfortunately, is here):

• Each exalts himself and “his race” by denigrating others.
• Each practices gross dishonesty as a stock in trade; truth is no barometer.
• Each produces propaganda to extend their message to the masses.
• Each expresses no value for human life. For Hitler, it was exterminating Jews. For Trump, it is blaming immigrants for everything, though they are not guilty as Trump contends – most of them just want a better life.
• Each had no relevant experience for the top political job in their countries — Germany and the U.S.
• Each appeals to the worst instincts in people, fomenting hate and atrocity, not goodwill and collaboration.

Both Hitler and Trump rose to power by contending that their country had to rise again. To Hitler, it could have been “Make Germany Great Again,” as a way to recover from the devastation of World War I and the post-war subjugation of Germany by those who “won” the war.

To Trump, his pet slogan is “Make America Great Again.” For the life of me, I have no idea what he means by those words because, for me, his policies do not make America great again, though they do represent a rallying cry for his supporters. But that’s all.

Both Hitler and Trump manipulate the media for their own ends. Hitler used a movie documentarian to make a propaganda film about his vision of Germany that managed to send his message, first delivered at the Zeppelin, out broadly to the German people, even if millions of Germans were not able to join the 500,000 persons who crowded onto the field.

Like Hitler, Trump also doesn’t know how to tell the truth about anything. Instead, Trump relies on propaganda, apparently believing that, if he says something, it must be true. The Washington Post Fact Checker column has counted an incredible tally of more than 10,000 lies since he took office and Fox News, with Trump’s steadfast support, continues to parrot his views as if they are gospel.

Perhaps it is good for me to be in Europe, including in Germany, in the sense that, being here, reinforces my commitment not to settle for Trump’s supposed “doctrine” in my country, given the history of what Hitler did to Germany and, in fact, the rest of the world – and what I feel Trump is doing to “my” country.

I sometimes wonder how the German people convinced themselves to submit to Hitler’s atrocities. It is likely that many of them were either ignorant or brainwashed.

I refuse to be subject to the same frailties – submitting to a tyrant, Trump, who leads this country down a path that, for me, resembles what Hitler did in – and to – Germany. Trump’s vision for America is not my vision for America.

So, I hope Trump is a one-term president. We might not survive a second four years.

PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

Issues of socialism came to mind this week, though I never lived under such tyranny.

What prompted thoughts of socialism involved our ground tour guide in Prague, Czech Republic, where my wife and I spent three days on the way to a river cruise on the Danube.

The guide reported that her mother, still alive in Prague at the age of 73, yearns for a return to the socialist state in the Czech Republic. The reason? She feels that collective action, not individual action, would protect her in her old age.

Her daughter, the guide, relishes the ability, in a non-communist state, to be able to think for yourself, discuss subjects, and practice creativity. All are banned in communism.

Socialism also came to mind as I read a piece by author Joseph Epstein in the Wall Street under this headline:

Socialists Don’t Know History

Young people don’t remember the Soviet nightmare. But what’s Sanders’s excuse?

Epstein continued:

“History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. I can’t help but mumble this famous sentence from Karl Marx’s ‘The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte’ whenever I hear about the socialist wing of the new — and distinctly not your father’s — Democrat Party. Socialism caused the deaths of more than 100 million people under Lenin, Stalin and Mao, but young progressives (I dislike that word to describe someone who wants to change because the change support surely does not represent “progress) in the U.S. want to give it another go.”

As the headline says, Epstein gives some of the young people a pass because they did not see or live through the history of previous socialists movements, such as in Russia or the Czech Republic.

But he gives no pass to Senator Bernie Sanders who fancies himself, again, as worthy of being president as he stands on a platform of socialism.

It is hard for me to fault the woman in Prague who worries about her future.

It is not hard for me to fault Sanders – and others like him – who believe that government is the answer to every problem.

Epstein wonders if Sanders, who proudly calls himself a “democratic socialist,” actually is practicing a real political dogma. “Democratic socialist,” Epstein avers, is much like “military justice” or “good kosher meal,” — an oxymoron. Under socialism the state always takes priority over the people. “Unfortunately,” as Win McCormack writes in the New Republic, “no self-identified socialist regime in the world — all of which have been installed by professional revolutionists in the Marxist-Leninist tradition — has ever been the least bit democratic.”

More from Epstein:

“Many Democrats who are looking to socialism are not old enough to remember the more than 70-year-long socialist horror movie called the Soviet Union.

“Throughout history under its various regimes, in its pursuit of a spurious utopian equality, socialism has produced no great art, profound thinkers or enduring science. It has been death on entrepreneurship. Yet it is an idea — or, more accurately, an ideal —that refuses to die. The socialism currently advocated by a segment of the Democrat Party brings to mind another famous sentence, this one by George Santayana: ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’”

Notice the phrase above – “It (socialism) has been death on entrepreneurship.”

One of the virtues of capitalism is its emphasis on the power of effort, energy, verve and “entrepreneurship.” Without complimenting myself too highly, those were exactly the phrases that we – myself and two partners – claimed when we started our firm, CFM Strategic Communications, about 30 years ago.

Without entrepreneurship and the freedom of individual action, we would have been dead in the water.

Besides the all of the “e’s” – energy, effort and entrepreneurship – we also benefited from one of my previous bosses, an Oregon congressman, called being “a fiscal conservative with a conscience.”

That is part slogan, of course, but it also represents a commitment to help those who happen to be less fortunate than you, even, as in our case, we started and ran a business. As a firm, we supported a variety of good causes, including representing some worthy clients on a pro bono basis.

So, I say, tell Bernie Sanders and his ilk to acknowledge the lessons of history and disavow socialism. No chance, you say. Probably right.

But, if those who favor capitalism would behave smart when it comes to a “social conscience,” we would see huge benefits from the commitment and would not follow down a negative path advocated by Sanders and others running for president from the left.