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

On the eve of one of my favorite holidays of the year – Thanksgiving – I open this department, one of three where I serve as director.

The others are the Department of Pet Peeves and the Department of Just Saying.

Each has a place in today’s political scene. While I am thankful to be an American, I fear for the future of the country under the current president, Donald Trump. The fact is that, despite the impeachment process (which he is likely to survive), he could win a second term in 2020.

Perish the thought.

There are a number of competitors for the good quotes this time around. Here are three.

From columnist Dana Milbank in the Washington Post: “On Fox News on Sunday, Energy Secretary Rick Perry reported that he told Trump he was God’s choice: ‘I said, Mr. President, I know there are people that say you said you were the chosen one and I said, ‘You were.’”

“Who but a demon could vote to impeach God’s chosen one?

“The surest way to make a climate-change denier even more aggressive in his denial is to present him with more science. “Likewise, presenting Trump supporters with evidence of Trump’s wrongdoing only makes them more defiant of the demons doing the presenting. Scream about the facts and the damage done by ignoring them until you’re blue in the face (I do), but it makes no difference.”

Comment: To compare Trump to and with God is sacrilege. They don’t belong in same breath. So, huge criticisms for Perry who appears to be coddling Trump as a way to preserve his Cabinet position.

From Washington Post editorial writers: “As Post columnist Michael Gerson colorfully put it, “If you are a national security official working for a malignant, infantile, impulsive, authoritarian wannabe, you need to stay in your job as long as you can to mitigate whatever damage you can — before the mad king tires of your sanity and fires you.”

Comment: To revert to the first good quote worth remembering, this sounds like exactly like Perry. “If you are a national security official working for a malignant, infantile, impulsive, authoritarian winnable,” you want to stay in your job. Isn’t there a better objective than to stay around in a corrupt administration?

Plus, I say it’s time to be rid of all those who function as acolytes to and for Trump.

From columnist Michael Gerson in the Washington Post: “Trump’s complicity in spreading the Russian version of these events — and in disputing the one conspiracy theory that turns out to be valid — is partially understandable and partially mysterious.

“The president clearly views any admission that Russia aided his 2016 victory as a concession of electoral illegitimacy. But this comes in the context of a broader deference to Russian influence in Ukraine, the rest of Europe and the Middle East that indicates some deeper motive.

“Through all Trump’s erratic policy wanderings, submissiveness to Russian aims has remained his North Star.

“Is this explainable by sympathy for Putin’s ruling style, or secret admiration for a system in which journalists fear for their lives? Is it just a function of Trump’s general determination to free the world from U.S. influence? Or is some private interest at work?”

Comment: In a column that appeared under a headline calling into the question “the galling complicity of Republicans in standing by Trump,” Gerson nails it.

He writes: “Through all Trump’s erratic policy wanderings, submissiveness to Russian aims has remained his North Star.”

My view is that it is high time for those who say they lead America to recognize the threat from Russia and quit peddling falsehoods about Russian intentions. Trump may like despots like Putin, but his – Trump’s — acquiescence confounds America’s interests.