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 (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 it what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions like.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Think of the most outrageous things President Donald Trump could say or do – and make a list without looking up anything in media outlets from the last three years.  Just use your imagination.

Then consider this:  It is likely Trump has done most or all of that list, probably more.

In human terms, his behavior and talk are outrageous, denigrating everyone except himself, as would be the case with a narcissist, which he is.  In political terms, here’s hoping his conduct leads to his defeat this fall.

Washington Post columnist George Conway performed a public service this week when he wrote a column, with tongue firmly planted in-cheek, to list Trump’s egregious actions or comments.  Here’s a sampling:

• I believe it’s normal for the president to say “Yo Semites” and “Yo Seminites,” “Thigh Land,” “Minne–a–napolis,” “toe-tally-taria-tism,” “Thomas Jeffers” and “Ulyss-eus S. Grant.” I believe it’s Biden who’s cognitively impaired.
• I believe the president “aced” a “very hard” impairment test, and that his “very surprised” doctors found this “unbelievable.” I believe it was “amazing” he remembered five words, such as “person, woman, man, camera, TV” — in correct order.  I believe he took the SAT himself.”
• I believe the president has “a natural ability,” like his “great, super-genius uncle” from MIT, which is why he understands “that whole world” of virology and epidemiology.
• I believed the president in January and February when he said covid-19 was “totally under control,” that it was Democrats’ “new hoax,” and that he was “not at all” worried about a pandemic.
• I believe that the president’s suggestions that physicians should try injecting patients with household disinfectants, and that shining ultraviolet light inside their bodies, make perfect sense.
• I believe it isn’t racist to call the coronavirus “kung flu” or “the China Virus.” It isn’t racially divisive to say Black Lives Matter is a “symbol of hate,” to celebrate Confederate generals as part of our “Great American Heritage,” or to share video of someone shouting “white power,” which, like displaying the Confederate flag, is “freedom of speech.”
• I believe Rep. John Lewis made a “big mistake” not attending the president’s inauguration. I believe the president has done more for Blacks than any other president — perhaps even Abraham Lincoln, who “did good” although the “end result” was “questionable,” and certainly more than Lyndon B. Johnson, who signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which hasn’t “worked out” so well.
• I believe the president should be added to Mount Rushmore, pronto.
• I believe the president won the popular vote in 2016 “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” I believe he shouldn’t accept the election results if he loses in November.

Now, from me.

Looking back on the last three-plus years, it is hard to remember all of the untruths Trump has uttered.  There have been so many.

One that bothered me more than almost anything else was when Trump berated U.S. military hero John McCain.  Trump criticized him before he passed and, after his death, continued denigrating him.

Incredible.

Now, Trump wants us to continue voting for him to be the leader of our country, if not the free world.

I say no.  Emphatically.