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 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.

…who knows what they’ll say?

But, I submit, one perspective will be clear.  Trump’s intentional policy was to rip immigrants’ children from their families – call it what is, “kidnapping.”  He tries to defend the gallingly inhumane approach in the name of immigrant reform, but, as usual, his claims don’t square with the truth.

I have two hopes.

• One is that Trump’s intentional kidnapping will resonate with voters, so much so that it will provide yet another reason not to give Trump four more years in office.
• The second is that historians will render Trump’s intentional kidnapping policy as what it is — a violation of everything America stands for, especially in the way of supporting family units.

Phillip Bump wrote about all of this in the Washington Post for publication on the day after the final presidential debate.  Here are excerpts of what he wrote:

“Near the top of the list of ways that President Trump’s administration has deviated from established practice was his endorsement of a zero-tolerance policy for families seeking to migrate to the United States.

“During the second year of his term in office, families hoping to escape violence in Central America or seeking more economic opportunity began arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in record numbers to seek asylum in the United States.

“Immigrant advocates began to notice that children were systematically being separated from their parents and detained in different facilities.

“The administration at first denied that there had been any formally instituted policy change leading to the separations, but it soon became apparent that these separations were meant to evoke precisely the terror that inevitably resulted.

“The goal was a simple, callous one:  Making parents choose between seeking asylum or keeping their kids.  Make parents fleeing violence and poverty risk losing their children.”

Consider this new news:  Advocates have been unable to locate the parents of 545 children who were separated at the border.

Yes, that’s right.  An estimated 545 children cannot find their parents and their parents cannot find them.

If I was Trump – perish that ridiculous thought – I would be losing sleep over this unthinkable tragedy.  But wait – I would never have instituted such a heinous policy in the first place.

Also a day after the presidential debate, Jennifer Rubin from the Washington Post included this paragraph in her analysis:

“…Trump’s utter lack of decency came when he insisted conditions for kids at the border were just swell.  ‘They are so well taken care of. They are in facilities that were so clean,’ Trump said.” 

To which, Biden emotionally hit back, “Separating children from their parents violates every value we hold as a nation.”

Historians will have difficulty rating the Trump presidency.  There have been so many departures from truth and conventional norms of political action.  Most of them be hard-pressed to know how to describe the tenure of the worst president in American history.

But, I believe Trump’s “kidnapping” will stand at the top of the list of issues for he should be held responsible by history.

America deserves better.