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.

After Donald Trump lost his re-election campaign, I pledged that I would not write about the oaf anymore. 

I have violated that pledge a couple times.  And I do so again today.
I can’t help myself (though I continue to hope that Trump becomes nothing more than a cantankerous after-thought when Joe Biden takes over as president next month).

The question in the headline has bothered me for nearly four years as we have watched Trump act only in his own interests, not America’s.

As we near the end of 2020, Derek Thompson, writing for The Atlantic, answered the question better than most.

Here is a summary of what he wrote:

“The deep story went like this:  You are an older white man without a college degree standing in the middle of a line with hundreds of millions of Americans.  The queue leads up a hill, toward a haven just over the ridge, which is the American dream.

“Behind you in line, you can see a train of woeful souls—many poor, mostly non-white, born in America and abroad, young and old.  It’s scary to look back.  There are so many behind you, and in principle you wish them well.  Still, you’ve waited a long time.

“Now you’re stuck in line, because the economy isn’t working.  And worse than stuck, you’re stigmatized; liberals in the media say every traditional thing you believe is racist and sexist.  And what’s this?  People are cutting in line in front of you!  Something is wrong.  The old line wasn’t perfect, but at least it was a promise.  There is order in the fact of a line.  And if that order is coming apart, then so is America.”

It was in this context that Trump appeared four years ago.

Without a shred of political decency, Trump appealed to those disaffected – those in the line who opposed cutters, or at least their perception of cutters.

The Atlantic continues:  “When Trump appeared to the members of the broken line, he embodied the most ineffable aspects of the deep story.  Trump might be a lifelong bullshitter, but one thing he has never had to bullshit about is his grievance toward liberal elites and his antipathy for the groups whom Tea Party Republicans already knew they hated.

“He animated their distrust toward Barack Obama with his ‘birtherism’ claims.  He gave shape to their hatred for Hillary Clinton by leading ‘Lock her up!’ chants.  From his first rallies, Trump’s basic message has always been ‘I love you, and you love me, and we all hate the same people.’

“A lot of liberals can’t tune into the frequency on which Trump is speaking to the right.  Throughout his term, the president has been laser-focused, not so much on the day-to-day tasks of the job, but rather on calling out his political enemies — the press, the bureaucracy, the far left, the impeachers, the vote-counting software.

“But although liberals might see pathological anger here, sources have told The Atlantic they perceive something deeper than rage. They see suffering.  Suffering consolidates and strengthens belief.  It puts an “ism” to the word Trump and gives a political project the shape of a religious movement.

“Perhaps in part because Trump considers himself godlike, he is absorbing the underlying religious paradigm of voters who are seeking some new creed to explain the broken line and mend it.”

This explanation resonated with me because I have a number of friends who, to my surprise, supported Tr ump and still do to this day.  They appear to believe that “elites in Washington, D.C., including President Barack Obama,” have done them dirt.  They say they remained silent during Obama’s terms and, now, don’t trust Biden.  So, it is past time , they believe, to right the wrongs – and, to put a point on it, vote for and support Trump, even though he now is a loser.

For these folks, Trump “appears” to embody the notion that his supporters have been harmed (a) by Washington, D.C, which caters too often to itself, and (b) by minority groups (including immigrants) who are “cutting in line” ahead of them.

I put the word “appears” in quotes because Trump was and is nothing like he wants to appear via his rampant tweets.  Whatever he says in tweets, he always has been out for himself and no one else.

So, what’s the fix?  It’s mostly that government begins to work for the people.  And that we — “the people” — accept the fact that government will might produce compromise, as well help the less fortunate among us, including immigrants and minorities.

Both of these represent a high calling.  Only time will tell if America is up to the challenge.