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.

13.

That’s the number of days Donald Trump has remaining in his presidency…if his Cabinet does not enact the 25^th amendment and take him out of office.  Which, I add, would be hard to achieve in just 13 days with the clock ticking.  Hard, but warranted.

The question for all of us:  Will we survive those 13 days?

Even after having a few hours to reflect on what happened yesterday, I suspect January 6, 2021 will be a day that will live in infamy.  We’ll remember that day much as we remember other fateful days in U.S. history, fateful days such as Pearl Harbor and 9/11.

Who knows what Trump and his minions will do to wreak further havoc on this country.  Every time he does something, he tops his previous most devious act. 

Various lawmakers – including Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and Oregon Representative Peter DeDazio – called the protest an attempted coup.  Senator Chuck Schumer, who soon will be majority leader in the new Senate, called for using the 25^th amendment to remove Trump from office.

Here is how the Washington Post described the situation yesterday: 

“The world watched with dismay as a surreal scene at the U.S. Capitol, like little else seen in its history, unfolded on Wednesday.

“Many foreign observers, already glued to news of the final chapters of the election saga, reacted with alarm and even grief, especially in allied countries that have looked to U.S. democracy for inspiration.”

In Trump’s attempted coup, he is aided and abetted by some Republicans in the Senate and the House who still are bowing at the altar of Trump as they seek to reverse his election loss.

In the Wall Street Journal, columnist Gerald Seib labeled one of those  correctly when he wrote:  “Senator Cruz laments the fire as he wields a flamethrower.”

Incoming President Joe Biden put the entire tragedy in perspective when he said:

“This is not dissent.  It’s disorder. It’s chaos. It borders on sedition and it must end now.”

It wasn’t only in D.C. where demonstrators wreaked havoc.  In Oregon, they showed up at the Capitol in Salem to express their anger.  According to the Oregonian newspaper, “Some demonstrators burned an effigy of Governor Kate Brown.  Counter-demonstrators had arrived by about 2 p.m., and the event was declared an unlawful assembly.”

But, step back from the startling events of the last day and consider the litany of Trump’s egregious offenses:

• He instructed his attorneys to file more than 60 suits in various courts to overturn election results.  They lost each of them, often with derisive comments from judges who thought the suits lacked merit.

• He complimented white supremacists when they went after Blacks and other persons of color.

• He made special efforts to disown Republicans who didn’t express fealty to him – and that included Vice President Mike Pence when Pence would not use his honorary position leading the Senate to overturn the election.

• He assumed the U.S. Supreme Court eventually would rule in his favor, which it has not and will not.

• He motivated mobs of his supporters to demonstrate all the time and everywhere, including by ransacking the U.S. Capital.

All of this is new to me and most other Americans.  But, all I can do is hope that we will survive the next 13 days – to the point, on January 20, when I hope Trump will become the worst kind of afterthought as Joe Biden is sworn as president.

Again, from columnist Seib in the Wall Street Journal:

“It’s possible that the sheer horror that most Americans felt, and that most Republicans expressed, at the scenes of mayhem will cause everyone to take a step back from divisive political behavior and look harder for common ground. It’s surely an exaggeration to say the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol did Mr. Biden a favor, but they lent some new urgency to his calls to back away from the bitter politics of the last few years.”

We’ll see.