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 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.

This blog headline describes Donald Trump.  And I say that as a long-time public relations consultant before I retired about six years ago.

Just think about it.

Trump cares only about himself and usually says the first thing that comes into his head, no matter the potential consequences.  And, it appears to be absolutely true that consequences are irrelevant to him.

Most of the time, for him, they simply become more fund-raising opportunities.

As I thought about this over the last few days, a notion kept coming back to me.  It was this:  If you thought Trump should consider taking advice about a host of very negative issues surrounding him as a person, just know that he do the REVERSE of what any sage advisor would offer.

He is always in court these days and, rather than participate carefully in those situations, he just emotes.

He berates the judge in the judges’ own courtroom.  He is caught commenting aloud to illustrate that he detests witness testimony.

He practices these stupid traits:

• He never listens.

• He just says whatever comes into his mind.

• Truth is totally unimportant to him; not a factor.

• He believes he is always the most important person in any room, if not on the face of the earth.

• He boasts unceasingly about himself.

• He criticizes everyone, using inflammatory words.

• He doesn’t care about hurting someone else…anyone else.

And, then, this from Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post:

“…here is a very interesting question about whether any amount of damages can deter Trump from repeating his defamatory comments.  Our legal system presumes rational actors are deterred from bad conduct by the fear of consequences, either punitive (such as imprisonment) or monetary (including punitive damages).

“But Trump doesn’t seem to have been deterred — at all.  And I wonder whether he is even capable of restraining himself.  His conduct in court was not the conduct of a person who was behaving in accordance with his own best interests.”

In my public relations business, when clients faced potential negative exposure, I used to counsel them to work to limit damages by being careful and respectful about what they said.  Better to seek limits than to increase exposure.

But, then these clients cared about the exposure, not to mention their reputations.  And, unlike Trump, didn’t behave as narcissists.

So, if we cannot impeach Trump because he no longer is in public office, then we should do two things – (a) subject him to further damages in criminal courts (such as the $450 million he received in New York), and (b) don’t vote for him again.