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.

To answer the question in this blog headline:

• To Trump, “hostages” means the now-convicted protestors he pledges to release as soon as he becomes president again – IF he becomes president again.

• To the rest of us, “hostages” means that we are hostages facing the prospect of huge dislocation – perhaps a near-civil war – if Trump makes it again to the Oval Office.

This came to mind for me this week when I read a column by Tom Nichols in Atlantic Magazine when he wrote under this headline – “Donald Trump’s plan to pardon people in prison for their crimes on January 6 — people he now calls “hostages” — is yet another dangerous and un-American attack on the rule of law.”

More from Nichols:

“This past weekend, Trump stirred up one of his usual controversies by declaring that there would be a ‘bloodbath’ if he isn’t elected.  Trump’s supporters played a game of gotcha with outraged critics by claiming that Trump was merely describing an economic meltdown in the auto industry.

“Unfortunately, Trump decided, as he so often does, to pull the rug out from under his apologists by defending bloodbath as a common expression and clarifying that he meant it to refer to ‘getting slaughtered economically, when you’re getting slaughtered socially, when you’re getting slaughtered.’”

Nichols says Trump’s threats and violent language are nothing new.

“But while the nation’s pundits and partisans examine what it means for a presidential contender to mull over ‘getting slaughtered socially,’ Trump has added a much more disturbing project to his list of campaign promises:  He intends to pardon all the people jailed for the attack on the Capitol during the January 6 insurrection.”

Nichols remembers that, back in 2021, Trump claimed to be appalled by the violence at the Capitol.   But that didn’t last long — and there is no reason to assume Trump was sincere in the first place.

“The only surprise here is that it took Trump this long to adopt a radical position supporting the people who were willing to do violence on his behalf.  According to the House Select Committee’s investigation, his own staff had trouble getting him to call off the January 6 mob, to whom he said, ‘We love you.’  Many of those convicted for various crimes committed on that day went off to prison convinced they’d done the right thing, and Trump — a sucker for sycophancy — must have been moved by such shows of support, which included people singing to him in jail.”

Both as president and in business – if “business” is what he does – Trump has shown an innate disgust with the whole idea of the impartial rule of law.  He’s in serious financial trouble for lying about the value of his properties when it suited his interests; he has always seemed to believe that rules are for chumps, and that people — especially people named Donald Trump — should be free to enjoy the benefits of whatever they can get away with, legal or otherwise.

And more from Nichols:

“…in promising pardons, Trump may have a motive even darker than his general hatred for rules and laws.  As he makes his third run at the presidency, Trump no longer has a reservoir of establishment Republicans who will support him or serve him.  He distrusts the U.S. military, not least because senior officers and appointees thwarted his efforts to use the armed forces for his own political purposes.  And although he may yet win re-election, his MAGA movement is now dependent on the kind of people who will go to his rallies and buy the trinkets and hats and shirts that go on sale whenever he speaks.”

Where, then, Nichols asks, can Trump find a truly loyal cadre willing to offer unconditional support.

In prison, that’s where.

“Trump is no longer flirting with this idea. The man whose constitutional duty as president would be to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ is now promising to let hundreds of rioters and insurrectionists out of prison with full pardons.  And eventually, he will make clear what he expects in return.”

So, to conclude, if we needed another reason to oppose Trump, we just got one.  Hundreds of folks will get out of jail as they continue to offer obedience to their corrupt leader, Trump.