Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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.

The question in this blog headline has two answers:

1. If you look at Donald Trump, now a convicted felon, the answer is “no” – a clearcut no.

• If you consider politics generally, the answer should be “yes” – a clearcut yes.

At least to Trump, and those who follow him blindly, character is not an issue.  If it was, they wouldn’t follow Trump.

I say all this the day after Trump was convicted in a New York Court of delivering hush money to a porn star to avoid information about his tryst becoming a negative part of his presidential campaign.

This headline appeared in the Washington Post in a column by Ruth Marcus:  “No matter what he says, Trump is a felon.”

So, as I have done, consider politics 10, 20 or 30 years ago. 

Would it be possible for a person with the following records ever win election?

• A person who was a reality TV show host, with no public service experience
• A person who said it was easy to grope women
• A person convicted of rape
• A person who expresses his disdain for American military heroes, including the late John McCain
• A person who glorifies Hitler as a model, despite the fact that Hitler organized the largest mass murder in history — killing six million Jews
• A person who hates immigrants, calling them “vermin” and “a poison on this country” (though all of us either are immigrants or come immigrant stock)

Ten, 20 or 30 years ago, that person would never have had a chance to be elected to a public office.

Then comes Trump.

Not only are the facts above true of Trump, he revels in those facts, calling them attributes as he threatens to make America into a dictatorship, with him at the top in the same way another of Trump’s heroes, Vladimir Putin, rules Russia.

It may be tempting for some Trump followers, even in the aftermath of his felony convictions, to say they don’t like his opponent, Joe Biden.

But whatever Biden’s faults – and there are some – none even remotely approach Trump.

So, I intend to vote for Biden.

And, I’ll give the New York Times the last word this morning as it wrote:

“In a humble courtroom in Lower Manhattan on Thursday, a former president and current Republican standard-bearer was convicted of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.  The jury’s decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder — perhaps the starkest to date — of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.”