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.

Not much surprise here, I guess.

After a second assassination attempt, Donald Trump tried to capitalize on it for political gain.  His own.

And, of course, he blamed President Joe Biden, Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and anyone else he think of, if thinking is what he actually does.

Tom Nichols, writing in The Atlantic magazine, put it this way:

“Every American has the right to participate in public life without violence, and that includes Donald Trump.

“Personally, I think he probably belongs in jail, but that is a matter for the justice system.  I also think he is easily the worst president in American history and one of the very worst people in our national life.  But my feelings have no bearing on his rights or his safety.

“He is an American, and I want him to be treated fairly in court.  He is my fellow citizen, and I want him to walk our streets without being in danger.  He is a candidate for public office in the United States, and I want our government to ensure his safety — I am willing to be taxed to pay for his security.” 

My views, exactly.

Nichols continues:

“If only Trump and his homunculus, J. D. Vance, cared as much about the safety of others as so many others care about theirs.”

As an aside, there was a new word for me in what Nichols wrote – homunculus.  I looked it up and it means “a very small human.”

Again, exactly.

Vance is bringing down misery on his own constituents in Ohio, using hatred against immigrants to set neighbors against one another, a conflict that has led to the closure of schools and the lockdown of two hospitals.

All for the supposed political benefit to him as he runs for vice president.  He has admitted that he “created” the story – that was the word he used, created – to generate media coverage pursuant to the false comment that immigrants are eating cats and dogs.  It was not and is not true.

More Nichols:

“Vance is a product of a working-class town, but, in reality, he is an utterly synthetic politician, a power-seeking drone who will do almost anything to further his political fortunes.  In this case, he is casting the innocent people of Springfield, Ohio, in his own obscene little drama about migrant savages roaming the streets of the heartland trying to sink their teeth into Fluffy and Fido.

“Sure, it’s a pack of lies, but it’s all for the greater good, you see, of advancing the career of the Hillbilly Senator.

“Trump, meanwhile, is turning the violence against him into fuel for more political hatred.  In July, a young man — a loner with no obvious political agenda — tried to kill Trump in Pennsylvania, and almost did.  And now another man is under arrest for a possible assassination attempt after being discovered near Trump’s golf course, apparently lying in wait for the former president.

“Once again, the suspect seems to be something of a weird loner who said on X that he voted for Trump in 2016, but in subsequent elections, according to federal campaign-finance records, began donating to Democrats.  

One might hope that these brushes with death would bring Trump a moment of reflection and, perhaps, even something like grace.  But if Trump were capable of such a response, he wouldn’t be the man he is.”

Trump is blaming two possible attempts to kill him on pretty much anyone who isn’t an open partisan on his side, and, as I wrote above, that includes Biden, Harris, and millions of other Americans.

Nichols concludes:

“Self-awareness is not part of Trump’s personality:  He is complaining about overheated rhetoric while constantly spewing such rhetoric himself.

We are a better country, and a better people, than Trump, and every good American citizen should insist on his protection and his safety.  But he and Vance seem unable to insist on ours — a fundamental duty of elected officials — and this makes them unfit to hold any American public office.”

Again, exactly.