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.

Democrats in Washington, D.C., soon to be out of power, have made two gestures recently that are worth commending.

And, by “gestures,” I mean action that display support for democracy and a peaceful changing of the guard in America.

The two gestures:

• Kamala Harris, after it was clear she lost to Donald Trump – a result I did not want – called Trump to congratulate him.

• President Joe Biden invited Trump to a meeting at the White House, which Trump was doing as he also visited Congress.

Note that Trump did neither of these gestures as he lost last time around to Joe Biden.

He should have, but, instead, he mounted an insurrection to try to stay in power, which was antithetical to the way democracy works in this country.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal described the Biden-Trump meeting:

“President-elect  Trump met with President Biden in the Oval Office with the two leaders shaking hands and emphasizing a peaceful handover of power, a moment that stood in contrast to the discord that followed Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump.

“’Congratulations and I’m looking forward to having a smooth transition,’ Biden said Wednesday.  ‘Welcome — welcome back.’

“Trump thanked the president.  ‘Politics is tough and it’s, [in] many cases, not a very nice world but it is a nice world today,’ he said, adding that the change in power would be ‘as smooth as it can get.’  They didn’t take questions from reporters before continuing the meeting, which lasted roughly two hours.  Trump also didn’t address the huge crowd of reporters waiting outside the White House when he departed around 1 p.m.”

Still, Maureen Dowd in the New York Times added this bit of clarity:

“It is hard to watch Donald Trump be gracious, because he is gracious only when he wins, and that’s not a good lesson for the children of America.  When he loses, he tries to burn the democracy down.”

That’s true about Trump.  When he lost, he tried hard, violence and all, to stay in power, even threatening to kill those who opposed his bid. 

Now, Dowd says, as the winner Trump, comes across as “gracious,” which might have been the first time in his life he has displayed that trait.

So, I believe we should commend Harris and Biden for their gestures, even as we hope, down the road, that Trump learns about the way to conduct democracy, if, he doesn’t want to continue that approach to government in the United States.