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.

As I try to understand how Donald Trump won the campaign for president of the United States, I still find myself flummoxed.

First, don’t you like that word, “flummoxed?”

It sort of rolls off the tongue, and by that measure alone, summarizes the incredible status we face in the U.S. – a new president who is a felon, an abuser of women, a reality TV show host, and a person who always thinks he is the smartest person in any room.

So it is that I have wondered about the political strategy that produced the Trump win, if there was a strategy at all.

The New York Times helped me this morning with this:

“For much of the past decade, Trump has repeatedly swamped the system with provocations.  Steve Bannon (one of Trump’s long-time aides who just got out of prison for telling Congress to pound sand) memorably stated that their strategy for dealing with the news media was to ‘flood the zone’ with manure.

“The strategy has ensured that little focus stays on any single scandal.  The caravan moves quickly on to the next, and the next, creating an overall blurring and flattening effect. He (Trump) has survived them all, including 34 felony convictions and being held liable for sexual abuse.”

There you have it.

The Trump strategy.

And, we’re all worse for the wear and tear of it.