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.

How’s this for a piece of political stupidity!

Two U.S. senators – Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders – are now saying that “killing CEOs is understandable.”

That occurred after the brazen murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson several days ago in New York, with the culprit, Luigi Mangione, now in custody in New Jersey fighting extradition to New York.

I thought it was only Donald Trump who disdained the rule of law.  No.  Warren and Sanders join him.

Here is how a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial started:

“If you think sympathy for the devil in Mangione is confined to the fever swamps of Reddit, consider comments by Senator Warren.

“Asked Tuesday about those celebrating the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Thompson, the Massachusetts Democrat called it a ‘warning.’

Did she mean a warning not to shoot someone?  Not quite.

“’The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system.’”

Translation from editorial writers about how Warren apparently feels:

“Violence may be wrong, but it’s explainable by the U.S. healthcare system.  And copycats may be coming for the same reason.”

Then, the WSJ adds, “Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders also used Thompson’s murder to opine that the anger at the healthcare industry tells us is that . . . you cannot have people in the insurance industry rejecting needed healthcare for people while they make billions of dollars in profit.”

The fact is, the WSJ emphasized, no one knows yet whether “Mangione was denied care or even what his specific healthcare complaint was, apart from a general loathing for the system.  Perhaps he blames health providers for his back pain, but that isn’t an explanation for murder.”

By contrast, the proper response to the healthcare assassination came from John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat senator.  He criticized what he called “vile” social media posts for celebrating an “a— that’s going to die in prison.”

Good for Fetterman.

All this recalls for me that, in Oregon, I represented health care and health insurance executives at the Oregon Legislature for more than 20 years.  They had controversial jobs to fill and where they right all the time?  Of course not.

But, they tried to do the right thing when the “right thing” was not always patently clear.

Were they gunned down in the street?  Fortunately, no.

And the two senators – Warren and Sanders – ought to know better than to countenance killing because of disagreements.

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I’ll add this footnote to get out of writing about the bad character business.

When Donald Trump, of all things, was named “Person of the Year” by Time Magazine (if there is good news here it is that almost no one reads Time any more) late night TV host Jim Fallon had this to say:

“Trump is the first man in history to be Time’s person of the year and McDonald’s employee of the month.”