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.

This blog headline asks what can be viewed as (a) a silly metaphor, but also (b) a foreboding question.

Remember the story of Scrooge, the famous story written by Charles Dickens.

Well, this week, in The Atlantic Magazine, writer Tom Nichols draws the comparison this way:

“The main character of the story is the legendary Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge, an obnoxious miser who delights in his sneering misanthropy.

“Scrooge is a mossy cistern of cold, sour inhumanity.  His miserliness isn’t just about hoarding wealth for himself; it’s about the petty vengefulness he takes in denying money to others.  When two men come to his office to ask for contributions to alleviate the suffering of the indigent, one of them tells Scrooge that poor people would rather die than go to the workhouses and other nightmarish institutions to which they are consigned.

“Scrooge responds with calm and undiluted contempt:  ‘If they would rather die,’ he says, ‘they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.’”

Then, Nichols hits the nail on the head when it comes to the state of politics in America.

“I don’t want to overdraw comparisons to our current politics, but when political leaders are talking about creating mass detention camps in America, and voters — even those who were once undocumented immigrants themselves — approve of such ideas despite the danger to their own family, this kind of Victorian viciousness feels uncomfortably relevant.”

At the risk of stretching a parallel, Nichols is right.

I have read story after story in the last weeks about folks who voted for Trump, then realized that he intended to deport members of their own families.

Trump, like Scrooge, is miserly because he wants to keep wealth for himself and his cronies rather than watch out for the public good.

Still, Nichols cites this reality – Trump heading for his second trip to the Oval Office because more Americans voted for him than for Kamala Harris.

So, I say to myself and others, adjust yourself to the Trump reality, even as many of us fear it.

More from Nichols:

“Scrooge’s repentance comes after years of a wasted life and a night of trauma and shame.  The rest of us, however, don’t have to wait.  Each of us, every day and in our own small way, can resolve right now that mankind is our business,that the common welfare is our business,and that charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence are all our business,no matter what we do to fill our days or put food on our table—and no matter whom we voted for.

“Americans can’t control much of what’s about to happen in their national politics.  Some of the people about to govern the United States may be determined to be conscientious public servants, but others seem convinced that their fellow citizens are, to use the president-elect’s words, ‘vermin’ and ‘scum.’

“These people will bring division to our public life.  Responding in kind, or acquiescing, or withdrawing entirely and believing in nothing, will all be powerful temptations.  Giving in to anger or despair is easier, of course, but such feelings are empty emotional calories that eventually leave people spiritually starved.  We might hope that others will change their mind, but the sustainable path is to control what’s in our own heart.”

I don’t know whether Nichols is a Christian or not, but these words, his words – convey a set of Christian values…. charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence.

Regardless of how perverse Trump and his cronies act, each of us, as a citizen, can practice those values.