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.

Once in awhile, I find a column worth repeating intact in my blog.  This is such a time.

Writing in The Atlantic Magazine, Tom Nichols advocated that Americans who care about America – and that does not include Donald Trump – need to band together to stop Trump pollution.

Even as we head toward Trump’s inauguration, which I will not watch, we should not forget Trump’s ill-conceived plan for America – one where he is always the acknowledged ruler…rather than just president.

And, today, in a huge irony, Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump, will preside over the routine in the U.S. Senate to declare Trump the winner.  The episode will stand in huge contrast to Trump who did the reverse last time around – urging supporters to ransack the U.S Capitol and ordering his vice president, Mike Pence, to undo the election, which would have been unlawful act.

There also is a lot of major news coverage today about Trump’s promise to pardon persons who are in prison, having been found guilty for January 6, 2022 crimes.

But, enough words from me.  Here are Nichols’ words.

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An aspiring fascist is the president-elect, again, of the United States.

This is our political reality:  Donald Trump is going to bring a claque of opportunists and kooks (led by the vice president–elect, a person who once compared Trump to Hitler) into government this winter, and even if senescence overtakes the president-elect, Trump’s minions will continue his assault on democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution.

The urge to cast blame will be overwhelming, because there is so much of it to go around.  When the history of this dark moment is written, those responsible will include not only Trump voters but also easily gulled Americans who didn’t vote or who voted for independent or third-party candidates because of their own selfish peeves.

Trump’s opponents will also blame Russia and other malign powers.  Without a doubt, America’s enemies — some of whom dearly hoped for a Trump win — made efforts to flood the public square with propaganda.  According to federal and state government reports, several bomb threats that appeared to originate from Russian email domains were aimed at areas with minority voters.  But as always, the power to stop Trump rested with American voters at the ballot box, and blaming others is a pointless exercise.

So now what?

The first order of business is to redouble every effort to preserve American democracy.  If I may invoke Winston Churchill, this is not the end or the beginning of the end; it is the end of the beginning.

For a decade, Trump has been trying to destroy America’s constitutional order.  His election in 2016 was something like a prank gone very wrong, and he likely never expected to win.  But once in office, he and his administration became a rocket sled of corruption, chaos, and sedition.  Trump’s lawlessness finally caught up with him after he was forced from office by the electorate.  He knew that his only hope was to return to the presidency and destroy the last instruments of accountability.

Paradoxically, however, Trump’s reckless venality is a reason for hope.  Trump has the soul of a fascist but the mind of a disordered child.  He will likely be surrounded by terrible but incompetent people.  All of them can be beaten:  In court, in Congress, in statehouses around the nation, and in the public arena.

America is a federal republic, and the states — at least those in the union that will still care about democracy — have ways to protect their citizens from a rogue president.  Nothing is inevitable, and democracy will not fall overnight.

Do not misunderstand me.  I am not counseling complacency:  Trump’s re-election is a national emergency.

If we have learned anything from the past several years, it’s that feel-good, performative politics can’t win elections, but if there was ever a time to exercise the American right of free assembly, it is now — not least because Trump is determined to end such rights and silence his opponents.

Americans must stay engaged and make their voices heard at every turn.  They should find and support organizations and institutions committed to American democracy, and especially those determined to fight Trump in the courts.  They must encourage candidates in the coming 2026 elections who will oppose Trump’s plans and challenge his legislative enablers.

After Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, then–Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell vowed to make Obama a one-term president, and obstructed him at every turn. McConnell, of course, cared only about seizing power for his party, and later, he could not muster that same bravado when faced with Trump’s assaults on the government.

Patriotic Americans and their representatives might now make a similar commitment, but for better aims:  Although they cannot remove Trump from office, they can declare their determination to prevent Trump from implementing the ghastly policies he committed himself to while campaigning.

The kinds of actions that will stop Trump from destroying America in 2025 are the same ones that stopped many of his plans the first time around.  They are not flashy, and they will require sustained attention, because the next battles for democracy will be fought by lawyers and legislators, in Washington and in every state capitol.  

They will be fought by citizens banding together in associations and movements to rouse others from the sleepwalk that has led America into this moment.

Trump’s victory is a grim day for the United States and for democracies around the world.  You have every right to be appalled, saddened, shocked, and frightened.  Soon, however, you should dust yourself off, square your shoulders, and take a deep breath.  Americans who care about democracy have work to do.

To this, I add this quote from Jennifer Rubin writing in the Washington Post.

“Democrats strain credulity if they imagine they can find common ground with someone who vows, among other mind-boggling schemes, to imprison opponents, deploy the military against immigrants, snatch the power of the purse from Congress and pay for tax cuts for billionaires with cuts to entitlements and other programs that serve ordinary Americans. (What would common ground even look like? Deport just 5.5 million people, not 11 million? Cut Social Security only a little bit?)