Perspective from the 19th 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.
We have heard a lot of about Donald Trump’s first day in the office as the president, but I’ll bet he was not prepared for a surprise.
My wife found the following story and passed it on to me.
For some reason, Trump, who wouldn’t know real religion if it hit him in the face – remember, he considers himself to be a god – went to the National Cathedral on Tuesday.
He got an earful.
Here is how newspapers described the situation.
“Trump began his first full day in office attending a prayer service at the Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday and got a sermon he may not have been expecting: An appeal to protect immigrants and respect gay rights.
“A day after declaring in his inauguration speech that there were only two genders in America and signing executive orders to crack down on immigrants, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde pleaded with Trump, from the pulpit, to show mercy on people who were ‘scared’ of what is to come.
“’There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democrat, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives,’ Budde said.”
The fear arises because, last Monday, Trump launched a sweeping immigration crackdown, assigned the U.S. military to aid in border security, issued a broad ban on asylum, and took steps to restrict citizenship for children born on U.S. soil.
Budde responded this way:
“’The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat-packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals, she said.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger.”
I hope other “Buddes” will stand up to call for even-handed actions by the president and cronies, which, at the same time, I know is too much to ask.
Here is what one letter-to-the-editor writer wrote in the Washington Post:
“Budde’s sermon was not a political statement. It was a call for empathy and moral character, which Trump does not apparently possess. As a preacher, I plan to use every opportunity to draw attention to the need for civility, compassion and, especially, the common good. I pray that our leaders will rise above political fealty and do the same.”
From Trump, no surprise. After he heard the Budde remarks and was asked about them, he dismissed them. Plus, he then demanded an apology from Budde that he won’t get because Budde stands by her comments which are based on scripture.
Billionaire Elon Musk, a staunch Trump ally, knocked Budde in a post on his social media platform, X. “She got the woke mind virus real bad,” he said.
However – and I did not know this — Musk is the father of a transgender daughter, so he must have at least some mixed emotions about some of Trump’s proclamations.
The Atlantic Magazine chimed in with this summary of what I’ll label “early Trump.”
“Trump has clearly claimed some territory in the culture wars: He is now dancing with Village People in the flesh, not merely to a recording of the group’s most famous track. And when it comes to getting away with self-dealing and abuses of power, he has mastered the system.
“But a politician and a party that are built for propaganda and quashing dissent generally lack the tools for effective governance. As far as policy accomplishments are concerned, the second Trump term could very well turn out to be as underwhelming as the first.
“Trump has promised a grand revolution. At a pre-inaugural rally, he announced, ‘The American people have given us their trust, and in return, we’re going to give them the best first day, the biggest first week, and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in American history.’
“He branded his inauguration ‘Liberation Day’ labeled his incoming agenda a ‘revolution of common sense,’ and boasted, ‘Nothing will stand in our way.’ After being sworn in on Monday, he signed a slew of executive orders in a move that has been termed ‘shock and awe.’
“Those orders fall into a few different categories. Some are genuinely dangerous — above all, the mass pardon of about 1,500 January 6 defendants, which unambiguously signals that lawbreaking in the service of subverting elections in Trump’s favor will be tolerated. Others, including withdrawing from the World Health Organization and freezing offshore wind energy, will be consequential but perhaps not enduring — that which can be done by executive order can be undone by it.”
The Atlantic added this coda:
“What’s really striking is how many fall into the category of symbolic culture-war measures or vague declarations of intent. Trump declared a series of ‘emergencies’ concerning his favorite issues. His order declaring an end to birthright citizenship seems likely to be struck down on constitutional grounds, although the Supreme Court can always interpret the Fourteenth Amendment’s apparently plain text as it desires.
“He is re-renaming a mountain in Alaska — which, in four years’ time, could be renamed yet again, perhaps after one of the police officers who fought off Trump’s insurrection attempt. He has ordered the federal government to officially recognize only two genders, male and female.”
On all this, Atlantic adds that, at least for now, there is no way to tell whether Trump will achieve all his aims, especially with a horde of folks ready to challenge, perhaps in court, what he tries to do to re-make America is his craven image.
So, for today:
- Kudos to Budde for speaking truth to power, especially because the truth is Biblical truth, and
- I hope the Atlantic predictions about the potentially short extent of Trump’s power come true.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 