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.

The system of checks and balances has been a hallmark of how the federal government operates in the United States.

But the usual system is being cast aside.

How?

• First, President Donald Trump views himself either as a king or an emperor so he doesn’t recognize any other authority.
• Second, Congress, which is supposed to check the president, is generally following in line behind Trump, giving him everything he wants, including a generally unqualified Cabinet.
• Third, the courts often check both the president and the Congress, but, while many suits have been filed against Trump and his sycophants, two results could occur:  Trump could ignore the courts, which he already doing, or it could just take too long for a court ruling to take effect.

There you have it.

The checks and balances system appears not to be working.

New York Times editorial writers put it this way:

“The U.S. Constitution established three branches of government, designed to balance power — and serve as checks on one another.  That constitutional order suddenly appears more vulnerable than it has in generations.  Trump is trying to expand his authority beyond the bounds of the law while reducing the ability of the other branches to check his excesses.  It’s worth remembering why undoing this system of governance would be so dangerous to American democracy and why it’s vital that Congress, the courts and the public resist such an outcome.”

And, this from the Washington Post:

“The court decisions are coming quickly against President Trump and his administration:  He can’t just wipe out the U.S. Agency for International Development.  He can’t just freeze federal grants and slash money for health research.  He has to put back up public health information websites that were abruptly taken down.

“But, the ultimate test for the nation’s grip on law and order will come if Trump decides not to listen to the courts and to forge ahead anyway with policies now deemed illegal.

“’If you start defying court orders, then the checks and balances are pretty much gone,’ said Meredith McGehee, a governmental-ethics expert who used to head Issue One, a non-profit that focuses on fixing what’s broken in the government.”

Already, there are legitimate reasons to be concerned.

First, Trump already is ignoring court rulings.  A judge has said Trump hasn’t yet abided by a court order to restart federal grants.  The president’s executive order trying to end the constitutional right of birthright citizenship ignores Supreme Court precedent.  And, Trump told his administration not to enforce a TikTok ban that was passed by Congress and upheld by the Supreme Court.

More from the Post:

“’What we’re seeing is the beginning of what we’re really worried about, which is the defiance of court orders,’ said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, a CBS News legal analyst and host of the ‘Passing Judgment’ podcast.

“’We now need to keep a very close eye on whether this is an aberration or a pattern.  We’re in a highly high-stakes game of legal chess here.’”

So far, Trump has lost nearly every court battle so far, The Washington Post finds.

The Post notes that some judges who rule against him are ‘using biting and incredulous language to push back on administration plans they have deemed unconstitutional, ill-planned or cruel.’

“’The rule of law is, according to him, something to navigate around or simply ignore,’ one Reagan-appointed judge wrote as he blocked Trump’s efforts to end birthright citizenship.”

Or, this from Ruth Marcus in the Post in a well-worded analysis of Trump’s bid to tell the court system to go to you-know-where:

“Trump administration is playing a clever game on the explosive question of whether it is preparing to defy federal court rulings.  Even as Trump asserts he will ‘abide’ by adverse decisions as he appeals them through the courts, other senior officials are explicitly insinuating he might not.

“How should we make sense of what is going on here? I think Trump’s strategy is a two-step effort.  Step 1 is a brushback pitch, to intimidate the courts — especially the Supreme Court — into backing away from a confrontation with the executive branch.

“Step 2, whether Step 1 fails or not, is a classically Trumpian play:  Gaslighting the public into believing that defying the courts is defending, not subverting, the constitutional order.

Checks and balances in the U.S. is one mark of a solid democracy.  But, now, brick by brick, Trump is dismantling the U.S. in his own, fractured image.