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.

Ever thought about two words – sympathy and empathy – and what they mean.

In a way, they sound alike, but their meaning is different.

• Sympathy:  The act or state of feeling sorrow or compassion for another.
• Empathy:  The psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of another.

The definition of this empathy clearly goes deeper than just sympathy.  With empathy, you go beyond to come close to experiencing the pain of others.

So, my question this morning is whether Donald Trump has either – sympathy or empathy.

The answer, I submit, is “no.” 

He thinks only of himself and how what he does will benefit him and his family, which is the definition of a narcissist.

Consider these facts:

• U.S. aid workers have been left to fend entirely for themselves in foreign countries where they were sent to convey good news from America.  Not even money for them to get home.

• Immigrants came to America, not as criminals, but as real people looking for a new way of life.  And now, many relatives of these immigrants wonder why they voted for Trump in the first place if it means deportation for their loved ones.

• Farmworkers and owners apparently have no choice but to accept Trump’s decision to gore the federal Department of Agriculture, which provides funds for farming.

• And, in Oregon, the Oregon Health & Science University stands to lose tens of millions of dollars in federal funding under the Trump’s directive to cap National Institutes of Health payments to research institutions.  Plus, who knows what gains will be lost if research ends.

In the New York Times, columnist David French wrote about this by describing what he called “the new right,” which Trump has welcomed into his array of MAGA supporters.

“The new religious right,” French wrote, “has turned against the old religious right.

“Or, to put it another way, the focus of the movement is changing.  I spent more than 20 years defending religious liberty in federal courts.  Our objective was to defend liberty so that religious organizations enjoyed the liberty to do good, free from state discrimination.

“Yet, now the focus of Christian right isn’t on the defense of liberty; it’s on the accumulation of power.  And it is using that power to impose its will, including by imposing its will on Christian organizations it has decided are woke or opposed to Trump’s agenda.”

Few things, French says, illustrate this reality more clearly than Trump’s decision unilaterally — and often unlawfully — to defund Christian organizations, including evangelical organizations, that serve poor and marginalized people at home and abroad.

“Trump cuts are immaterial to the deficit,” French adds.  “U.S.A.I.D.’s foreign assistance constituted less than 1 per cent of the federal budget, for example.  All direct foreign aid (including the surge in aid to Ukraine) adds up to a mere 1.17 per cent of total government spending in the 2023 fiscal year.

“Yet, cuts to foreign aid endanger people’s lives, including those of Afghan refugees who risked everything helping Americans during our longest war.”

French wasn’t necessarily writing about the words “sympathy” and “empathy,” though, for the latter, he bemoaned the loss of “Christian empathy.”

I share his perspective.

Trump goes on with something new and divisive every day. 

No sympathy.

No empathy.

Neither is in his DNA.

And, worse, some persons who say they are Christians salivate in support of his non-Christian invective.

In conclusion, I say adhere to these verses in the Bible, March 12:30-31:

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second is this:  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  There is no other commandment greater than these.”

This is both sympathy and empathy.