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.
I would like to take credit for using the four words below to describe Donald Trump, the reality TV show host who is preening as president of the United States.
But I cannot.
Genuine credit, instead, goes to Frank Bruni, the excellent writer whose work often appears in the New York Times.
Here are the four words:
- Phony.
- Diversion.
- Camouflage.
- Hooey.
Here is how Bruni started his most recent column:
“The president’s proclaimed concern for free speech is entirely phony.
“I agree with Trump — or at least I agree with whoever wrote the perfect last sentence of the first long paragraph in an executive order that he issued on January 20, within hours of his inauguration.
“It states, succinctly and forcefully: ‘Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society.’
“But like so much of what Trump says and does, it’s a diversion. Camouflage. Hooey. It presents him as a champion of open discourse when he is more its saboteur.”
It would be hard for me to hold this blog to be a short one if the purpose was to list “all the phony, diversions, camouflage, and hooey” practiced by Trump.
So, I’ll just list two.
First, when the Associated Press declined to change of name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, at Trump’s bidding, he and his staff just booted the AP out of the White House and off Air Force One.
Plus, Trump said he would decide which outlets would cover the White House inside the walls of the place, not leaders of the Press Corps itself, which had the responsibility for years.
What Trump wants, clearly, is not a free press. He wants one that does his bidding — lock, stock and barrel.
As for the second case – a diversion – look no farther that what Trump and his sycophant J.D. Vance did to Ukraine Premier Volodymyr Zelenskyy a few days ago.
They ambushed Zelenskyy at the White House and, thereby, damaged many U.S. international relationships, not just Ukraine which is defending itself against Russian aggression.
Trump and Vance don’t care as they side with Putin.
To this, as a “wordsmith,” I add two words – preen (which I used above) and fealty (which I have used several times in previous blogs).
I like both.
Trump “preens” (Definition: Devoting effort to making oneself look attractive and then admire one’s appearance) around as if he is what he thinks he is, which is king.
And, then, he demands “fealty” (Definition: Formal acknowledgement of loyalty to a lord) from all those who serve him because he views himself as a lord.
Enough. So six words to describe Trump.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 