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.

Several local and national newspapers recently have carried stories about what’s behind this blog headline – many voters are second-guessing the fact they cast ballots for Donald Trump.

The Washington Post carried the most salient summary:

“…there’s a common feeling emerging about the viral videos of constituents angrily confronting congressional Republicans:  That’s what they get.

“But the snark isn’t intended for the elected officials so much as for their voters.  The thinking goes that those who supported politicians campaigning on callous policies toward others shouldn’t be surprised when they end up harmed, too.  It’s a variation on the adage that people get the government they deserve.”

Many of the stories have focused on immigrants who voted for Trump and now wonder why some members of their families are being deported.

It’s what they get.

On a different but related subject – it’s also about Trump — Wall Street Journal editor retired editor Gerard Baker latest column appeared under this headline:  CAPITOL HILL’S REPUBLICAN SYCOPHANT CAUCUS.

“‘I don’t mind what Trump does, because I trust Trump.’

“Thus spoke Senator Lindsey Graham last week, cheerfully declaring the unconditional surrender of not only his own judgment, his freedom of thought, his relevance and his dignity, but — and this one actually matters —  his role as a leading member of one of the elected branches of the U.S. government.

“The submissive senator was responding on Fox News last week to a report that President Trump had started negotiations with Hamas, the terrorist organization whose destruction Graham had recently called “non-negotiable.

“Flustered for a moment by this latest sudden turn from the White House, Graham quickly recovered and gave that neatly laconic affirmation of his self-extinction and his superfluity as a thinker and policymaker.  You were left wondering how he might have responded if he had been told that Trump had just signed an executive order exiling him to Siberia, confiscating his personal property and burning his house to the ground.

“I pick on the gentleman from South Carolina only because he is the most ubiquitous and performative of the class of sometime self-sovereign senators turned servile sycophants who are supposed to be making our laws.  He isn’t alone.”

Baker, who spent his early retirement criticizing former President Joe Biden at nearly every turn, now wonders why Trump is “venturing down a diplomatic track that punishes and alienates for no good reason our closest neighbor and ally, that rewards the tyranny of a murderous and implacable foe of America (Russia), that nods approvingly as the dictator of that country carries out the rape of a free nation, that casually slashes at the bonds of alliance that have served this country well and enhanced its global power and standing for decades, my question is:  When is someone going to say something?

“I know why so many lawmakers sit by and watch as the arson unfolds:  Fear for their jobs.  I am sure they rationalize their complaisance by thinking their political future is indispensable to the nation.  But there must be more who harbor a deeper fear:  Of what history will make of them if they don’t speak up now about the wanton vandalism to the country they were elected to protect.”

So, who knows?

Perhaps some members of Congress may have their own second-thoughts about supporting Trump, even as they keep their mouths shut.

This instinct is the same as when some voters wonder why they voted for Trump when he cares only about himself, not the country.

Too late.