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.

I have decided to devote my next two blogs to posting excerpts from excellent columns written by Nicholas Kristof for the New York Times.

Remember him?  With Oregon connections, including owning property in Yamhill County, Kristof filed to run for governor on the Democrat side here the last time around.  However, courts ruled that he could not do so because he had not established “residency.”

I wish he would have been allowed to run, given his experience and perspective.

But, Kristof went back to doing what he did so well before and now does again, which is to write columns for the Times.

This time, one of his columns provided insights in how it is possible to oppose an autocrat like Donald Trump.  Excerpts appear below.

In a second column, Kristof wrote about a fact he contends exists – Trump is so corrupt that he is vulnerable.  That will be part two for me.

So, here’s part one, which appeared under this headline:  Three Well-Tested Ways to Undermine an Autocrat. Kristof started his column this way:

“The question I get most often is:  What can we do to take our country back?

“So let me try to answer, drawing on lessons from other countries that have faced authoritarian challenges.

“The funny thing is that there’s a playbook for overturning autocrats.  It was written here in America, by a rumpled political scientist I knew named Gene Sharp.  While little known in the United States before his death in 2018, he was celebrated abroad, and his tool kit was used by activists in Eastern Europe, in the Middle East, and across Asia.

“His books, emphasizing non-violent protests that become contagious, have been translated into at least 34 languages.

“’Dictators are never as strong as they tell you they are,’ Sharp once said, ‘and people are never as weak as they think they are.’”

Kristof reports three examples of ways to oppose autocracy.

1. The first is mockery and humor — preferably salacious.

Humor, Kristof writes, puts autocrats in a difficult position.  They look ridiculous if they crack down on jokes but look weak if they ignore them.

• A second approach that has often succeeded is emphasizing not democracy as such but rather highlighting the leaders’ corruption, hypocrisy, and economic mismanagement.

Kristof writes:  “Critics usually have plenty of ammunition when pointing to hypocrisy, for authoritarians tend to preen as moral guardians while the lack of accountability often leads to lapses.  One example:  The police chief in Tehran, who was in charge of enforcing the Islamic dress code for women, was reportedly found naked in a brothel with six equally naked prostitutes.

“Corruption is also usually an easy target, because as autocrats become increasingly powerful, they and their family members often decide to enrich themselves:  Wherever there is authoritarianism, there is corruption.”

Think Trump because one of his main goals is to accumulate personal wealth at the expense of Americans and America.

• The third approach that has often succeeded is focusing on the power of one — an individual tragedy rather than a sea of oppression.  Protesters against apartheid used to employ the slogan, “Free South African political prisoners,” but that never got much traction.  Then they switched to “Free Nelson Mandela,” and we know the rest.

Kristof’s conclusion:  “There’s no simple formula for challenging authoritarianism.  But these approaches have enjoyed a measure of success abroad and may be ones we Americans could learn from.”

So, good words.  And, tomorrow, I’ll post Kristof’s thoughts on Trump’s vulnerability.