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 drew this headline from a column written last week by one of my favorite political commentators, David Brooks, who writes for the New York Times, as well as other publications.

Here is a summary of his “Trump crackup” column:

“Last week Minneapolis’s police chief, Brian O’Hara, said the thing he fears most is the ‘moment where it all explodes.’  I share his worry.  If you follow the trajectory of events, it’s pretty clear that we’re headed toward some kind of crackup.”

Before going further, here is a summary of Brooks’ credentials.

A Canadian-born American book author and political and cultural commentator, Brooks describes himself as a “moderate Republican,” while others have characterized him as centrist, moderate conservative, or conservative, based on his record as contributor to the PBS NewsHour, and as an opinion columnist for The New York Times.

In his most recent offering, Brooks says that “we are in the middle of four unravelings:”

• The unraveling of the post-war international order.
• The unraveling of domestic tranquility, wherever Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents bring down their jackboots.
• The further unraveling of the democratic order, with attacks on Fed independence and — excuse the pun — “trumped-up” prosecutions of political opponents. 
• Finally, the unraveling of Trump’s mind.

“Of these four, the unraveling of Trump’s mind is the primary one, leading to all the others.  Narcissists sometimes get worse with age, as their remaining inhibitions fall away.  The effect is bound to be profound when the narcissist happens to be president of the United States.”

And, Brooks goes on to describe Trump succinctly in these two paragraphs:

“…over the past year, Trump has been quicker and quicker to resort to violence.  In 2025, the U.S. carried out or contributed to 622 overseas bombing missions, killing people in places ranging from Venezuela to Iran, Nigeria and Somalia — not to mention Minneapolis.

“The arc of tyranny bends toward degradation.  Tyrants generally get drunk on their own power, which progressively reduces restraint, increases entitlement and self-focus and amps up risk taking and overconfidence while escalating social isolation, corruption and defensive paranoia.”

Also writing in the New York Times, one of the best political reporters going today, Peter Baker, wrote this to chronicle another Trump pattern – lying and more lying.

“Trump has found that putting out a story line early and repeating it often can, with the help of an ideological media and online surround-sound machine, convince a sizable share of the public that does not credit contrary evidence.  Even after investigations, recounts and his own advisers and attorney general refuted Trump’s claim that he won the 2020 election, polls show that most Republicans still believe the election was stolen.”

So, now many lies hasTrump told.  You need a calculator to find out.  The Washington Post Fact Checker column puts the number at about 30,000.

Back to Brooks.  He doesn’t think America is headed toward anything like a Rome-style collapse.  “Our institutions are too strong,” he contends, “and our people, deep down, still have the same democratic values.

I hope he is rigjht.

So, the predicted conclusion from Brooks is that Trump will slide toward even more “deterioration and debauchery,” while the country will survive, barely.

Beyond that, my wish is that we didn’t have to face three more years of Trump.