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.

If you can believe this, Donald Trump called protestors in Eugene, Oregon insurrectionists.

Yes, insurrectionists!

Well, there’s the irony.  He ought to know what that term means.  He mimicked it in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Ee called his sycophants to action to storm the capitol on the theory, one Trump propounded, that he won the presidential election.

He didn’t.

But his sycophants – isn’t that a good word, which means a person who acts obsequiously toward someone important in order to gain advantage — committed an insurrection.

In the irony, Trump’s description of insurrectionists in Eugene appeared in the New York Times.  Here are excerpts from the story.

“…Trump took note of the chaotic Friday protest in downtown Eugene, threatening demonstrators in the Oregon city and those in other ‘Democrat cities’ with brutal consequences for attacking federal property.

“’Last night in Eugene, Oregon, these criminals broke into a Federal Building, and did great damage, also scaring and harassing the hardworking employees,’ Trump wrote on the social-media site Truth Social.  ‘Local Police did nothing in order to stop it.  We will not let that happen anymore!’

“Eugene police, in fact, responded to the scene Friday and declared a riot. Officers formed a phalanx between protesters and the Federal Building.

“In his Saturday post, Trump referred to people who are protesting the federal government’s immigration crackdown as ‘highly paid Lunatics, Agitators and Insurrectionists.’”

There you have it.

One insurrectionist calling out other “insurrectionists.”

By the way, what the does the word “insurrectionist” mean?

This:  “A person who is engaged in violent uprising against an authority or government.”

Trump is one.  Eugene protestors aren’t.