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.

In my regular reading the other day, I came across two apt descriptions of Donald Trump who has led this country, the United States of America, astray as no one before him has done.

First, from the Bible, I read 11 Timothy chapter 3 where I found these words:

“There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with such people.”

The apostle Paul wrote these words to a younger man, Timothy, for whom he served as spiritual mentor.

For me, they ring true today as a description of Trump, though, of course, that is not how they were intended back when they were written or, today, how they should be interpreted accurately.  Still, Trump?

Second, from columnist Frank Bruni in the New York Times:

“As for shame, I’ve always maintained that Trump’s utter lack of it is his single greatest competitive advantage.  When nothing embarrasses you, when nothing is beneath you, when your very brand is perfidy and provocation, you deploy lies and employ tricks that your rivals don’t dare to.  You cast off the restraints that everyone else agreed on.  We’ve learned through Trump that American laws and institutions didn’t provide our most important protection against monarchy and madness.  

“The real guardrails were manners, dignity, decency.  Politicians feared that they’d disgrace themselves — and appall supporters — with behavior too regal and repugnant.  But not Trump.  He gleefully smashed norms, cast his destructiveness as boldness, sold his immorality as authenticity and found more buyers than many of us thought possible.”

Again, very accurate.

No shame by Trump, but it is to our joint shame that we let Trump get away with violating the spirit of America.