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 blog headline from a column composed by one of today’s top writers, David Brooks, whose work often appears in the New York Times.

This time, he summarizes a way for all of us who bemoan Donald Trump’s ascendancy to retain our equilibrium amidst all of Trump’s lies and distractions.

I reprint parts of his column below, but here is one of the most salient paragraphs:

“If paganism is a grand but dehumanizing value system, I’ve found it necessary, in this increasingly pagan age, to root myself in anything that feels rehumanizing, whether it’s art or literature or learning.  I’ve found it incredibly replenishing to be spending time around selfless, humble people who are still doing the work of serving the homeless, mentoring a lost kid who’s joined a gang.  These days I need these moral antidotes to feel healthy, resilient and inspired.”

What Brooks needs – what all of us need – is to do the good work of the Christian gospel, loving your fellow human beings.  Even if they are not like us.  Even if they are immigrants whom Trump hates. 

And, even if Trump does just the opposite of what we do.  To Trump, actions such as those we could take would amount to his definition of  blasphemy because the effort doesn’t advance his personal cause.

But, these days, I am trying to think less about Trump and more how to be a solid Christian who can survive in what Brooks describes as a “pagan world” that he says is emboldened by Trump.

So, here are three ways my wife and I will focus our attention:

• Continue to support Salem Free Clinics, which was started by our church here in Salem, Oregon, which now counts many more churches as supporters, and, more importantly, which provides health and dental help to those who cannot either.
• Continue to support refugee programs for new arrivals in Salem, also a program started by our church here.  It is critical to help these folks who want a better life.
• Continue support Salem Area Young Life, which helps lead young people to Christ.

Focusing in areas such as these provide just as a little reprieve from Trump et. al.

Here is how Brooks started his column:

“I had forgotten how exhausting it is to live in Trump’s world.  He’s not only a political figure.  He creates a psychological and social atmosphere that suffuses the whole culture — the airwaves, our conversations, our moods.

“If there is one word to define Trump’s atmosphere, it is ‘pagan.’  The pagan values of ancient Rome celebrated power, manliness, conquest, ego, fame, competitiveness and prowess, and it is those values that have always been at the core of Trump’s being — from his real estate grandiosity, to his love of pro wrestling, to his king-of-the-jungle version of American greatness.

“The pagan ethos has always appealed to grandiose male narcissists because it gives them permission to grab whatever they want.  This ethos encourages egotists to puff themselves up and boast in a way they find urgently satisfying.  Self-love is the only form of love they know.

“The pagan culture is seductive because it lures you with images of heroism, might, and glory.  Think of Achilles slaughtering his enemies before the walls of Troy.  For a certain sort of perpetual boy, what could be cooler than that?  But there is little compassion in this worldview, no concept that humility might be a virtue.  There is a callous tolerance of cruelty.”

Good points all by Brooks who agrees that it is hard to live in such a culture dominated by Trump – if we let him dominate.

But he adds this:

“…I do think we’re on the cusp of a great cultural transition.  On the one hand, the eternal forces of dehumanization are blowing strong right now: Concentrated power; authoritarianism; materialism; runaway technology; a presidential administration at war with the arts, universities and sciences; a president who guts Christianity while pretending to govern in its name.

“On the other hand, there are millions of humanists — secular and religious — repulsed by what they see.  History is often driven by those people who are quietly repulsed for a while and then find their voice.  

“I suspect different kinds of humanists will gather and invent other cultural movements.  They will ask the eternal humanistic questions:  What does it mean to be human?  What is the best way to live?  What is the nature of the common humanity that binds us together?”

So, I take Brooks words at face value.  I intend to set out to think less about Trump, the would-be authoritarian, and more about helping people find their way to God.

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 noted one anniversary the other day – 50 years since the Vietnam War ended.

Today, I note another one – the anniversary of Trump’s first 100 days in office as president.

Different as the two are, they have one thing in common:  Both commemorate something very disturbing – an unjust war and an unjust president.

Vietnam was a war that no one understood and that cost thousands of American lives.  Trump is a buffoon – or a want-to-be dictator – who costs American values, if not lives.

Here is the way the Washington Post put it:

“…choreographed claims of success belie the evidence that Trump is in the midst of what could be the most damaging week so far of his second term.

“Trump on Thursday ousted national security adviser Michael Waltz, who was at the center of an embarrassing Signal chat scandal.  A federal judge ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority in using an 18th-century law to deport migrants quickly.  Trump has failed to secure peace in the Middle East or Ukraine, despite promises that he would do so quickly.

“Many of his efforts to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government have been blocked in court.  And the U.S. economy has shrunk for the first time in three years, fueling fears of a recession sparked by Trump’s tariffs on foreign imports.

So, believe the facts.  Don’t believe Trump and his minions.

Here’s more on Trump’s first 100 days from three national columnists, which, for me, is easier than writing about those days myself.

From Phillip Bump in the Washington Post:  “What the spate of recent polls shows is that any post-election honeymoon Trump enjoyed is gone, dried up and shattered and swept into the wind.”

From Dana Milbank, also in the Post:  “After 100 days on the job, Trump has found the hard work of governing to be less pleasant.  His tariffs have destabilized markets and brought historic levels of pessimism to American businesses and consumers.  His policies have alienated allies and emboldened Russia and China.  He has the lowest approval rating that any president in generations has experienced at this stage of his presidency.”

From the NY Times:  Columnist David French writes this:  “It’s hard to find anything distinctively Christian about Trump’s first 100 days.  In fact, there’s been far more cruelty than Christianity on view over his first three months back in office.  But white evangelicals still stand with him.”

Which, I add, means that it is not real Christians who support Trump.  It is people who have joined a Trump movement and their motives do not keep faith with Christianity.

From the Atlantic Magazine:  “People are very happy with this presidency,” Trump said in an interview with The Atlantic last week. “I’ve had great polls.”

“That wasn’t true then, and it’s even less true now.  As Trump hits his 100th day in office today, pollsters have been releasing new surveys, and the results are ugly.  NBC News finds that 55 per cent of Americans disapprove of the president’s handling of the job, but that’s rosy compared with the 59 per cent in a CNN poll.

“An ABC News/Washington Post poll finds that just 39 per cent of Americans approve of Trump’s performance — the lowest ever recorded, going back to 1945, and smashing through the previous record of 42 per cent, set by one Donald Trump in 2017.

“More than half of Americans say that Trump is a “dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy,” according to the Public Religion Research Institute.  Asked by NPR to give Trump a letter grade for his first 100 days, a full 45 per cent of Americans gave the president an F, including 49 per cent of independents. Sixty percent believe that the country is on the wrong track, per NBC.”

Does Trump believe these results?

Of course not.

If polls do not commemorate him, he ignores them.  Or says they are fake.

That’s how a narcissist does business.

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.

This blog headline cites an incredible fact:  It’s been 50 years since the Vietnam War ended?

I have lived through those 50 years, just as I lived through the lead-up to the War and the War itself.

It was an event – of course, not just an “event” – but a time of tumult for this country as a war raged on that few citizens understood.  And, many in my age group died fighting the war, which also made no sense.

Photos of the war – and its end – remain fresh in my mind, including the ones of helicopters trying to lift people out of the U.S. Embassy in Saigon before they would be killed or captured.

Back in 1970, as the war continued toward what turned out to be its end, I was just trying to finish college.  A few weeks before the end of that four-year run, the draft lottery took place.

So, as the birthdays were read out loud on the radio, my birth date came up as #32, which meant it would be clear I would be subject to the draft (because the expectation then was that birthdays up to #150 would be subject to being drafted).

The next day, in Seattle, Washington, where I was in college, I went over to the Army Recruiting Station and, fearing I would be a long line around the block, I intended to endure the time, whatever it was, to sign up.

But, I was only person there, so I signed up for what was a six-year hitch, all of which, back in those days, would occur in the states, not overseas.

I had these reasons for signing up:

• I did think it was a good idea to serve my country.

• But, candidly, I wanted to avoid going to Vietnam where I would be risking my life for no good reason.

In 1976, I completed my six years of service.

But, for many friends, Vietnam is continuing to take a toll.  In one specific case, one of my friends, also subject to the draft lottery, took his chances and was drafted.  Trained as a medic, he spent the last eight months of his two-year hitch out in the killing fields, tending under fire to the wounded and maimed.

He managed to make it out alive, but some years later, succumbed to “agent orange” exposure.

My brother-in-law, now almost 90, flew rescue helicopters in Vietnam and also came down with agent orange, from which he will never recover in these the most likely final days of his life.

Various national publications are covering the 50-year Vietnam War anniversary, none better than the News York Times, which is carrying a major story, replete with pictures. 

But, rather than focusing only on the War itself, the Times piece summarizes what has happened to Vietnam in 50 years.  It is now a tourist destination.

I have a number of friends who vacationed there and report a positive experience.  But, for my part, I will never go there. 

Even after 50 years, the War – and its casualties – are fresh enough in my mind, that Vietnam does not beckon.

This is the way the New York Times ended one of its Vietnam War stories today:

“For decades, the conflict in Vietnam lay at the heart of America’s discussion about itself, about what it meant for the world’s wealthiest nation to fight and lose a war in which the purpose was never clear, and that viscerally divided a generation.”

Even now, after 50 years, the purpose still is not clear – not clear to many, including me.

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.

Regarding the blog headline, I miss Reagan for various reasons, including his ability to turn an apt phrase.

For one, many of us remember his jocular quote to Walter Mondale at a 1984 Presidential debate:  “I want you to know also I will not make age an issue of this campaign.  I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

Point made.  Nothing more needed to be said.

As for today, Donald Trump can’t stop talking while he utters lie after lie, most of which are designed to underline his own aggrandizement.  He does not know how to turn a good phrase, or even what it means to do sol.

Which means that I, like many others, pine for the days of Ronald Reagan.

Here is a selection of his great quotes:

• Thomas Jefferson once said, “We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.”  And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying.
• I never drink coffee at lunch.  It keeps me awake in the afternoon.
• I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I’m in a cabinet meeting.
• Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, but if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.
• The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with an appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.  
• A hippie is someone who looks like Tarzan, walks like Jane, and smells like Cheetah.
• Spoken during a radio microphone test:  My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever.  The bombing will begin in five minutes.
• On Clint Eastwood running for Mayor:  What makes him think a middle-aged actor, who’s played with a chimp, could have a future in politics?
• I have learned that one of the most important rules in politics is poise, which means looking like an owl after you have behaved like a jackass.
• It’s hard when you’re up to your armpits in alligators to remember you came here – in Washington — to drain the swamp.
• The current tax code is a daily mugging.
• It’s true that hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?
• I have wondered at times what The Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through Congress.
• A recession is when a neighbor loses his job, a depression is when you lose yours.  And recovery starts when Jimmy Carter loses his.
• The most terrifying words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
• Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.
• There are advantages to being elected President.  The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified as top secret.
• One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.
• I’ve often said there’s nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.
• Spoken as he refused a mule for a gift:  I’m afraid I can’t use a mule. I have several hundred up on Capitol Hill.
• The taxpayer is someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.
• Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.
• Some of you may remember that in my early days I was a bleeding-heart liberal.  Then I became a man and put away childish ways.
• Professional politicians like to talk about the value of experience in government.  Nuts!  The only experience you gain in politics is how to be political.
• Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.
• How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin.  And how do you tell an anti-communist?  It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
• Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:   If it moves, tax it.   If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.         
• Government does not tax to get the money it needs; government always finds a need for the money it gets.
• We were poor when I was young. But the difference then was the government didn’t come around telling you that you were poor.
• To his wife Nancy, after he was shot in a 1981 assassination attempt:
  Honey, I forgot to duck.
• To the medical team in the operating room just after his 1981 assassination attempt:  I hope you’re all Republicans.

Where is Ronnie Reagan when we need him?

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 now open one of five departments I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit.

This time, I open the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.  Three national columnists caught by attention as they asked:

• Where has the idea of classy behavior gone?
• How did the White House develop a bubble where loyalty, not ability, defines success?
• How did Donald Trump rise from political ruin in 2021 to seize the commanding heights of government and the world economy?

Good questions all.  So here are answers from the columnists.

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL/  Executive Editor of the Journal’s  editorial page, Matthew Hennessey, asks:  “Where Did All the Classy Americans Go?  From politics and podcasts to sports and TV, everybody’s taking the low road.”

Here is how he started his column:

“I’ll bet it’s been a while since you heard someone in public life described as ‘classy.’  The word, and what it represents, has gone AWOL.  The culture has time only for outrageous characters — F-bombers, exhibitionists, interrupters, slobs.  The sublime has given way to the garish, the sacred to the profane.

“Personal qualities once synonymous with good character have fallen so far out of fashion as to seem like rumors from an ancient age.  Did athletes really once accept defeat with dignity?  Did people really restrain themselves from saying everything that popped into their heads?  Did known philanderers refrain from trying to mount political comebacks?  Did ex-presidents stay out of the limelight as a courtesy to their successors?”

Hennessey says , blame Donald Trump if you like.  Then adds:  “That’s the easy answer.  He’s coarse and wears baseball hats.  He eats steak with ketchup and says things that people in high office shouldn’t say.  There’s no excusing Trump’s crudest behavior other than to point out that it’s worked for him.  

“He’s insulted, lied, bluffed, manipulated, moaned and wisecracked his way into history. Like it or not, Trump is the dominant political figure of our age.  Mitt Romney chose the classy route.  What exactly did it get him?”

This general notion – the lack of class – crossed my mind, as well – in this regard.  There is not class in politics these days and that owes its lineage to Trump.

Class – including middle ground on major public policy issues — is nowhere to be found as everyone argues for their view, while maintaining that anyone with another view is an enemy.

Sad!

FROM THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE, in a column written by the top editor there, Jeffrey Goldberg who ascended to a bit of fame recently when he was added to a supposedly secret group-chat – call it “Chat-Gate” — about war in the Yemen/

Here is how Goldberg started his column:

“This month’s cover story is written by two of our newest reporters, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer. Both came to The Atlantic from The Washington Post, where they covered the White House and national politics.  As one might expect, they have developed complicated and intriguing ideas about the brain of Donald Trump and the nature of Trumpism.

“A simple question animates their story: How did Trump rise from political ruin in 2021 to seize the commanding heights of government and the world economy?  One is not required to admire Trump to acknowledge that he has become the most consequential American political figure of the 21st century, and that we all live inside a reality he has made — and makes anew each day.

“…Trump himself has a capacious understanding of his power.  ‘The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,’ Trump said.  He was referring, it seems, to anyone who’d investigated him.  ‘And the second time,’ he added, ‘I run the country and the world.’”

I add that real Americans can only hope Trump doesn’t succeed in his quest to “run the world.”

For, as The Atlantic adds:

“Denial and attack have worked exceedingly well for Trump.  His decision to foment the January 6 insurrection would normally have ended his political career, but it didn’t.  Trump called the insurrection a ‘day of love,’ and his decision, at the outset of his second term, to pardon or commute the sentences of the insurrectionists — ­transforming even those who assaulted police officers into victims of malignant prosecutors — only made him more powerful.”

FROM THE WASHINGTON POST/  Writing by columnist Philip Bump appeared under this headline:  “The bubble that created Trump is the reason he’s stumbling; the White House is now a bubble where loyalty, not ability, defines success.”

Bump goes on:

“Consider Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“No one should be surprised that Hegseth is flailing in his new role, one of the most arduous and complicated in the U.S. government, if not the world.  When  Trump proposed that Hegseth run the agency, the response was broadly unified:  Hegseth lacked the experience needed to do the job effectively.  You could debate the other controversies surrounding his bid for the role ad nauseam, but there was no way to reasonably argue that the Fox News talk-show host was prepared to run the Pentagon.

“Hegseth was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate anyway because Trump and a universe of voices who support him insisted Hegseth was the best choice for the job — because he was Trump’s choice for the job.

“It’s the same bet that prominent Republicans have been making on Trump himself since 2015.  Now, as Trump too is flailing — polling and the data make clear that he is — it’s trivial to identify that insular chorus of cheerleaders and cynics as a root cause.

“The president owes his political career to that same bubble.  Over the past few decades, the fringe right and then Republicans more broadly embraced discussions of the world that were mostly devoid of nuance:  Left bad, right good.

“Part of the reason that Trump’s second administration is filled with loyalists and unqualified nominees is that he disliked the accountability and disagreement he saw during his first four years at the White House, when his administration was staffed with a far larger number of qualified officials.”

So, at least for this morning, enough about Trump.  Just, with me, hope that class somehow returns to the forefront – in politics and in life.

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.

Last weekend was a day of contrasts like many others if you compare the excesses of the Trump administration and the future of this country, if not the world.

Trump has turned almost everything upside down – and the top side is almost always anything that benefits him and him and his minions.

Consider these issues:

THE POPE’S FUNERAL:  Trump headed off to the Vatican the other day “supposedly” to pay his respects to Pope Francis whose official funeral occurred Saturday. 

But did Trump know what he was doing to pay respects to a Pope who emphasized care for the poor and the marginal, almost the exact opposite of what Trump has done so far in his second presidency?

Who knows?  I suspect not, for Trump does not have the credentials of sympathy or empathy for those who need help in their lives.

Plus, at the Pope’s funeral, Trump violated the suggested dress code.  It was supposed to be in all black with other mourners, but, of course, Trump, ever his own boss, wore blue.  And, during eulogies, when the late Pope was complimented on his care for the poor and needy, Trump frowned.

ANGST AT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE:  Here, let me quote from the most recent column by Dana Milbank, writing in the Washington Post.

“We now know the woefully unqualified a former Fox News personality, Pete Hegseth, is to run the Department of Defense.  He shared details of a military operation in a second Signal chat; this one, the New York Times reported, included his wife, brother and lawyer.  He also had the app put on his Defense Department computer.

“Hegseth has purged his top staff — people he just hired — and blames them for a series of damaging leaks.  He set up a top secret briefing on China for Elon Musk, ignoring an outrageous conflict of interest that even the Trump White House couldn’t stomach.  He brought his wife to sensitive meetings.  He had a makeup studio set up for his TV appearances, CBS News reported.

“Under Hegseth, the whole place has devolved into paranoia and vulgar recriminations…”

AMATEUR HOUR IN OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES:   It’s not just at the Pentagon.  Across the Executive Branch, in agency after agency, it’s amateur hour under the Trump administration.

More from the columnist Milbank:  “A titanic legal battle is now under way with Harvard University over academic freedom and billions of dollars in grants?  The whole thing might have been set off by mistake.  The New York Times reported that the university, after announcing its intention to fight the administration, received a ‘frantic call from a Trump official’ saying the administration’s letter full of outrageous demands that provoked the standoff was ‘unauthorized’ and should not have been sent.”

AND ABOUT UNAUTHORIZED DEPORTATIONS:  In the celebrated case of Kilmar Abrego García, deported from Maryland to El Salvador in violation of a court order, the Trump administration blamed ‘an administrative error and ‘an oversight’ for the original deportation.

And, of course, he nor his minions will do anything to correct their error, so Abrego Garcia remains in a hell-hole of a prison.

Trump also is trying to justify Abrego García’s deportation retroactively with a statement from a disgraced police officer who claims the Maryland resident was an ‘active member’ of the MS-13 gang in Upstate New York — where he has never lived.

And — oops — the administration did it again.  On Wednesday, a Trump-appointed judge ruled that the administration had deported another person, a 20-year-old Venezuelan migrant, in violation of a court-approved settlement, and must facilitate his return.

FINALLY, A MAJOR DEMOCRAT CALLS OUT TRUMP:  In a fiery address to New Hampshire Democrats on Sunday night, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker condemned what he described as Trump’s “authoritarian power grabs” while also blasting the “do-nothing” Democrats in his party — stating it is “time to fight everywhere, all at once.”

As reported by the Washington Post, the billionaire Democrat governor repeatedly brought the crowd to its feet with acidic attacks on the morals and ethics of the president, adviser and top donor Elon Musk, as well as members of the president’s Cabinet.

“He slammed their efforts to dismantle government programs that the most vulnerable Americans rely on and said the Democratic Party must ‘abandon the culture of incrementalism that has led us to swallow their cruelty.’  It is time for his party, he said, to ‘knock the rust off poll-tested language’ that has obscured ‘our better instincts.’”

Finally, Pritzker, calling out Trump’s “xenophobia” and thirst for power, went on to say that Democrats must “stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman.”

This could have been step number one in a run by Pritzker for president next time around when, of course, Trump will contend that, despite the constitutional bar, he deserves a third term.

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.

My wife and got back a few hours ago after having the privilege of attending a 6 a.m. “Sunrise Service” at the church we attend in La Quinta, California, Southwest Church.

To use a “play on words”:

• We were able to watch the “sun rise” to the East.
• We were able to commemorate the “son rise,” a monumentally critical fact of Easter because we can have a relationship with a risen Savior, the son of God!

In some ways, I have hesitated to use the word play above because the word “play” carries the risk of de-emphasizing this critical reality.

So, if the word play helps to tell a monumentally important story, good.  If not, just ignore it.

Yesterday, on another Easter story, I read with interest a column that appeared in the Wall Street Journal written by Nicole Ault, an assistant editorial page writer.  Her column appeared under this headline:  “Easter Merits More Handel’s Messiah:  A Christmas favorite, the oratorio has more to contribute to Holy Week celebrations.”

Here is how her column started:

“We wouldn’t celebrate Christmas without Easter — Christ’s birth has no meaning if he didn’t rise from the dead — but Easter gets short shrift.  Not even a federal holiday, Easter season is marked more by tacky testaments to spring than any meaningful traditions.  It is also deprived of one of the most beloved works of sacred music: George Frideric Handel’s Messiah.”

Ault went on:

“To many Westerners, Handel’s “Messiah” is as embedded in Christmas pageantry as “The Nutcracker” ballet.  The 18th-century oratorio is performed in churches and symphony halls around the world in December.  And justifiably so:  Its jubilant account of the Nativity is Christmas music nonpareil.

“But the oratorio wasn’t written for Christmas.  Charles Jennens, the English librettist, wrote to a friend in 1741 that he hoped Handel would put his text to music and “perform it for his own Benefit in Passion Week.”  

“As it turned out, “Messiah” debuted in Dublin a few weeks after Easter in 1742, but for years in Handel’s lifetime and after it was performed around the holiday.”

The fact that Wall Street Journal editors gave space to Ault’s column is a credit to the Journal.

“Somewhere in the unbroken decades of performances since,” Ault added, “the Messiah became a yuletide industry while showing up much less at Easter time.  London, where Handel lived and is buried, has some performances for the holiday.  But searching the internet for a Holy Week performance in New York, Chicago or Washington, I found only one:  A sing-along at the Latter-day Saints’ D.C. Temple.  This is a pity, because “Messiah” captures the pathos of the battle with sin and death that represents Easter more than any springtime flower or garden rabbit.

“The latter two sections of the three-part work—with Jennens’s lyrics drawn entirely from Scripture — give an account of Christ’s sacrifice, victory and second coming.  Handel’s text-painting, guiding listeners’ emotions, is an excellent aid for experiencing the weight of the biblical narrative.

Ault ends her column the way I hoped she would:

“But besides testifying to facts that require faith, “Messiah” also bears witness to a hope that results from that faith.  The feeling is personal: “I know that my Redeemer liveth,” sings the soprano in one of the work’s sweetest solos, “yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

“It is also unassailable. Easter seals the promise of eternal life, revealed at Christmas but unfulfilled except through death and resurrection.  Thus, quoting the apostle Paul, “Messiah” can say what is ours to proclaim as well: “ O death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory?”

For my part, I love the Messiah and always stand when it is sung at our home church in Salem, Oregon – and that occurs in an annual Christmas Eve service.

I hope the Messiah could become part of Easter, too.  Very appropriate to celebrate the “Son Rise.”

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.

First, here’s the good news – many of us have survived the first 100 days of Trump’s second term as president.

Second, the bad news – survival has been by, as the saying goes, “the skin of our teeth.”

Of course, Trump, ever the narcissist, touts himself as being the best president in the country’s history.

But facts tell a different story as Trump tries to re-make America in his image as a dictator.

If you want the facts, just read Dana Milbank’s latest column in the Washington Post that appeared under this headline:  Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure.

It separates Trump’s fiction of “making America great again” from the reality of the damage he is doing on so many fronts – in America and, in fact, around the world.

When I read something as persuasive as Milbank’s column, I often devote my blog to reprinting it, with, of course, due credit to the writer.  Also, you make ask why this blog is so long.  Well, the short answer is that Trump has made so many failures it takes a long time to recount them.

So, if you have the stomach for knowing more about Trump’s failures, read on.

*********

Trump is wrapping up 100 days of historic failure

America has seen ruinous periods, but never when the president was the one knowingly causing the ruin.

By any reasonable measure, President Donald Trump’s first 100 days will be judged an epic failure.

He has been a legislative failure. He has signed only five bills into law, none of them major, making this the worst performance at the start of a new president’s term in more than a century.

He has been an economic failure. On his watch, growth has slowed, consumer and business confidence has cratered, and markets have plunged, along with Americans’ wealth. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that “growth has slowed in the first quarter of this year from last year’s solid pace” and that Trump’s tariffs will result in higher inflation and slower growth.

He has been a foreign-policy failure. He said he would end wars in Gaza and Ukraine. But fighting has resumed in Gaza after the demise of the ceasefire negotiated by his predecessor, and Russia continues to brutalize Ukraine, making a mockery of Trump’s naive overtures to Vladimir Putin.

He has been a failure in the eyes of friends, having launched a trade war against Canada, Mexico, Europe and Japan; enraged Canada with talk of annexation; threatened Greenland and Panama; and cleaved the NATO alliance.

He has been a failure in the eyes of foes, as an emboldened China menaces Taiwan, punches back hard in the trade war and spreads its global influence to fill the vacuum left by Trump’s retreat from the world.

He has been a constitutional failure. His executive actions, brazen in their disregard for the law, have been slapped down more than 80 times already by judges, including those appointed by Republicans. He is flagrantly defying a unanimous Supreme Court, and his appointees are facing contempt proceedings for their abuse of the legal system.

He has been a failure in public opinion. This week’s Economist/YouGov poll finds 42 percent approving his performance and 52 percent disapproving — a 16-point swing for the worse since the start of his term. Majorities say the country is on the wrong track and out of control.

Even his few “successes” amount to less than meets the eye. Border crossings are down from already low levels, but despite all the administration’s bravado, there’s little evidence of an increase in deportations. Hopes for cost-cutting under the U.S. DOGE Service, which Elon Musk originally projected at $1 trillion this year, have been scaled back to just $150 billion — and much of that appears to be based on made-up numbers.

But Trump, whose 100th day in office is April 30, has achieved one thing that is truly remarkable: He has introduced a level of chaos and destruction so high that historians are hard-pressed to find its equal in our history.

He has upended global structures that kept the peace for generations. He has aligned America with the world’s despots. He has slashed the federal workforce and impaired the government’s ability to collect taxes, administer Social Security and fund medical research, among many other things. He has abused his power in startling ways, using the government for personal vengeance and retribution against perceived opponents, harassing law firms, universities and the free press with an authoritarian flourish. He has shattered the guardrails that limit executive power, ignoring laws, eliminating inspectors general and other mechanisms for accountability and oversight. He has displayed gratuitous cruelty in the treatment of migrants and government workers alike. He has used the government to undertake breathtaking schemes of self-enrichment. And he has left a large number of his countrymen angry and frightened.

To put this failure in context, I called two of my favorite historians, David Greenberg of Rutgers University and Douglas Brinkley of Rice University.

They told me that there had been similar bursts of activity from an executive before, most notably under Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose productivity at the start of his presidency in 1933 created the 100-day benchmark by which his successors have been measured. There have been similar power grabs before: Andrew Jackson, who claimed the 1824 election was stolen from him, attacking the nation’s elites after he won in 1828 and ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling against seizing tribal land; the imperialist William McKinley, Trump’s new fave, taking over Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines and pushing Spain out of Cuba; FDR attempting to pack the Supreme Court at the start of his second term; Richard M. Nixon’s lawlessness, justified by his belief that “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

There have been ruinous periods before: the Quasi-War with France and the Alien and Sedition Acts in 1798 made it appear that the fledgling United States had failed; the period between Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 election and his inauguration, when Southern states seceded and formed the Confederacy; the days after the 1929 crash, when it appeared that capitalism had failed; and the political violence of 1968. There were massive restructurings of the federal government under Theodore Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman and Ronald Reagan — and Bill Clinton presided over cuts of 250,000 federal jobs.

But what Trump has done is different.

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A portrait of Teddy Roosevelt on a horse looms behind President Donald Trump in the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

Previous restructurings of government were done with careful planning and with bipartisan congressional support. But Trump “doesn’t come in as a reformer as much as a wrecking ball,” Brinkley says. “What we’re witnessing with Trump is just raw vengeance and belittling fellow Americans and creating a tinderbox situation that makes people feel we’re in a neo civil war that could go sideways at any moment.” Brinkley also notes that previous attempts at executive overreach — FDR’s court packing, Nixon’s abuses — were repelled by members of each president’s own party. But now, Republicans are silent. “That’s the missing ingredient of our time,” he says.

Another key difference: We have been through ruinous periods before, but never when the president was the one actively and knowingly causing the ruin. During past upheaval, there “wasn’t this sense that the White House, the president, is directing the destruction of 250-year-old American values,” Greenberg says. He also notes that, because of the expansion of the executive powers over the past century, particularly during the New Deal and the Cold War, Trump has more ability to cause destruction than his predecessors did. “I don’t think we’ve ever had the combination of such a vast and extensive executive apparatus and at the same time an attempt to eliminate the built-in safeguards,” he says.

Some executive orders have a proud place in our history because they had noble aims or produced lofty accomplishments: the Emancipation Proclamation. The Manhattan Project. Enforcing school desegregation in Little Rock. But Trump’s orders are more likely to be remembered alongside those establishing Japanese internment and Operation Wetback because they are based in cruelty and in his insatiable lust for vengeance. “It’s not hyperbole to say this is the weirdest 100 days of any president in American history,” says Brinkley, “because, at its root, it is pathological narcissism.”

In the end, Trump’s 100 days, and his presidency generally, will be judged harshly for what they were not. “We remember great civilizations for their great achievements,” Greenberg says. Scientific advancement. Contributions to arts and letters. Human progress. Trump is reversing them all.

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An American flag is flown upside down outside the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland after a hearing for Kilmar Abrego García on April 15 in Greenbelt. (Maansi Srivastava/for the Washington Post)

Each week of Trump’s 100 days has felt like a year to many Americans, which is his aim, because it keeps the opposition off-balance. Let’s consider the year that transpired over the past week.

Trump thumbed his nose at the Supreme Court’s 9-0 ruling saying the administration must “facilitate” the return of a migrant deported to a Salvadoran prison in violation of a court order. Instead, Trump hosted El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, the self-described “world’s coolest dictator,” who said the notion of returning the man is “preposterous.”

Reviews by CBS News and the New York Times found that the vast majority of migrants deported had no criminal records — but they are now imprisoned without due process in inhumane conditions. And now, Trump says he wants to send American citizens to the notorious prison in El Salvador. “Home-growns are next,” he told Bukele. “You’ve got to build about five more places” to imprison them. Trump and aides have lied about the Supreme Court ruling, saying that they “won” the case. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission’s chief, Brendan Carr, threatened Comcast’s broadcasting licenses because he didn’t like what MSNBC was reporting about the dispute.

another case, that of a Tufts University student abducted by masked federal agents and held for deportation, The Post’s John Hudson reports that the State Department determined that it did not have evidence that she engaged in antisemitic activities or supported a terrorist organization, as the government claims. And, in the latest attempted invasion of Americans’ privacy, DOGE is seeking access to a sensitive Medicare database as part of a scheme to find undocumented immigrants.

Harvard University said it would not surrender to the Trump administration’s demands that it give up its academic freedom (Trump officials had demanded changes to the school’s governance, hiring and treatment of foreign students), saying the demands “go beyond the lawful authority of this or any administration.” In response to Harvard’s defiance, detailed in a letter by two conservative lawyers, the administration froze $2.2 billion in grants and contracts to the school — forcing the school to halt research to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease, radiation sickness and tuberculosis.

At the same time, the administration is planning an even more devastating blow to medical research: a 40 percent cut to the National Institutes of Health, The Post reports, part of a one-third cut to the Department of Health and Human Services. The administration eliminated 43 of about 200 experts from boards overseeing such research, and, in case you wonder what motivates such cuts, it turns out 38 of the 43 were female, Black or Hispanic.

The administration also is threatening to block Harvard from enrolling any foreign students, and it has asked the IRS to take the outrageous step of revoking Harvard’s tax-exempt status; Trump is now expressly embracing the sort of viewpoint discrimination that furious conservatives alleged the IRS did a decade ago, when lower-level officials subjected tax-exempt applications from mostly conservative groups to lengthy scrutiny. Trump’s IRS will likely look favorably on his request. It has promoted a political hack, Gary Shapley (a former midlevel official who gained prominence as the Hunter Biden “whistleblower”), to be the agency’s acting chief.

As the IRS becomes another partisan weapon for Trump, it is planning to cut its staff in half and slash compliance enforcement. The administration continues hacking away at the federal government. It is now illegally dismantling AmeriCorps, following similar moves at the U.S. Institute of Peace, Voice of America and National Endowment for the Humanities, among many others.

After a (Trump-appointed) federal judge ordered the administration to stop its violation of the Associated Press’s First Amendment rights and return the news organization to the White House “pool” rotation, the White House this week responded by eliminating the slot for all news wires, including Reuters and Bloomberg. It is moving toward an arrangement where, in briefings and in Q&A sessions with Trump, most of the questioning will be done by right-wing outlets. Separately, Trump, unhappy with reporting on him by “60 Minutes” on Sunday, called for CBS to have its license revoked.

The administration’s losing streak in court continues apace. Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg opened contempt proceedings after the administration defied his order blocking certain deportations; other judges continue to block Trump’s deportations conducted without due process. A fourth law firm, Susman Godfrey, won an order blocking Trump’s punitive targeting, which the judge called “a shocking abuse of power.” Another judge stopped the administration from “unlawfully” terminating climate grants, and still another judge directed agencies to release the funds.

In Ukraine, Russia has stepped up its attacks, despite Trump’s attempts to force a settlement on Ukraine that would be favorable to Putin. Trump continued to blame the victim in the conflict: “You don’t start a war against somebody that’s 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles.” The Post’s Spencer Hsu and Aaron Schaffer report that Trump’s interim U.S. attorney for D.C., Ed Martin, provided commentary more than 150 times on the Russian government’s propaganda outlets RT and Sputnik between 2016 and 2024, often echoing Russian talking points; he failed to report the appearances to Congress, as required for his nomination.

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A woman places flowers at the site of a Russian missile strike in central Sumy, Ukraine, this week. The Russian attack killed at least 34 people, including two children. (Ed Ram/For The Washington Post)

Stock markets kept up their wild swings as they tried to adjust to the chaos of Trump’s trade war. One Fed governor, Christopher Waller, on Monday called Trump’s tariffs “one of the biggest shocks to affect the U.S. economy in many decades.” After the Fed’s chair, Powell, warned that the tariffs would hurt growth and inflation, Trump on Thursday morning posted on Truth Social that “Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!” Federal law prevents Trump from sacking Powell — but legality has not been a barrier to Trump so far.

In an apparent tariff climbdown, the administration said in a statement that it would make an “exception” and exempt consumer electronics from a massive tariff on Chinese goods — only for Trump to say “there was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced.” China has retaliated by suspending the export of rare earth minerals — essential for advanced technology — that the United States relies upon for 90 percent of its supply. As China tries to win over disaffected American allies, Trump continues to alienate them: The White House press secretary continued to taunt Canada, saying Wednesday the country “would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state.”

Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, and his family were the victims of an arson attack during Passover by a suspect who said it was because of what Shapiro, who is Jewish, “wants to do to the Palestinian people.” But the administration, so concerned about phony antisemitism on campuses, was not troubled by the real thing. Attorney General Pam Bondi declined to label it domestic terrorism. And Trump saw it only in selfish terms: “The attacker was not a fan of Trump, I understand.”

The administration’s bizarre behaviors remained on vivid display. Vice President JD Vance broke the NCAA football trophy during an event at the White House. The Wall Street Journal reported on Musk’s self-described “legion” of at least 14 children by four women, though “sources close to the tech entrepreneur said they believe the true number of Musk’s children is much higher.” Trump Media launched a new attempt to monetize his presidency: branded investment accounts meant to benefit from Trump’s policies. And the White House physician, after Trump’s annual examination, credited Trump’s fine health to his “active lifestyle,” which includes “frequent victories in golf events.”

Is the good doctor unaware that Trump “wins” only on courses he owns?

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People gather for the Hands Off! rally on the National Mall on April 5. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post)

On one hand, Trump’s lawlessness is terrifying: This is what happens when a government is run not by the rule of law but by the whim of one man. On the other, it is an admission of weakness: He doesn’t have the power to achieve his aims through legitimate means, so he’s trying to attain them illegally. Happily, the backlash is building.

Harvard’s fresh resistance to Trump’s attacks on academic freedom has stiffened the spine of Columbia University and others. Law firms that reached settlements with Trump to avoid punishment because of his personal vendettas are rethinking their arrangements. They are discovering, as other corporate leaders hopefully now realize, that there is no appeasing Trump, because he will always demand more. California has sued Trump over his tariffs. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) have been playing to huge crowds in deep-red parts of the country.

On the Republican side, figures such as Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), Rep. Brian Mast (Florida) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Georgia) have encountered angry constituents at town-hall meetings during the congressional recess. Two protesters at Greene’s event were hit with stun guns. A dozen nervous House Republicans sent a letter to their leadership warning that they would oppose Trump’s major tax-and-spending bill if it “includes any reduction in Medicaid coverage for vulnerable populations.” That’s awkward, because the budget outline for the bill, which these same lawmakers supported, requires some $800 billion in such cuts.

The pressure on Trump and his enablers — from the public, the courts, the states, universities, advocates, businesses and the media — should only increase from here, and it must. This is what will prevent the next 1,360 days from being as disastrous as the first 100.

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.

Many of us who love the Masters Golf Tournament watched last Sunday and pro golfer Justin Rose lost to the favorite Rory McIlroy.

But, did Rose actually lose?  Well, yes, in golf where the total score counts, he did.  But, in sportsmanship, he succeeded “masterfully.”

I thought of this for two reasons.

• First, Rose is playing in one of golf’s “signature events” this weekend, the RBC at Hilton Head, South Carolina.  When I saw him on TV yesterday, I marveled that he was back on the course so soon.
• Second, a column in the Wall Street Journal by writer Jason Gay called this to my attention.  He are excerpts of what Gay wrote under this headline:

Justin Rose Did Not Lose the Masters:  Rory McIlroy captures a milestone as his friend and golf rival sets an example of sportsmanship.  Who isn’t rooting for the runner-up now?

Here is how the column started:

“In the hours after Rory McIlroy’s dramatic, curse-smashing victory at the Masters, I was struck by how many readers wrote to me not only about McIlroy, but also about the player who came in second, Justin Rose. 

“McIlroy’s rollicking, roller-coaster triumph was an emotional crescendo for a well-liked player who’d chased this title for a long time.  On this, everyone seemed to agree. 

“But also noticed amid the Rory mania was the brilliant day of golf — and the quiet sportsmanship — of the 44-year-old Englishman who’s been waiting patiently for a green jacket, too. 

“And once more, the Englishman, Rose, finished second in a playoff.”

When I was watching last round of the Masters, I was pulling for McIlroy to get the “last major issue” off this back.  But I was not rooting against Rose who has been a professional golfer for more than 20 years and always has appeared to be a model of sportsmanship.

So, I have liked Ross, too.

In the Wall Street Journal, the columnist Gay reminds us again of the value of sportsmanship – and it is a good reminder.

Here’s more from Gay:

“Rose may prove to be an exception, not only because of the graciousness he showed toward McIlroy, but also because people now know his story.    

“Sunday wasn’t the first time Rose finished second at the Masters. It was the third time. In 2015, he tied for second with Phil Mickelson behind 21-year-old winner Jordan Spieth.  In 2017 he was runner-up to Sergio Garcia after a playoff.

“Near misses like that can undo a psyche and career. But Rose turned the close call with Garcia into fuel, playing his best golf, reaching No. 1 in the world.

“On Sunday, Rose played one of the great rounds of his life.  The prior afternoon, he left the course dejected, having dropped back from contention with a dispiriting 75.  This was a bummer since Rose had started the tournament so well, with an opening round 65, good enough for first place.

“Still, Rose woke up feeling grateful.  ‘Sunday [at] Augusta,’ he said later. ‘It’s a special day in the game of golf, no matter what.’”

Well said, Justin Rose.

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.

The blog headline above applies to a new development that we will see today as the Professional Golf Tour heads to Hilton Head, Georgia, to play the annual RBC Tournament, which always follows hard-on-the heels of the Masters.

The new development:  Allowing players and caddies to use range finders.

I think this is a useful experiment for all golf tours that will help to answer a question that has two answers:

• Using range finders could slow up play as players and caddies measure everything.
• Using range finders could speed up play because players and caddies wouldn’t have to pace off as many distances.

If I was a professional caddy, I would welcome range finders.

Just consider if your player hit a bad shot off the tee into an area where it would be difficult to find any distance marker.  In the past, you might even have had to pace off the entire distance, which, of course, would slow up play.

Today, you could use a range finder.

Critics of range finders could contend that “real golf” requires either of two actions – (a) to walk off to measure distance or (b) to play by feel, just as past golfers did.

Range finder advocates might say that golf always is in a state of flux, as new equipment arrives and players use the new staff.  So, allow range finders.

One of my on-line golf magazines put it this way:

“The PGA Tour will begin testing the use of distance measuring devices during competition this week.

“The move, which was announced during the Players Championship in March, kicks off a six-tournament trial period over the next month.  The tour has two events this week, the signature event RBC Heritage and an alternate competition, the Corales Puntacana Championship.

“The testing period ends with the Truist Championship and Oneflight Myrtle Beach Classic.  

“The Korn Ferry Tour will also use this period to test the devices, starting at three straight events.

“Players using distance-measuring devices during competition must strictly adhere to ‘distance-only’ functionality.  Any advanced features — including course mapping, club selection assistance, slope calculation, elevation readings, or wind measurement — must be completely disabled before use.

“Violations incur severe penalties:  A first breach results in an immediate two-stroke penalty, while a second offense triggers automatic disqualification from the tournament.”

Concerns about slow play have plagued professional golf for years, not to mention me, a “recreational golfer” who plays a lot of rounds in a year.

Some of them are at my home course in Salem, Oregon, Illahe Hills Golf and Country Club, where the advice is to complete a round of 18-holes in about four hours.

In La Quinta, California, I play at The Palms in the winter and, there, the advice is to play 18-holes in three-and-a-half hours, which it turns out, is not difficult, if you work at it without hurrying.  Just play!

For pro golf, slow play intensity peaked early this golf season after several tournaments featured agonizingly protracted rounds.  The situation escalated when CBS reporter Dottie Pepper issued an impassioned on-air plea during the Farmers Insurance Open, declaring the problem was serious.

Augusta National and Masters Chairman Fred Ridley devoted time during his tournament press conference last to express his concerns for golf’s slow play epidemic, going so far as to suggest it may be monitored during Augusta National’s Drive, Chip and Putt competition.

Further, the use of distance-measuring devices is one of three recommendations from a player-formed committee to address slow play.  The committee also has recommended overhauling penalty structures by imposing immediate one-stroke penalties for a player’s first timing violation — a strengthening from the previous system that merely issued warnings for initial infractions.

Third, the committee is developing a transparency initiative that will publicly release comprehensive pace-of-play statistics for all PGA Tour professionals, hoping to create accountability through data visibility.

So, if you are a golf fan as I am, watch for these developments over the next few weeks.

Slow play is a major problem for pro golf tours, so I say pro golf leaders need to move quickly to put corrections in place so more TV viewers don’t tune out.  And, I also submit that playing faster won’t harm the best players.