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 am not a Catholic, so what I say about the Catholic Church may not be worth much.

I still do remember a time many years ago when my family was traveling in Bend, Oregon and we came upon an ornate Catholic church that my parents said we should look at carefully. 

Then, one of them, also said this:  “Some kind of Pope must be involved there.”

It clearly was slip of the tongue, one that prompted laughter afterward because, of course,  there is only one Pope, not “some kind of Pope.”

So it was as the new Pope was chosen at the Vatican the other day, I was interested in an essay that appeared in the New York Times a day or so ago as it made the point that, with different styles, Pope Leo may be much like Pope Francis.

Here are excerpts from the essay written by David Gibson, director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University who has covered the Vatican as a journalist for four decades:

“With the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV, the College of Cardinals sent a clear message of continuity with the reformist agenda of his predecessor, Pope Francis.  But despite Leo’s reputation as having a quieter, more disciplined personality than that of Francis, the conservative ire that has roiled Catholicism during the previous pontificate is likely to continue with this first American pope.

“Traditionalist Catholics, especially in the United States — where much of the opposition to Francis was based — had yearned for a new pope who would rein in or even reverse changes that Francis made to foster a more inclusive church, where authority was shared and everyone could be heard.”

Francis’ favorite vehicle for those reforms goes by a bit of church jargon – the word “synodality.”

As a person who likes words, I was interested in this one, which appears to have been coined using, as a base, the word “synod.”

Here is what synod means:

“An assembly of ecclesiastics or other church delegates, convoked pursuant to the law of the church, for the discussion and decision of ecclesiastical affairs.”

So, it makes sense that “synodality” would mean something along those lines.

From the writer, Gibson:

“It’s a term much bandied about but little understood.  It refers to the gathering of church leaders and members to discuss and debate urgent issues.  For Francis, it meant bringing together bishops and lay people, women and young people — and yes, the pope — to speak openly and as equals about issues that would have been barred from discussion, much less consideration of solutions, in the past.

“Many conservatives read into how Francis conceived of synodality a veritable heresy that sowed confusion and ambiguity among the faithful.  It was a manipulative way of changing the church, his critics believed.”

Not so, according to Gibson.

As a non-Catholic, I credit the late Pope Francis for at least two things:

• Advocating inclusivity for all people, not just who resemble you – and his pastorage in Peru illustrates his ethic.
• Advocating synodality to discuss issues in an attempt to bring people together for rational conversations, not just disagreement.

The new Pope, Pope Leo ,said this as he met with believers for the first time from the basilica at the Vatican:

“We must not hide behind an idea of authority that no longer makes sense today.  The authority we have is to serve, to accompany priests, to be pastors and teachers.”

As I watched reports on the Conclave that chose the new Pope, I had these thoughts from far away:

• There is something of value to the art of politics behind closed doors – the method of choosing the Pope.  Those who vote do not have to preen for the cameras; they just have to do the hard work of voting without prying eyes. 
• Those involved in politics in this country, should practice the art of synodality – finding ways to talk about tough issues under the premise that, as I like to put it, “reasonable people can disagree agreeably.”

So I say to the new Pope, thanks for your history as a pastor.  Continue to do the good work of pastoring, especially in your new papacy.

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 headline on this blog says it well.

No third term for Donald Trump.

At the rate he is going, we’ll be lucky to live through the current term, his second.

Back in the mid-1940 when Members of Congress were debating the effect of Theodore Roosevelt having served four straight terms as president, a Republican from Tennessee, stood on the House floor and said this:

“A 22nd Amendment (barring service beyond two terms) “was necessary to prevent a dictator from taking over the country.”

Point made.

Trump apparently wants to be a dictator, if not Pope (given the papacy garb he was wearing for a photo shortly after he attended Pope Francis’ funeral).

Don’t let him go more than two.

The New York Times weighed in on this issue yesterday in an editorial that appeared under this headline:  “Trump’s Third-Term Musings Are Part of a Pattern.”

Here is how the editorial started:

“When Republicans took control of Congress in 1947, they were still angry that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had won a fourth term in 1944, and they set out to pass a constitutional amendment to limit future presidents to two terms.  John Jennings, Republican of Tennessee, stood on the House floor and said a 22nd Amendment was necessary to prevent a dictator from taking over the country.

“Without such a limit on the number of terms a man may serve in the presidency, the time may come when a man of vaulting ambition becomes president.  Such a man, backed by a ‘subservient Congress’ and a compliant Supreme Court, could ‘sweep aside and overthrow the safeguards of the Constitution.  Without such a law, a president could use the office’s great powers to tilt the political system in his favor and win repeated re-election.  Eventually, that president could come to resemble a king, effectively unbound by the Constitution’s checks and balances.”

In the decades after the country ratified the 22nd Amendment in 1951, The Times says members of both parties occasionally chafed against its restrictions, but no sitting president openly talked about evading it — until recently by Trump.

“Jennings’s warning on the House floor now looks prophetic:  Trump is a man of vaulting ambition.  Congress is largely subservient to his agenda.  And he keeps mentioning the idea of a third term.”

As for what Trump actually thinks about a third term, well, who knows?  He says one thing one day and another the next.

This past weekend, he seemed to step back from the idea by saying “It’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do.”

But then he once again claimed that the decision was his to make.

“Well, there are ways of doing it,” he said.  All the while, his website continues to sell ‘Trump 2028’ merchandise, including baseball caps for $50 apiece and $36 T-shirts that proclaim, ‘Rewrite the rules.’”

More from the Times:

“But Trump’s third-term fantasizing is dangerous and it deserves more forceful pushback.  He has a history, after all, of using seemingly outlandish speculation to push ideas he genuinely favors — such as overturning an election result — into mainstream discourse.  He tests boundaries to see which limits are actually enforced.  Even when he backs away from a provocation, he often succeeds in raising doubts about those limits.  His behavior is consistent with a president who indeed wants to serve a third term, if not more, and who keeps raising the idea in the hope of getting Americans comfortable with it.

“More broadly, Trump has repeatedly demonstrated his disdain for constitutional checks on a president’s power.  He has ignored parts of judges’ rulings, deported immigrants without due process and tried to eliminate the 14th Amendment’s grant of birthright citizenship through an executive order.  All of this behavior suggests that he would prefer to wield power without limits.”

Plus, a couple days ago, when asked whether he was bound by the U.S. Constitution, he said he “wasn’t sure.”

The appropriate response from the political system?  Assert the clarity of the law:  Trump is barred from serving a third term, period.  And, also hold accountable to live within the rule of law and constitutional protections.

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.

When it comes to filling important federal government positions – including members of a president’s cabinet – most presidents look for experience and credentials.

Not Donald Trump.

He pines only for those who will look up to him as what he thinks he is, which is the most important man in the world – if not the Pope as he dressed up the other day for a photo shoot in garb of the papacy.

Another way to put this:  It’s amateur hour among top officials in Trump’s government, if not Trump himself.

Look no farther than Pete Hegseth, the director of the Department of Defense whose only “experience” for the job was that he served as a talk show host Trump admired.

Or, like columnist Dana Milbank in the Washington Post yesterday, look no farther than the Seretary of the Department of Veteran Affairs, Doug Collins. 

Milbank wrote a new column under this headline:  “Could incompetence save the Republic?”  That’s a question he asked after he watched Colins testify on Capitol Hill.

Put simply, Milbank said, “it didn’t go well.”

Here’s more from Milbank.

“Doug Collins, the man Trump put in charge of slashing the Department of Veterans Affairs, controls the fate of some 9 million veterans who receive health care from the VA A and 6 million who rely on VA for disability benefits.

“Yet ,when he came before the Senate to testify on Tuesday, it quickly became apparent that Collins, a former congressman from Georgia, lacks even a tenuous grasp on what he is doing.”

The back and forth with Members of Congress proved Collins is not qualified to do anything, including running the VA.

Here’s a summary of that back and forth, according to Milbank:

• How many clinical trials has the Trump administration stopped?  “I’d have to get that number back to you.”
• How much has been saved from staff reductions so far?  “I’d have to get back to you.”
• Senator John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, asked why Veterans Affairs cut a program shown to reduce the number of amputations among veterans.  “Could you repeat the question?” Collins asked.  Boozman did.  “I’ll have to get back with you on that one,” the secretary answered.

“Collins,” Milbank wrote “spoke in a drawl and with the rapid-fire cadence of an auctioneer, and often ended his thoughts mid-sentence and positioned his subjects in vehement disagreement with his verbs.  He gloated that wait times for VA appointments increased during the Biden Administration — but questioning revealed he was unaware that a 2022 change in the way wait-times are calculated that made the comparison meaningless.  

“At another point, Collins was asked about Medicaid, which is for the poor and near-poor, and he confused it with Medicare, which is for seniors.  “I’m not sure where we’re going with this,” Collins said when his error was pointed out.

“Clearly.”

The Trump administration (note the small “a” in the word administration, which connotes that I don’t think Trump is “administering” anything) has thrown VA into absolute chaos.  

Collins has announced a goal of eliminating 15 per cent of VA staff — some 83,000 jobs — without any word about how he intends to go about it.  This has spread fear among staff and veterans alike that health care will be curtailed along with the government’s sacred responsibility, as Abraham Lincoln put it, “to care for him who shall have borne the battle.”  Yet, for all the mayhem, the vaunted cost savings haven’t yet amounted to much, if anything.

More Milbank:

“What the Trump administration is doing to Veterans Affairs is, in short, a microcosm of what it has been doing to the overall federal government:  Sabotage without purpose.  Or perhaps sabotage is the purpose — a deliberate effort to incapacitate and discredit the government.  But Trump sabotages VA at his peril, for veterans have a political clout that, say, the kids affected by the White House’s dismantling of the Education Department don’t enjoy.

“Maybe that is why Trump tapped Collins to lead VA, which oversees 155 cemeteries:  His main qualification appears to be a talent for whistling past the graveyard.

So, with “performances” like Collins put on the other day – and that Trump puts on every day – Milbank hopes that incompetence will finally come home to roost.

I join him in that hope.

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.

As if we needed another indication that Trump speaks before he thinks, it happened again over the weekend.

This time, speaking off-the-cuff to reporters (off-the-cuff is redundant), Trump said he had ordered several federal agencies to re-open Alcatraz Prison, which has been closed since 1963 because it was too costly to operate.

Here is how the Washington Post reported the Trump order:

“In a post on social media, Trump said he directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Homeland Security Department, the Justice Department and others to work together to open a ‘substantially enlarged and rebuilt’ Alcatraz that would house the country’s ‘most ruthless and violent’ offenders.”

As background, Alcatraz was shut down in March 1963 because of steep operational costs, which were nearly three times more than any other federal prison.

One reason it was so expensive to operate was its offshore location.  All supplies — including water — had to be transported by boat. To this day, Alcatraz has no electrical or water lines from the mainland, and fuel for electric generators has to be ferried to the island.

Plus, since its closure, Alcatraz has been site of several movies, including one that chronicled an escape by a felon who was never found, but probably died in the ocean in an attempt to swim to freedom.  It also is a tourist destination.

Any normal president, either Republican or Democrat, would ask for a major study to assess the possibility of re-opening Alcatraz before says he or she would do so.

So, why did Trump announce this idea?

Who knows?

It just happened to cross mind, so he opened his mouth.

Representative Nancy Pelosi, now a back-bencher in the U.S. House of Representatives, put it best when she said she “didn’t consider the Trump idea worth anything.”

Of course, that can be said about many ideas in Trump’s brain that happen to come out of his mouth.

Two other cases of Trump speaking or acting before thinking:

1. Trump, after heading over to the Pope’s funeral, dressed up in Pope-garb and posed for pictures as if he was Pope.  No doubt he thought it was cool.  Most Catholics seethed at his action.  So did I – and I am not catholic.
2. According to Atlantic Magazine, Trump doesn’t care about national security.  He’s not against it or actively trying to undermine it; he’s just not interested.  He’s not interested in hearing reasoned advice, developed through a careful process, as the National Security Council has done — especially if this advice contradicts his impulses or ideology.  On an issue like the strikes on Houthis in Yemen, where Trump has fewer interests to balance, problems don’t tend to arise.  But on marquee issues that Trump can’t ignore, and where tough trade-offs and complicated strategy enter the picture — such as with Ukraine or China — someone has to start giving him news he doesn’t like.

For the person delivering bad news to Trump, that person will be out of a job soon.  Because Trump likes only good news that aggrandizes himself.

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.