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 proffers a good question.

There are many answers, such as these three:

• They just want to be in charge, because as narcissists, they believe they know more than anyone else.
• They want government to cast itself in the image they discern it should have, no matter what others think – including Members of Congress.
• They want smaller government and they’ll get it by cutting stuff that Congress has approved, thereby raising division-of-powers and Constitutional issues.

The Washington Post opined on this the other day under this headline:  “In chaotic Washington blitz, Elon Musk’s ultimate goal becomes clear.”

And, unfortunately, as Musk goes, so goes Trump, though Musk never was elected to anything.

From the Post:

“Shrink government, control data and — according to one official closely watching the billionaire’s DOGE — replace ‘the human workforce with machines.’

“Billionaire Musk’s blitzkrieg on Washington has brought into focus his vision for a dramatically smaller and weaker government, as he and a coterie of aides move to control, automate — and substantially diminish — hundreds if not thousands of public functions.

“In less than three weeks, Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service has followed the same playbook at one federal agency after another:  Install loyalists in leadership.  Hoover up internal data, including the sensitive and the classified.  Gain control of the flow of funds.  And push hard — by means legal or otherwise — to eliminate jobs and programs not ideologically aligned with Trump administration goals.”

So, there you have it.

Trump and Musk – or is it Musk and Trump? – want to control everything.  If it inflicts damage on unsuspecting members of the public, so be it.  For example, if medicines needed by poor Americans dry up, so be it. 

More from the Post:

“The DOGE campaign has generated chaos on a near-hourly basis across the nation’s capital.  But it appears carefully choreographed in service of a broader agenda to gut the civilian workforce, assert power over the vast federal bureaucracy, and shrink it to levels unseen in at least 20 years.

“The aim is a diminished government that exerts less oversight over private business, delivers fewer services and comprises a smaller share of the U.S. economy — but is far more responsive to the directives of the president.

“Though led by Musk’s team, this campaign is broadly supported by President Donald Trump and his senior leadership, who will be crucial to implementing its next stages.  And while resistance to Musk has emerged in the federal courts, among federal employee unions and in pockets of Congress, allies say the billionaire’s talent for ripping apart and transforming institutions has been underestimated — as has been proved in the scant time since Trump’s January 20 inauguration.”

Plus, if the check on Trump-Musk power is the court, then that is a problem, too, on either of two counts:  Either Trump-Musk ignore the court or it take too long – months – for redress to occur.

Then, this from one of the best political writers doing, Dan Balz, whose work appears in the Washington Post:

“Rare is the president who doesn’t overinterpret his mandate.  Trump is no exception.  His first weeks in office are a textbook case of a chief executive assuming he can do whatever he wants almost without impunity.  How long can it last?

“So far, the resistance has been minimal.  Democrats have offered little opposition beyond rhetoric.  Republicans in Congress have acted as if they are an extension of the Executive Branch rather than a separate branch of government.  The courts have blocked temporarily some of what Trump has tried to do, but there is a long way to run on that front.”

I agree with Balz.

But, pardon me, I thought we lived in a democracy where public officials had to find a way to work together for the good of the country.

It appears to be the case no longer as long as many express fealty to Trump.  So, I wonder whether America will survive four years of Trump – and Musk.

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 borrowed this blog headline from a column in the Washington Post by one of my favorite writers, David Brooks.

I could try to quote Brooks and write my own blog this morning.  But, as I have done from time to time, I choose to reprint Brook’s column because it is so well done.

Plus, in these days of Donald Trump’s lies and invective, it is good for a change to rely on facts, including a perspective from looking at history. 

And Brooks’ writing is even more important today, as Donald Trump starts a trade war by threatening to impose huge tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China, not to mention on specific commodities.

Just wait until all of us pay higher prices for a lot of stuff – and remember to ascribe responsibility to Trump.

In the first sentence below, note that Brooks uses the verb “spelunking” to describe trying to look into Trump’s brain.  The verb describes a place where it is nearly impossible to go. 

**********

After a four-year hiatus, we are once again compelled to go spelunking into the deeper caverns of Donald Trump’s brain.  We climb under his ego, which interestingly makes up 87 per cent of his neural tissue; we burrow beneath the nucleus accumbens, the region of the brain responsible for cheating at golf; and then, deep down at the core of the limbic system, we find something strange — my 11th grade history textbook.

Over the past few months, and especially in his second Inaugural Address, Trump has gone all 19th century on us.  He seems to find in this period everything he likes: tariffs, Manifest Destiny, seizing land from weaker nations, mercantilism, railroads, manufacturing, and populism.  Many presidents mention George Washington or Abraham Lincoln in their inaugurals.  Who was the immortal Trump cited? William McKinley.

You can tell what kind of conservative a person is by discovering what year he wants to go back to.  For Trump, it seems to be sometime between 1830 and 1899.  “The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts,” he declared in his address.

It’s easy to see the appeal. We were a boisterous, arriviste nation back then, bursting with energy, bombast and new money.  In 1840, there were 3,000 miles of railroad track in America.  By 1900, there were roughly 259,000 miles of track.  Americans were known for being materialistic, mechanical and voracious for growth.

In his book “The American Mind,” the historian Henry Steele Commager wrote of our 19th-century forebears:  “Whatever promised to increase wealth was automatically regarded as good, and the American was tolerant, therefore, of speculation, advertising, deforestation and the exploitation of natural resources.”  So Trumpian.

It was a time when the national character was being forged, not among the establishment circles in Boston, Philadelphia and Virginia, but out on the frontier, by the wild ones, the uncouth ones.  It was the rugged experience of westward expansion, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner declared in 1893, that had given America its vitality, its egalitarianism, its disinterest in high culture and polite manners.  The West was settled by a rising tide of hucksterism — the spirit of the circus master P.T. Barnum more than that of the aristocratic novelist Henry James.

It was a golden age of braggadocio, of Paul Bunyan-style tall tales.  It was also an age when to be American was to be wreathed in glory.  Many Americans believed that God had assigned a sacred errand to his new chosen people, to complete history and to bring a new heaven down to earth.  (Kind of like the way God saved Trump in that Pennsylvania field so that he could complete the sacred mission of deporting more immigrants.)

Herman Melville captured, without endorsing, the nationalist fervor in his novel “White Jacket”:  “We Americans are the peculiar, chosen people — the Israel of our time. God has predestinated, mankind expects, great things from our race; and great things we feel in our souls.”  Walt Whitman joined the chorus:  “Have the elder races halted? / Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied over there beyond the seas? / We take up the task eternal.”  There’s no confidence like adolescent confidence, for a person or a country.

I can see why this image of a wild, raw, aspiring America appeals to Trump.  It is sometimes said that Trump appeals to those left behind, the losers of the information age.  And this is a nationalism filled with aspiration, daring, hope and future-mindedness.  (It helps if, like Trump, you whitewash a few minor details about 19th-century America from your portrait — like, you know, slavery and Reconstruction.)

Maybe the century’s key appeal for Trump is that in those days America was firmly anti-establishment.  Across the Atlantic were the old states — Europe.  Periodically, Europeans like Fanny Trollope (herself a novelist and the mother of a rather more famous one) would visit America and turn up their noses at the vulgar money-loving people they found here.  The English writer Morris Birkbeck summarized his view of the American spirit this way:  “Gain! Gain! Gain!”  Americans were proud to defy the snobs with their refined manners, class-ridden societies and inherited luxuries.

You can draw a straight line from this (semi-mythical) image of America to the movement Trump leads today.  He too leads a band of arrivistes, establishment-haters, money-seekers and unreconstructed nationalists.  Many Democrats accuse Trump of ushering in an oligarchy, but new-money moguls like Elon Musk have often sided with the populists against the bien pensants.  This is not oligarchy; this is what populism looks like.

Trump is drawing on themes that have been deep in the American psyche at least since Andrew Jackson became president in 1829.   Populist movements, like most movements that represent the dispossessed, tend to be led by men who radiate power, masculinity and wealth. They harness American’s natural distaste for rules, regulations and bureaucratic moralists.

The quintessential thing Trump did a couple weeks ago was to announce an artificial intelligence development project of up to $500 billion while also revoking a Biden executive order for A.I. safety.  Even Musk says the whole project is mythical hype because some of the companies involved don’t have the money.  Meanwhile, weakening the safety control on the technology?  What could go wrong?

Today’s populist ire is directed not at the European establishments living across an ocean but at the American ones on the east and west coasts.  Democrats are mistaken if they think they can rebuff Trump by howling the words “fascism” or “authoritarianism,” or by clutching their pearls every time he does something vulgar or immoral.  If they decide to continue the culture war between the snooty elitists and the masses, I think we know how that’s going to turn out.

The problem with populism and the whole 19th-century governmental framework is that it didn’t work.  Between 1825 and 1901 we had 20 presidencies.  We had a bunch of one-term presidents; voters kept throwing the incumbents out because they were not happy with the way government was performing.  The last three decades of that century saw a string of brutalizing recessions and depressions that profoundly shook the country.  The light-footprint government was unable to cope with the process of industrialization.

Many populists were ill equipped to even understand what was happening.  In his classic book “The Age of Reform,” Richard Hofstadter writes, “Populist thought showed an unusually strong tendency to account for relatively impersonal events in highly personal terms.”  In other words, they thought they could solve the disruptions of industrialization if only they could find the evil conspirators who were responsible for every ill.  Their diagnoses were simple-minded, their rhetoric over the top; their proposals, Hofstadter noted, wandered “over the border between reality and impossibility.”  Sound familiar?

Here’s how America recovered:  Populist indignation finally got professionalized.  In the 20th century, members of the progressive movement took the problems the populists were rightly angry about and built the institutions that were required to address them effectively — like the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Reserve.

Populists had trouble thinking institutionally; the progressives, who were well trained, morally upright, self-disciplined, disgusted by corruption, intellectually rigorous (and sometimes priggish and arrogant) did not have that problem.

There’s a reason the 20th century happened.  The United States had to build a stronger central government and a leadership class if it was going to take responsibility — responsibility for the people who were marginalized and oppressed in our own country and, as the century wore on, responsibility to establish a peaceful and secure world order. Americans have a perpetual problem with authority, but for a time — from say 1901 to 1965 — Americans built authority structures that voters trusted.

Now we live amid another crisis of authority.  Our system has not managed to keep up with the savage inequalities produced by the information age — especially between the college educated and the less educated.  Populists are again indignant and on the march. But, as before, they have no compelling theory of change.

The colorful menagerie of people who make up the proposed Trump cabinet all have one thing in common:  They are self-identified disrupters. They aim to burn the systems down.  Disruption is fine in the private sector.  If Musk wants to start a car company and it flops, then all that’s been lost is investor money and some jobs.  But suppose you disrupt and dismantle the Defense Department or the judicial system or the schools?  Where are citizens supposed to go?

The history of the world since at least the French Revolution is that rapid disruption makes governments cataclysmically worse.  Trump, the anti-institutionalist, is creating an electoral monarchy, a system in which all power is personalized and held in his hands.  That’s a recipe for distorted information flows, corruption, instability, and administrative impotence.

As we’ve seen over and over again down the centuries, there’s a big difference between people who operate in the spirit of disruption and those who operate in the spirit of reform.

If I were running the Democrat Party (God help them), I would tell the American people that Donald Trump is right about a lot of things. He’s accurately identified problems on issues like inflation, the border, and the fallout from cultural condescension that members of the educated class have been too insular to anticipate.  But when it comes to building structures to address those problems — well, the man is just hapless and incompetent.

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 Department of Bits and Pieces is open again.  It is one of five I run with a free hand to manage as I see fit because I am a management guru.

I won’t bore you with a list of the other departments I run.  Just know they exist.

And also know that I will pass this morning on writing about the Super Bowl shootout where the Philadelphia Eagles had more guns that the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now, for Bits and Pieces.

GREEN SPEEDS AT THE PALMS AND THE PLANTATION GOLF COURSES IN LA QUINTA, CALIFORNIA:  I cite this as a matter of interest to any golfers who read this, though you would have to know what a “stimpmeter” is to catch the drift.  The definition:  It is a simple device to measure speeds on golf greens and all golf courses use it.

The dictionary contains no definition of the word.  But what it means is this:  It is a slide down which you roll a golf ball and measure how far it goes.  Thus, you get a definition, such as 11.5.

Or, here is what I found on-line as for a definition beyond the dictionary:

“A stimpmeter is a device used by golf course superintendents to measure the speed of the greens.  Edward Stimpson created the first stimpmeter in the 1930s primarily out of curiosity.  As the Massachusetts Amateur Champion, Stimpson knew a thing or two about the game.  He would often wonder if certain greens on the course were faster than others.  Knowing this information would be a competitive advantage for sure.  

“He built the stimpmeter to achieve accurate, objective, and valid information on putting green speeds.  The device is similar to a yardstick but with a V-shaped groove in the middle to allow the ball to roll down in a consistent and repetitive manner.  Stimpson put a notch at the top of the device so that when it was raised to approximately 20 degrees from the putting surface, gravity would pull the ball off the notch and down the V-shaped groove.”

See, aren’t you glad you understand all this? 

Where I play in the Winter at The Palms in La Quinta, California, the golf course superintendent there told me he sets out to have the green speeds running at 11.5 on the Stimpmeter.

Last week, however, they were measured at 12:5, which is fast, about PGA Tour speed.

Meanwhile, on the Plantation, also in La Quinta, the greens were re-built this year and have not aged in yet.  So, they are very hard, hard enough not to hold high shots coming into the green.  And, as for the stimp – reportedly at least 12.

See, now you know that, as a management guru, I know what “stimpmeter” means.

I HOPE TRUMP GETS SUED BY EVERYONE:  This bit of news:  Unions representing government employees sued the Trump administration to block efforts to shut down the government’s independent foreign assistance agency.

Here is how hill.com put it:   “Federal judges are curbing Trump’s sweeping directives to reshape the government, issuing a flurry of rulings blocking his agenda from charging forward.   More than three dozen lawsuits have been filed challenging major Trump administration actions from gender to immigration to federal employee protections.”

If Trump were to act like a real president, not a make-believe one, such suits wouldn’t be necessary.

But, you see, Trump is both a narcissist and a budding oligarch.  What he says goes.  So, I say, sue him on everything all the time.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL PRAYER BREAKFAST:  Trump attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington on Thursday.  Who knows why.

Late night TV host Jimmy Kimmel provided the answer.  He called Trump “MAGA Teresa,” and said Trump only showed up “because he doesn’t like it when people worship anyone other than him.”

Right answer, regarding the man who published a Bible with his name on the cover because, of course, he is greater than Jesus.

THIS ABOUT JOE BIDEN:  In act of retaliation, who knows for what, Trump took away Biden’s security clearance. 

Doesn’t Trump have enough to do to add Canada as a 51^st state, annex Greenland, take over the Panama Canal – and find ways to enrich himself at the expense of all Americans.  Why retaliate against Biden?

AND, IN CONCLUSION:  Back to golf.  Guess how long it took workers to erect the stands at the Phoenix Open Golf Tournament, famous for its 16-hole stands that surround the tee and the green?  Four months!

And, to take down the stands?  54 days. 

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 opening the Department of Good Words Worth Remembering because, as this blog headline notes, two national columnists have written good words – yes, “good” if it possible to use that word about Donald Trump.

Here is a quick summary:

• Catherine Rampell in the Washington Post says, “an arsonist like Trump shouldn’t get credit for putting out fires.”
• Dana Milbank, also in the Post, says, “so, here’s a shocker — it turns out that, if you elect a felon as president of the United States, the felon will continue to break laws once he’s in office.”

Here is more from each columnist.

Rampell/“Donald Trump has made a habit of ginning up crises and then declaring victory when he ‘solves’ them.  We in the media must stop giving this arsonist credit for his firefighting skills.

“The past two weeks have been fraught with international emergencies of the president’s own making — either problems that he pretends already plague us, or those he manifests into existence.  This is the best way to understand his trade-war brinkmanship with Canada and Mexico.

“Trump complains that Mexico and Canada take advantage of the United States on trade, despite the fact that he negotiated our current trade agreement with these countries during his first term.  He even touted the 2020 agreement as ‘the best and most important trade deal ever made by the USA.’

“His exact grievance alters by the day:  Sometimes, he protests that we buy too much stuff from these places (typically using bogus numbers that inflate our trade deficit). Sometimes, he faults our neighbors for migration. Lately, his chief complaint is about fentanyl smuggling — a confusing allegation against Canada, given that a whopping 0.2 per cent of U.S. border fentanyl seizure

“So was a similar, equally pointless spat with Colombia, one of our most important allies in Latin America.

“During the Biden Administration, Colombia regularly accepted commercial flights of deportees from the United States, without issue.  But Colombia refused a deportation flight in January because Trump insulted our ally by sending a (needlessly aggressive and expensive) military jet instead. 

“Tariffs and counter-tariffs were threatened; coffee prices spiked to record highs; and tariff threats were eventually withdrawn as both countries agreed to resume deportation flights.

“Trump and his flunkies hailed this alleged triumph. Major news organizations declared that his erratic threats ‘worked.’  In reality, Trump had only re-packaged the status quo.”

Milbank/After naming Trump as a felon who has no respect for the law, Milbank says this:

“Ultimately, it will be up to the courts to determine which of Trump’s actions are illegal.  But a case can be made — indeed, many cases already have been made in federal courts — that the new administration over the course of the last fortnight has violated each of the following laws.”

Then, Milbank goes on to list the violations which I won’t repeat here because it would make this blog far too long.

So, just remember that we have an arsonist and a felon in the White House.  Which ought to make all of us lose sleep over concerns about the future of our country, which Trump is trying to re-make in his image.

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.

Donald Trump, now, incredibly, the president of the United States, printed a Bible with his name on the cover.

I imagine that all he has read – his own name.

At least, he is not practicing any of the principles in the Bible, which, when the pastor of a church I attend in La Quinta, California, reads from it, he always says this:  “I have just read from the greatest book every written and I attest that all of its words are true.”

For Trump, he is reported to have Mein Kamp closer than the Bible and his early actions in his second run as president don’t bode well for anyone who treasures what the Bible says about how we should act.

Consider these “Top 10 Bible Verses About Helping the Poor:”

First, this general principle:  The Bible teaches that helping the poor is not just a good thing to do, but is also a command from God.  When we help the poor, we are not only helping them, we are also honoring God.

• Proverbs 19:17 – Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.  [My quick postscript here is that when we do “good works” for God, the purpose is not to get credit, it is to do good works based on our relationship to God.]
• Proverbs 22:9 – Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
• Proverbs 14:31 – Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
• Deuteronomy 15:11 – For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore, I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’
• Proverbs 28:27 – Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.
• Galatians 2:10 – Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.
• Proverbs 14:21 – Whoever despises his neighbor is a sinner, but blessed is he who is generous to the poor.
• Acts 20:35 – In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

The fact is that there are more than 300 verses in the Bible that talk about helping the poor.

I also remember one of the major lessons I learned as I grew up in a Christian family in Portland, Oregon. It was important, my mother and father said, to help those in distress, widows, or others in need.

But, beyond the great verses above, my wife and I just read the last chapters of the book of Job in the Old Testament.  As we purpose to read through the Bible in this year, there were good words in Job about the power of God as he spoke to Job, who had suffered so much.

Good to remember with Job that, in fact, that God is in charge of all things. 

No matter what Trump thinks without any knowledge of what the Bible really says.  For him, it is something to sell.

For us, it is something to treasure and to know that we are “children of God,” as are, at least potentially, ALL people.

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.

• Tom Kim.
• Patrick Cantlay.
• J.B. Holmes.
• Keegan Bradley

Slow play artists, all.

No doubt others could be named because there are so many.  But, for me, these four stand apart.  Enough so that it is hard to watch them play.

Here is how one of my on-line golf magazines, described the situation:

“The PGA Tour has a serious pace-of-play issue that needs to be addressed soon.

“CBS Sports on-course announcer Dottie Pepper scolded the pros for the atrocious final-round pace at the Farmers Insurance Open, calling for the players to be ‘respectful” of the “fans, broadcast, and their fellow competitors.”

“The problem reared its head again on Sunday at Pebble Beach.”

That last sentence pointed to Kim.

“During the final round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Kim became the latest golfer to face the ire of broadcasters for his slow play.  This time, it was Golf Channel’s Frank Nobilo and others calling out Kim for taking over a minute to hit an approach shot into the par-5 sixth hole.

“Kim wound up wiping the ball into the rock outline and had to take a drop, which led to some jabs from the broadcast.

“’A little less waggle might have helped,’ one broadcaster said.

“’It was not worth the wait,’ Nobilo chimed in.

“Overall, it took Kim over 40 seconds to address his ball and then another 25 to take a swing.”

Under current golf rules, taking that long would be a violation, so Kim should have at least received a warning.  Then, if he took that long again, he should get a penalty.

Imposing penalties is one good way to cure the slow play problem, but, so far, those who lead the PGA Tour have eschewed this simple solution to slow play.

More from my on-line magazine:

“The PGA Tour can work on shrinking fields and condensing tee times, but the easiest fix to the slow-play issue is to start stroking players.  If you hit them on the scorecard and, by extension, their wallet, they will have an incentive to pick up the pace.

“The slog-like rounds and endless waggles will continue until the PGA Tour starts strictly enforcing pace-of-play rules, and their ratings could continue to suffer until they realize that they need to speed things up to succeed in an era where attention is currency.”

Agreed. 

• Regarding Kim:  Just don’t take more than 60 seconds over the ball before hitting – just hit.
• Regarding Cantlay:  Just stop bobbing and weaving before putting…just putt.
• Regarding Holmes:  Just don’t take several minutes to read putts, even very short ones…just putt.
• Regarding Bradley:  Just grab a club and hit it – just don’t dance around, re-gripping the club multiple times.

Playing faster is possible.  I am not a golf pro, obviously, but the course I have the privilege of playing in La Quinta, California, says it should take three hours and forty minutes to play 18 holes.  The message:  Just play.

To achieve this, you don’t have to run.  Just play purposefully.

Of course, we’re amateur golfers here in La Quinta, but the advice works for us.  Such a time goal might not work for the PGA tour, but something approaching four and one-half hours would beat what is normal now – five and one-half hours or more.

So this message to pro tours:  Speed up!

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 hadn’t heard of this word before I found it many years ago and offered a challenge to those who worked with me in my lobbying firm.

Use it in testimony before the Oregon Legislature, I said, and if you do, I’ll buy you dinner.

My colleagues said they intended take me up on the offer, but none has succeeded, at least so far.

Then, this week one of my former colleagues, still a good friend, found the word in a legislative document.  She sent it to me, thinking, I guess, that I would make good on my past dinner offer.

But, no, just finding the word, not using it, doesn’t qualify.

What in the world does eleemosynary the mean?

Here is the definition:

“Relating to alms, charity, or charitable donations; charitable.”

So, if you think about it in the context of testifying before legislators in Oregon on bills that could help low-income citizens, it would be possible to use the word in a sentence.

Possible?  Yes.

But easy?  No.

Plus, if you used the word, you would have to submit to a question asking for a definition.  So, you better be prepared.  And, in the background of any legislative hearing room, your lobbying colleagues would try to refrain from laughing out loud.

One more question?  How did I ever find the word in the first place?  Well, given my advanced age, I cannot remember.

But, still, a dinner awaits if any one of my former lobbying colleagues can use the word in testimony and prove, to me, that they did.

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 wrote yesterday about the surprise for many Donald Trump voters – higher prices sparked by Trump-tariffs.

Many Trump voters didn’t know what tariffs would mean.  They will soon. 

Higher prices!

The Washington Post provided a public service yesterday by writing a story outlining where higher prices will strike in “Trump’s trade war.”

Here is a summary:

Cellphones, clothes and household goods

China is the main source of imported consumer goods, sending about $210 billion worth of everyday household items into the United States last year.  That means electronics like cellphones, apparel like cotton shirts or shoes and children’s toys could be subject to higher tariffs than they are now.

Industry groups have warned these taxes could increase prices.  The Consumer Technology Association, modeling an earlier tariff proposal from Trump, said that smartphones could cost about $213 more.

“There’s very little in [the] consumer electronics space that is not imported,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said on the company’s earnings call last week.

Companies making everything from shoes to hardware have already said they plan to pass the cost of higher taxes on to customers.

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Produce, beer and juice

One of the first places shoppers may feel the impact of increased tariffs is in the grocery aisle.  The United States imported $9.9 billion worth of vegetables and more than $11 billion worth of fruit and frozen juices from Mexico last year.

“The proposed tariffs would have a significant impact on food prices,” David Ortega, a food economist and professor at Michigan State University, said before the tariffs were officially enacted.  Price hikes would come after years of high inflation in grocery aisles, a top concern for Americans in the last election.

The majority of America’s avocado supply comes from Mexico, as well a sizable amount of tequila and most of the imported beer Americans drink.  Like many products, Mexican beer is often made in partnership with the United States — using barley from Idaho or Montana, for example.

It wouldn’t be easy to quickly replicate the food supply domestically, Ortega said.  Fruit trees, for example, take years to mature.  Labor costs are often higher in the United States, and drought and weather could hinder growing.

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Vehicles and car parts

More than half of goods classified as automotive vehicles, parts and engines come from Canada and Mexico.  Canada was also the main exporter of industrial supplies to the United States, including building supplies, oil and metal materials used to manufacture other products.

Cars are often made between the United States and its closest neighbors, and parts go back and forth across the border during the manufacturing process.

“There’s no such thing as an American-made car.  We have an integrated North American supply chain,” Brusuelas said.

About $173 billion worth of automotive vehicles, parts and engines came from Mexico alone last year.

The proposed tariffs will make it more attractive to manufacture and assemble cars in the United States, said Erik Gordon, a clinical assistant professor of entrepreneurial studies at University of Michigan. He expects car companies might have to readjust their strategy, perhaps making versions of cars with fewer bells and whistles to keep costs under control.

Many other industries also rely on parts and materials made internationally, even if the final product is made in the United States — for example, the country imported $93 billion worth of crude oil from Canada last year.

“There are very few things you could pull apart and say it’s made 100 percent in the U.S.A.,” said KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk.

So, there you have it.  Higher prices across-the-board.

I say blame Trump for what occurs.  He doesn’t know much about what tariffs do.  Neither do those who voted for him.

I only hope we can find a way to survive the next four years.

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.

On this Sunday, there ought to be something better to write about than Donald Trump.  No doubt there is, but here I go again.

I’d bet that many people who voted for Donald Trump had no idea of what the word “tariff” meant.

Now, they know.  Or at least they will soon.

The reality is that they – not to mention the rest of us – will play more for lots of stuff and we’ll owe the responsibility directly to Trump.

Here’s the definition of tariff:  “A tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.”

Just think of it this way:  It is a tax imposed by one country on another country’s imports to that country.  So, it is a tax.  And, in the case of taxes, someone pays – and it will be you and me.

Here is how the Washington Post summarized Trump’s action, which I find to very negative for the U.S.:

“On Saturday, Trump imposed tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico, and China, the nation’s three largest trading partners, invoking emergency economic powers in a high-stakes bid to compel them to crack down on illegal immigration and drugs reaching the United States.

“The president signed three executive orders establishing the measures, the first official actions of his second-term trade war, according to a White House official who briefed reporters.”

No surprise – “Trump tariffs” drew immediate retaliation from all three countries.

From the Post:

“The tariffs drew sharp replies from the leaders of Canada and Mexico, as well as immediate opposition from business and labor groups, which warned of profound upheaval throughout the economy.  For the typical U.S. household, the tariffs will mean a loss of about $1,200 in annual purchasing power, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University, a non-partisan research center.”

So, under Trump, we now are facing a trade war.

I blame Trump for this war, one we are not likely to win – and one where the effect will be that all of us will watch various prices go up at the very same as Trump promised to take inflation.

Join me in assigning responsibility to Trump.

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 have written about this before, but I still cannot believe all the smart people running professional golf cannot solve one of its major problems:  Slow play.

One or both of the following actions would solve the problem.

• Impose penalties on golfers when they exceed the time allowed to play under current official golf rules, one of which is that, when it is your turn to play, you have 40 seconds to do so.  Unless you encounter a problem on a shot such as being close to a tree;l they have an additional 10 seconds to play.

• Inject a shot-clock into the process much like occurs in professional football, basketball, and now even, baseball.  This was tried successfully in Europe when, behind every group, a cart drove with a shot clock on the back of the cart for all to see.  Penalties were imposed.

Easy?  Yes.

Controversial?  Perhaps.

But golf’s leaders better do something before slow play prompts more and more viewers to opt out of watching golf on TV.

Players, too, should get the message.  Speed up.

One of my on-line golf magazines wrote about the subject this way, using the euphemism “competition adjustments:”

• Rulings really clog things up.  The Tour intends to make more “virtual rulings” or at least get officials on the scene faster using its video review center back at Tour HQ in Florida.

• Rangefinders (distance-measuring devices) are going to be tested beginning this year.  Whether that’ll speed things up remains something of an open question, but Tour officials said they’re going to collect data at some upcoming events.  [Data would be good because I, for one, could argue both sides of this issue – rangefinders speed up play; rangefinders slow play.]
  
  
• In a typical pro tournament, there are just too many people on the golf course for things to flow.  One quote that stood out:  “Slower players have been allowed to hide.”  Next year’s reduced field sizes should help, as should more data collection (though it also is true that reducing field sizes also means that players trying to make it on tour will have a tougher time doing so).
  
  
• The Tour is finally considering naming and shaming.  Leaders know how long it takes every player on Tour to hit each type of shot.  Fines have been handed out behind closed doors.  And tournament officials have met with slow-play offenders to try to help them speed things up.  But one tweak under consideration is sharing penalty data publicly in the interest of greater transparency (and, theoretically, peer pressure).

Okay. 

Do all that. 

And impose penalties, too.  For those who make a living playing, such action will get their attention.