Perspective from the 19th 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, it’s the Department of Good Quotes Worth Remembering.
FROM JESSIE WEGMAN: Wegman, a member of the New York Times editorial board, wrote an excellent column the other day on the felony convictions of presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Without reviewing the entire piece, here is one of best sentences Wegman wrote:
“Donald Trump considers himself to be above the law even as he threatens to wield the law against his enemies if given the chance.”
Nothing more needs to be said, though I will add this. Besides convictions on 34 criminal violations, Trump also stands guilty of this – duplicity.
FROM AARON BLAKE: In the Washington Post, political analyst Aaron Blake, wrote this:
“Taking a step back, Trump’s tactics are familiar to those who study fascism. ‘Fascism encourages contempt for democrat institutions, particularly elections, and the rule of law,’ the Public Leadership Institute explained in a 2022 essay.
“Instead, it calls on the majority group to turn over power to a strongman and his lieutenants, while glorifying the use of violence in support of fascist myths and goals.’”
There, Blake says it – Trump is a Fascist. He wants all the power.
Blake adds: “…every conspiracy theory must occasionally be fertilized.” So, Republicans set about doing that last Tuesday (in a hearing they called in the House to rail against Trump’s guilty verdicts).
FROM FRANK BRUNI: In the New York Times, columnist Frank Bruni wrote this this:
“Trump’s a bona fide felon now. Back in 2016, it was somewhat easier for Americans itching to cast a protest vote to see the vilest of Trump’s behavior and the most vicious of his remarks as theatrical provocations, as a flamboyant show of defiance that wouldn’t amount to all that much.
“The line between mischief and malice could be blurry, at least if you didn’t care to look closely.
“Eight years later? There’s nothing blurry about Trump. There’s no mistaking or minimizing the Nazi echoes in his talk of immigrants poisoning the blood of the country or his reference to his critics on the left as vermin. There’s no shrugging off his invitation to Vladimir Putin to invade NATO allies who didn’t pay their dues and his pledge to use the presidency to take revenge on his enemies.”
FROM DANA MILBANK: The columnist, Miltank, wrote under this headline: “As Biden rallies the free world, Trump serves a higher cause – himself.”
Milbank continued:
“In Phoenix, at his first post-conviction campaign rally, Trump portrayed a dark and desperate America.
“The 80th anniversary of D-Day provided the contrast that should define the election.
“President Biden went to Normandy and spoke about American greatness. Donald Trump went to Phoenix and ‘a ‘very sick country.’
“In France, Biden rhapsodized about ‘the story of America’ told by the rows of graves at the Normandy America Cemetery: ‘Nearly 10,000 heroes buried side by side, officers and enlisted, immigrants and native-born, different races, different faiths, but all Americans.’
“In Phoenix, Trump, invoked the racist ‘great replacement’ conspiracy theory, saying Biden had orchestrated an ‘invasion’ at the border as part of ‘a deliberate demolition of our sovereignty’ because ‘they probably think these people are going to be voting.’”
All four commentators are right. Now, who do you want vote for later this year?
Perspective from the 19th Hole 