Many of you may not remember the many reincarnations of the movie The Life of Riley. From radio to the big screen and eventually TV, Riley was a loud-mouthed bumbler who stumbles his way through life. I am not generally someone who commends books but I just read the short tome penned by sportswriter Rick Reilly, Commander In Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump. For golfers, the sport is the epitome of honor and sportsmanship. No other competitive sport, especially the professional game, allows you to police yourself and keep your own score. Reilly contends that Donald Trump, on the golf course is all you need to know about how his twisted sense of self works.
From cheating on the number of strokes, having caddies place a second ball in plain sight if his [Trump] is lost in the woods, to kicking a ball is outlined. The book points out over and over the big character flaw in the President of the United States; his propensity to aggrandize himself and drag others into the sand trap with him. Just this morning I listened to an interview between CNN’s Dana Bash and Vice-President Mike Pence. She finally had to interrupt his diatribe about how dare Democrats celebrate their first 100 days in the House with a question on immigration, the subject at hand…
Bash: “But it’s so partisan, how do you get to the point where you do something that is a solution t-to these problems? Pence gave an unbelievable answer, “ I think, I think, it begins with speaking the truth to power, that’s what the President has always been willing to do…”
Even one of Trumps’ caddies could not kick that fallacy out of the deepest bunker. That answer from Pence is the quintessence of what Trump does to once honorable men. You may disagree, as I do with many things Pence has said, but you were convinced he had the conviction of his own nonsense. You may disagree with Lindsey Graham but you believed his friendship to John McCain was real. You may have thought that Mitch McConnell was a S.O.B, well he is, but you believed he was convinced he was right. The one thing all of these men now share is their willingness to sell out their religiosity, their loyalty, and their patriotism. In 2001 Pence wrote in the wake of the Lewinsky scandal, “The President committed perjury. Perjury is a crime. President's (sic) who commit crimes should resign or be impeached.”That was his response to Bill Clinton’s answer to the questions about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, of course, Mr. Pence seems to make allowances for his boss now. Lindsey Graham who famously defended his good friend John McCain at every instance and traveled extensively with McCain on overseas junkets has been conspicuously absent when Trump continues to belittle McCain’s war record, loyalty to his Party and intellect. In the face of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, told to McConnell by the Obama administration, his loyalties obviously lay with partisanship over country, since McConnell refused to sign onto a bipartisan letter acknowledging the breach.
Rick Reilly quoted famed golfer, Arnold Palmer, “I always play golf with a guy before I go into business because you can’t hide who you are for four hours.” Reilly’s point is; if you cannot be trusted with your own honor long enough to get through a round of golf, how can you be trusted for years in the world’s highest office?
Vote in 2020 for Change.