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| Rick Reilly |
Rick Reilly wrote a wonderful book with the above title, and the subtitle How Golf Explains Trump. Golf is a very unusual sport in that the player is alone much of the time and is expected to enforce the rules on himself. While there are some referees in professional golf, there are far fewer than the number of groups on the course. Serious golfers take the rules seriously, although I suspect most golfers don’t. Mulligans are common.
Trump on the other hand, not only takes numerous mulligans, but he has his caddies kick his fellow players’ balls (golf balls) into the rough. Trump proclaims himself to be club champion of 18 clubs. Reilly says that if Trump were to play by the rules he would have at most one or two championships. The difference between Trump and the weekend golfer is that the weekend golfer has no illusion of being a champion.
There appears to be substantial question about whether Trump plays by the rules in business. Trump himself has asserted that he takes advantage of the rules.
As president, Trump has had enormous power to ignore or bend the rules, and he has done so continuously. He is constantly in violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution, for example.
Historic customs have a status similar to rules. So, we don’t see Trump’s tax returns, and he is seeking any possibility to overturn a valid election.
Of course, this behavior is not at all uncommon, at least in young children. How many times have you played a game with a child and found her insisting on changing the rules when she is in danger of losing? In the face of constant refusals by adults to allow changes, this behavior seems to decline in most people as they mature.
For Trump, it continues unabated. Being rich would be one enabler. But most wealthy people understand that the rules apply to them, even if they try to get around them. The childlike quality of Trump’s behavior is clearly demonstrated by his insistence that the counting of votes be stopped in Pennsylvania, where he was ahead, but allowed to continue in Arizona, where he was behind. I cannot imagine a mature adult doing that, but coming from a child it would not surprise me.
Thus, we live in a nation in which 70 million people chose a man with the morality and the ethics of an 8-year-old child to be the leader of the Free World. He may be smart (although I don’t think so). He may offer policies that you think are to your benefit. But what is the limit of his tantrums? After all, he could end the world today if he decided to.
| Copyright © 2020 by Moristotle ‘Mulligans Not’ is a pseudonym for a Ph.D. psychologist who later in life was actually able to play golf by the rules. |
Mulligans, I should have asked you during editing, but didn’t think of it: Does Reilly say whether Trump requires his caddies to sign non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)? How did Reilly learn that Trump has the caddies kick opponents’ balls into the rough?
ReplyDeleteAnd a follow-up question: You label as childish Trump’s insistence that despite the vote count HE won the election, but what about the supporting rejection of the count by Mitch McConnell and a huge majority of other Republican office holders? Isn’t THEIR presumably ADULT behavior even worse than Trump’s, who has the excuse that’s he’s “just a child”?
Reilly mentions no NDA. But Trump played golf for many years before he was president.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there are few true believers in the senate. They are trying to protect their power. They are not crazy.