Dead Patriots Society

Dead Patriots Society

may our children not behave like our president

Post #2, November 15, 2024

Decades ago, before Rick Reilly became known as the Rock Star of sports journalism, Jack Nicholson said he was “hotter than a three-dollar pistol”. 

In 2019, Reilly, my Boulder High School classmate of ’76, nailed Donald Trump with his book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.” To cheat like Trump does, tells us just how insecure he is. 

Here are some highlights from Rick’s book:

“Why does Trump cheat so much when he’s already a decent player? And how can he be so shameless as to cheat right in front of people? They call him on it, but he just shrugs and cheats some more.”

“I wrote this book to say one simple thing: If Trump constantly cons people in a thing that doesn’t matter, imagine what he’s doing in the things that do?”

“‘So what? He cheats at golf. It’s just golf. It doesn’t matter.’ But that’s exactly why it does matter. Golf isn’t political.”

And from the Acknowledgments: (again, written before January 6):

“Lastly, thank you to every reporter out there who keeps pursuing the truth head-first into the worst hurricane of lies, insults, and constitution-trampling I’ve seen in my 40 years in the business.”

If your head is still spinning and you aren’t sure where to begin with this piece-of-work we call Donald Trump, you could do worse than read Rick Reilly’s book.

Why does Trump openly cheat at golf? Perhaps for a similar reason that a surprising number of homicides committed by men happen with witnesses present. There was a time in our past when this might have been “adaptive”, a warning to those witnesses: “Don’t mess with me”.

Maybe Trump is saying: “Rules are for everyone but me. I am above the law.” His choice of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General,  an obvious move to weaponize the Justice Department, and his threats to senators that they better consent to recesses when necessary to avoid the constitutionally-mandated confirmation process–or face his wrath–are statements that he will transgress all bounds.

And so far, maybe it is accurate to say Trump is above the law. Our job, we citizens of the United States, is to make clear to him that he is not.

We aren’t going to do that with prosecutions that Special Counsel Jack Smith is shutting down, as the first post at Dead Patriots Society discussed. He might very well escape a legal accounting during his remaining time on earth.

Whether it be a law per se or a fundamental social norm, most of us are deterred from breaking it (absent an inherent respect for it) because we don’t need the resulting shame. Donald Trump would appear to have seldom known shame. 

But he must know his remaining years on this earth are not many. His power and all the personal thrill it brings him will soon dissipate. What will survive of him on earth will be how his young son, the rest of his family, and all Americans remember him.

“We cannot escape history”, Lincoln reminds us. “We…will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”

And how we all  remember Trump will be the lesser of the two reckonings he is due.

In the months and years ahead, we will find principled, non-violent means to frustrate and hopefully defeat Trump’s machinations, even as we accept and applaud any worthwhile policies he may propose or implement. We must be open to any good he would do, and vigilant not to return his wrongs with wrongs of our own. 

But make no mistake. To give a man like Donald Trump, who openly cheats at golf, the benefit of the doubt, would be foolish, and would shirk our civic duty. 

We know way too much about him.

Rick Reilly Might be the Only Man Trump Fears

Decades ago, before Rick Reilly became known as the Rock Star of sports journalism, Jack Nicholson said he was “hotter than a three-dollar pistol”. 

In 2019, Reilly, my Boulder High School classmate, nailed Donald Trump with his book “Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.” To cheat like Trump does, tells us just how insecure he is. 

Here are some highlights from Rick’s book:

“Why does Trump cheat so much when he’s already a decent player? And how can he be so shameless as to cheat right in front of people? They call him on it, but he just shrugs and cheats some more.”

“I wrote this book to say one simple thing: If Trump constantly cons people in a thing that doesn’t matter, imagine what he’s doing in the things that do?”

“‘So what? He cheats at golf. It’s just golf. It doesn’t matter.’ But that’s exactly why it does matter. Golf isn’t political.”

And from the Acknowledgments: (again, written before January 6):

“Lastly, thank you to every reporter out there who keeps pursuing the truth head-first into the worst hurricane of lies, insults, and constitution-trampling I’ve seen in my 40 years in the business.”

If your head is still spinning and you aren’t sure where to begin with this piece-of-work we call Donald Trump, you could do worse than read Rick’s Reilly’s book.

Why does Trump openly cheat at golf? Perhaps for a similar reason that a surprising number of homicides committed by men happen with witnesses present. There was a time in our past when this might have been “adaptive”, a warning to those witnesses: “Don’t mess with me”.

Maybe Trump is saying: “Rules are for everyone but me. I am above the law.” His choice of Matt Gaetz for Attorney General,  an obvious move to weaponize the Justice Department, and his threats to senators that they better consent to recesses when necessary to avoid the confirmation process–or face his wrath–are statements that he will transgress all bounds.

And so far, maybe it is accurate to say Trump is above the law. Our job, we citizens of the United States, is to make clear to him that he is not.

We aren’t going to do that with prosecutions that Special Counsel Jack Smith is shutting down, as the first post at Dead Patriots Society discussed. He might very well escape a legal accounting during his remaining time on earth.

Whether it be a law per se or a fundamental social norm, most of us are deterred from breaking it (absent an inherent respect for it) because we don’t need the resulting shame. Donald Trump would appear to have seldom known shame. 

But he must know his remaining years on this earth are not many. His power and all the personal thrill it brings him will soon dissipate. What will survive of him on earth will be how his young son, the rest of his family, and all Americans remember him.

“We cannot escape history”, Lincoln reminds us. “We…will be remembered in spite of ourselves.”

And how we all  remember Trump will be the lesser of the two reckonings he is due.

In the months and years ahead, we will find principled, non-violent means to frustrate and hopefully defeat Trump’s machinations, even as we accept and applaud any worthwhile policies he may propose or implement. We must be open to any good he would do, and vigilant not to return his wrongs with wrongs of our own. 

But make no mistake. To give a man like Donald Trump, who openly cheats at golf, the benefit of the doubt would be foolish, and would shirk our civic duty. 

We know way too much about him.