TRUMP TWEETS ROLL TOWARD ‘PEBBLE EFFECT’
‘How long, America, O how long?’
— Former Tennessee Gov. Frank Clement, in his keynote address at the 1956 Democratic National Convention.
Funny how history repeats itself in unforeseen ways.
Clement’s task was to try persuading Americans to replace President Eisenhower with Adlai Stevenson. He was unsuccessful but his question is relevant today in a different context. That is, how much longer must we endure Donald Trump’s twittery mendacity? And will he at last engage in the hard work of governing America in an increasingly dangerous world?
Early in the morning last weekend Trump relieved himself of another tweet rant accusing former President Obama feloniously ordering wiretaps of Trump Tower last fall. Later he charged the federal law enforcement and intelligence communities of collusion.
(To paraphrase that line from “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”: “Evidence? I don’t have to give you any stinkin’ evidence!”)
This was a demonstration of his contempt for all “involved.”
But while voters don’t have a say in this until 2020, congressional Republicans have an obligation to demand that Trump back up his accusations. Some have issued plaintive statements tentatively suggesting an investigation. The weak responses are unusual but not necessarily unexpected — for now.
House and Senate Republicans probably don’t believe that most Americans who voted for Trump care all that much about the tapping allegations. They are happy about the stock market’s rise to more than 21,000 points. They expect the president to continue doing what he promised on issues important to them personally.
But the stock market can reverse direction abruptly if investors become alarmed over potentially dangerous world events. Or domestically, if insufficient attention to serious issues prompts Americans to fear for their, and the country’s, futures.
For example, there are ominous (and unanswered) questions about whether Russia is getting the upper hand in its relationship with the United States. Perhaps Trump is ignorant of Ronald Reagan’s valuable axiom when negotiating an arms control treaty with the Soviet Union: “Trust but verify.”
Russia has dramatically raised the stakes in its relationship with the United States — aided paradoxically by Trump’s overweening faith in his foreign policy chops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, with his KGB background, likely subscribes to the cynical judgment often attributed to Lenin — that those in the West who craved a closer relationship with Russia were “useful idiots.” Currently, he may see President Trump as a “useful twitterer.”
Put another way, Putin is patiently focusing on the long game, confident that his approach is superior to Trump’s fecklessness in foreign policy. Thus Trump’s vulnerability to the “pebble effect,” which has nothing to do with geology.
The phrase refers to the revelations of a controversy that ultimately result in a damning conclusion. In the Watergate scandal, that began when the Watergate burglars were arraigned in court in 1972. It ended with a rock slide of proof uncovered by the press and the select Senate committee that forced President Richard Nixon’s resignation.
There has not been a full accounting of contacts by Trump team members with Russian officials, including Moscow’s ambassador to this country. However, it’s likely that U.S. intelligence agencies are gathering information on the matter, fearful that the contacts could compromise America’s international influence and worse, weaken the Atlantic and Pacific alliances, and undermine the United States directly.
It is unclear whether Trump is thinking far enough ahead to ensure the nation avoids that fate. Instead, he seems to thrive on chaos created by diverting public attention from crucial matters. Lying about Obama-tapped phones in Trump Tower is a prime example.
Michael Loftin is a former editor of The Chattanooga Times editorial page.