It is often the case that words are more powerful than we think.
During his first year in office, President Donald Trump unilaterally and, arguably, illegally sent the military into the streets of American cities, rhetorically claiming there was an enormous crime problem that could not be addressed effectively by local police, a problem requiring the president to intervene. And as we have seen, the Republican-controlled Congress acquiesced to the president’s rhetorical predicate, thus allowing his actions for the most part to go unchecked.
Similarly, in recent months, President Trump has been attacking Venezuelan naval vessels and alleged drug facilities on land. He also captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and took over control of the Venezuelan government.
Of note is the fact that the Republican Congress, which constitutionally is charged with the authority to declare war, has not used that authority to stop Trump. Thus far they have not wanted to raise Trump’s ire, backing down to him and de facto accepting the President’s rhetorical predicate for military action; they have left unquestioned whether we are at war to halt the shipment of dangerous drugs into the United States. Whether these attacks can be directly and explicitly linked to the potential entry of drugs into our country, has not been proven.
But this is only part of the story. As someone who studied crisis communication for more than 45 years, I suggest that Trump’s rhetorical maneuvers at home and abroad are dangerous and ultimately could lead to an actual war that Americans don’t want, not to mention the military takeover of our country.
I base this claim on research I published about the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin crisis where President Lyndon Johnson used the alleged attacks on U.S. naval vessels off the coast of Vietnam to justify sending troops — an intervention that led to a long and costly war both in blood and treasure.
Once again, the primary issue was not whether North Vietnam’s attack on U.S. boats could be substantiated. That has never been demonstrated unequivocally. Instead, my research documented how LBJ masterfully used the questionable attacks as a persuasively powerful rhetorical pretext to convince Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution by a near unanimous vote; only one senator voted against it. Passage of this resolution, it will be recalled, was tantamount to acquiescence by the Congress, granting the president the authority to respond militarily by sending thousands of troops to fight in Vietnam.
What is interesting is how this ability by Johnson to rhetorically manufacture a crisis offers us an important warning today. President Trump’s rhetorical predicate for sending the military into American cities and attacking Venezuela might once again lead to dangerous consequences; it could trigger a war that we can’t afford and one that ultimately will fail, as well as the deployment of the military on American streets to undermine democracy and our Constitutional system of government.
I hope that all members of Congress will be vigilant and not cave to Trump’s rhetorical maneuvers. And I hope Steve Bannon was wrong when he asserted that the Congress like the Russian Duma has become irrelevant. After all, only the Congress can prevent Trump’s rhetoric from succeeding and entangling our country in an undesirable war and the loss of Constitutional governance at home.
To be clear, my argument is not a partisan one. Regardless of political party or ideology, Americans have the right to witness important issues like crime and drugs debated in an open and fair forum. What Trump is doing, however, is a far cry from that. Rather than encouraging constructive deliberation, he is using a rhetorical cudgel to acquire more power — something reminiscent of what authoritarian dictators do to quell dissent.
The time has come to stop this slippery slope to autocracy, restoring our democracy and reaffirming the core values upon which our country was built and persevered. While this is a precarious moment in the country’s history, where the stakes are high, I am hopeful that this great experiment can and will survive. I have great faith in the American people and the institutions of government.
