Montana Viewpoint: It was good while it lasted

Jim Elliott

For years the United States of America has been a country whose stability the world could count on. We were not perfect, but we were predictable and straightforward. For many years we kept out of international wars. But when we did get involved, we were all in, and when we won, we were magnanimous to our enemies.

After World War II we rebuilt the European and Asian countries of both our allies and our former enemies. This was not completely altruistic, we had reasons that also served America well, chief among them were containing communism and the suppressing the authoritarian regimes of China and the Soviet Union.

We shared democracy with the world and we prospered. We provided the world with something that is essential both to business and diplomacy—stability. We did that because we thought ahead. We planned for the future in foreign relations, we built up our military, because after all, war and the threat of war are also tools of diplomacy. We created sound monetary policy which led to the dollar becoming the standard currency of the world. We kept our word, because trust is as important as stability and predictability. We conducted ourselves accordingto internationally understood protocols which had been developed over centuries of international relationships. We were economically successful, respected, envied, and when necessary, feared.

That was our life for eighty years. Eighty years of relative worldwide peace and prosperity. That was the fruit of following established rules of conduct and deportment, of behaving like adults, of being Americans.

Now, that has all changed. We have a president who governs as he once conducted his
businesses, but what worked for him as a successful businessman does not work so well for the people of a nation.

Where did he learn his technique? Partly from his father, but primarily from the notoriously unscrupulous lawyer Roy Cohn. Cohn was the lawyer who worked for Wisconsin Senator Joe McCarthy who made his name by accusing people in government of being members of the American Communist Party. Some of it was true, much of it was made up, and those who were targeted by false accusation had their lives ruined.

Cohn met Trump when Trump was looking for a lawyer to defend his real estate business against a Department of Justice lawsuit alleging race based rental discrimination in 1973. “What should we do?” Trump asked. Cohn was more than ready: countersue the Justice Department for a $100 million claiming defamation of character. Cohn’s further advice was simple and ruthless. Use the courts as a weapon, the idea is not to win, but to harass, to intimidate, to instill fear in timid people. Furthermore, never apologize, never admit being wrong or being defeated, and always, always smear your opponents. They became fast friends.

Trump has used Cohn’s advice to immense advantage; he has cowed and intimidated hundreds of American politicians both Republican and Democrat. He had caused consternation among our allies—people who did not know how to handle someone who did not play by the rules and decorum which they were used to. But now, they are beginning to understand how to maneuver in the minefields. They are beginning to plan their futures without America.

Trump has now entered into a war with a nation whose leaders are not easily intimidated, and Cohn’s tactics do not seem to be working to help Trump bring the war to a close. But when Trump talks, his intended audience is not the government of Iran, it is the American people he is speaking to, largely because we are the only ones left who have to listen to him.