Last week America witnessed an unprecedented and remarkable lesson in governing. House Republicans were poised to vote on a measure that would have gutted the Office on Congressional Ethics, a watchdog agency which they believed had been overzealous in recent years. Truth be told, many Democrats probably felt the same way about the OCE, but they opposed the majority’s action because that’s what the opposition party does in D.C. They also knew that any attempt to neuter an independent body which protects us against corrupt congressmen wouldn’t play well in the court of public opinion.
For once, House Speaker Paul Ryan agreed with the Dems, and pleaded with his comrades to back off, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. It seemed that nothing or no one could derail this unethical vote about ethics. No one except Trump the Tweeter. The President-elect had campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp”, and the last thing he wanted was to take office under a cloud of partisanship and business-as-usual. And so Mr. Trump took to his Twitter universe and took House Republicans to the woodshed for trying to place OCE under congressional control, a move that would have put the foxes in charge of the hen house. Within minutes of his tweets, the GOP caucus met and decided to cancel the controversial vote.
The liberal media complained that the next president shouldn’t govern by social media, but that’s not what’s really bothering them. Suddenly, mainstream news outlets feel their power slipping away because Donald Trump likes to communicate directly with the people. No longer will the fourth estate be able to filter and spin the president’s words so easily. No longer will they be guaranteed daily press briefings. No longer will the American people have to wait for the evening news to find out what President Trump thinks on any given issue. No longer will 24-hour cable news channels have the market cornered on breaking news.
No doubt Donald Trump will be an unconventional president, but his unconventional way of communicating is not so much revolutionary as it is evolutionary. FDR started bypassing the press as early as 1933, taking his message directly to the people with a series of fireside chats broadcast on the radio. Two decades later, Dwight Eisenhower used the new medium of television to communicate with the American people, including a speech he made in 1958 (the first ever in color) in which he foreshadowed the use of the internet and social media by future Presidents. Said Ike, “In these fast moving times, it is highly important that our nation’s capital should be attached to every single citizen in this country by the very fastest, best kind of communication. Decisions of a government that at one time could tolerate three or four weeks of study, now demand almost instantaneous reaction.”
John Kennedy held regular press conferences because he enjoyed the repartee with reporters, but he also spoke directly to the public with prime time television broadcasts when warranted. Neither Johnson nor Nixon were big fans of television, but both men used the medium when making important announcements about Vietnam or their own retirement. Gerald Ford, meanwhile, went on TV to tell us that he had granted a full pardon to Nixon for any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate scandal. That speech and the pardon came back to haunt Ford, who lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Then, one month after his inauguration, Carter channeled FDR with a series of televised fireside chats in which he tried to appear like a regular guy by wearing a sweater. Said Carter, “This series of talks is one of several steps I will take to keep in close touch with the American people.” But Carter’s lectures on energy and other topics did not ingratiate him with the public, and in 1980 he lost his job to “the great communicator”. Ronald Reagan, a former actor and TV host, was at total ease speaking on camera, and often used television to mobilize public support for his agenda. In that regard he not only bypassed the press, but he bypassed Congress. It was the first time television had been used effectively by a president for the purpose of subtle arm twisting.
Though the government had been developing internet technology since the 1950s, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the internet was widely available to the general public. And in 2007, a young senator from Chicago became the first presidential candidate to harness the power of the internet for reaching donors and voters. In November of 2008, Arianna Huffington remarked, “Were it not for the internet, Barack Obama would not be president.” In 2012, Mr. Obama once again used the internet as a campaign tool, and was re-elected to a second term. And though he has recently criticized Trump for using Twitter, I’ll bet money that if Obama was able to run for a third term, he’d be tweeting now too. Instead it’s Trump who is breaking new ground by using Twitter to shape public policy. And in doing so, he’s merely following in his predecessors’ footsteps by using, as Ike said, the “fastest, best kind of communication” available.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump will continue to tweet with such regularity once he becomes president, but if last week’s congressional fiasco is any indication, then social media could soon become the mainstream media, and the president won’t need a plunger to drain the swamp, he’ll just need an iPhone.
The Commander-in-Tweet
Last week America witnessed an unprecedented and remarkable lesson in governing. House Republicans were poised to vote on a measure that would have gutted the Office on Congressional Ethics, a watchdog agency which they believed had been overzealous in recent years. Truth be told, many Democrats probably felt the same way about the OCE, but they opposed the majority’s action because that’s what the opposition party does in D.C. They also knew that any attempt to neuter an independent body which protects us against corrupt congressmen wouldn’t play well in the court of public opinion.
For once, House Speaker Paul Ryan agreed with the Dems, and pleaded with his comrades to back off, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. It seemed that nothing or no one could derail this unethical vote about ethics. No one except Trump the Tweeter. The President-elect had campaigned on a promise to “drain the swamp”, and the last thing he wanted was to take office under a cloud of partisanship and business-as-usual. And so Mr. Trump took to his Twitter universe and took House Republicans to the woodshed for trying to place OCE under congressional control, a move that would have put the foxes in charge of the hen house. Within minutes of his tweets, the GOP caucus met and decided to cancel the controversial vote.
The liberal media complained that the next president shouldn’t govern by social media, but that’s not what’s really bothering them. Suddenly, mainstream news outlets feel their power slipping away because Donald Trump likes to communicate directly with the people. No longer will the fourth estate be able to filter and spin the president’s words so easily. No longer will they be guaranteed daily press briefings. No longer will the American people have to wait for the evening news to find out what President Trump thinks on any given issue. No longer will 24-hour cable news channels have the market cornered on breaking news.
No doubt Donald Trump will be an unconventional president, but his unconventional way of communicating is not so much revolutionary as it is evolutionary. FDR started bypassing the press as early as 1933, taking his message directly to the people with a series of fireside chats broadcast on the radio. Two decades later, Dwight Eisenhower used the new medium of television to communicate with the American people, including a speech he made in 1958 (the first ever in color) in which he foreshadowed the use of the internet and social media by future Presidents. Said Ike, “In these fast moving times, it is highly important that our nation’s capital should be attached to every single citizen in this country by the very fastest, best kind of communication. Decisions of a government that at one time could tolerate three or four weeks of study, now demand almost instantaneous reaction.”
John Kennedy held regular press conferences because he enjoyed the repartee with reporters, but he also spoke directly to the public with prime time television broadcasts when warranted. Neither Johnson nor Nixon were big fans of television, but both men used the medium when making important announcements about Vietnam or their own retirement. Gerald Ford, meanwhile, went on TV to tell us that he had granted a full pardon to Nixon for any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate scandal. That speech and the pardon came back to haunt Ford, who lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Then, one month after his inauguration, Carter channeled FDR with a series of televised fireside chats in which he tried to appear like a regular guy by wearing a sweater. Said Carter, “This series of talks is one of several steps I will take to keep in close touch with the American people.” But Carter’s lectures on energy and other topics did not ingratiate him with the public, and in 1980 he lost his job to “the great communicator”. Ronald Reagan, a former actor and TV host, was at total ease speaking on camera, and often used television to mobilize public support for his agenda. In that regard he not only bypassed the press, but he bypassed Congress. It was the first time television had been used effectively by a president for the purpose of subtle arm twisting.
Though the government had been developing internet technology since the 1950s, it wasn’t until the late 1990s that the internet was widely available to the general public. And in 2007, a young senator from Chicago became the first presidential candidate to harness the power of the internet for reaching donors and voters. In November of 2008, Arianna Huffington remarked, “Were it not for the internet, Barack Obama would not be president.” In 2012, Mr. Obama once again used the internet as a campaign tool, and was re-elected to a second term. And though he has recently criticized Trump for using Twitter, I’ll bet money that if Obama was able to run for a third term, he’d be tweeting now too. Instead it’s Trump who is breaking new ground by using Twitter to shape public policy. And in doing so, he’s merely following in his predecessors’ footsteps by using, as Ike said, the “fastest, best kind of communication” available.
It remains to be seen whether Mr. Trump will continue to tweet with such regularity once he becomes president, but if last week’s congressional fiasco is any indication, then social media could soon become the mainstream media, and the president won’t need a plunger to drain the swamp, he’ll just need an iPhone.