Michael Loftin pictured in his days as the editorial page editor of the Chattanooga Times."For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?"
Has President Trump read "One" Corinthians [14:8]? I have no idea, but the apostle Paul's words aptly describe the danger of his erratic "leadership" as the nation's newest chief executive. And it's not just limited to the GOP's prime issue this year: repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Before his election Trump had never served in the military or in any governmental position. And since he had been a businessman for all of his adult life, it is reasonable to conclude that he entered the White House confident he could run the presidency like a business. To be the nation's CEO, in other words.
What could go wrong? A lot, actually.
Every successful corporate CEO takes a new job with a vision of how to use his experience and leadership to ensure continued corporate profitability. Those who fail at that incur the disapproval of the company's board of directors' and are soon looking for another job.
Similarly, a new president can't translate his goals for the nation into reality without spending the necessary capital to get the help of members of Congress. That requires schmoozing, persuasion and compromise. It also means the willingness to use the power of the presidency to secure congressional cooperation.
For guidance on that role, Trump would have profited from reading the two volumes of Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson that pertain to his years as Senate majority leader and as president. But given Trump's omniscience, he would not have paid attention. For now, the president's failure to achieve the repeal and replacement of Obamacare is a testament of his leadership needs.
After vainly pursuing Obamacare's repeal/replacement for seven years, Republicans believed if they could only win a political trifecta, Obamacare would be history. When voters obliged, the GOP seemed primed for legislative successes. That didn't happen.
Historians will eventually render a judgment on that failure - and the Trump administration's fecklessness. For example, look no further than the House's vote to replace "O'care." Trump invited House Republicans to a Rose Garden love-in to celebrate the vote. Mere weeks later, he threw them under the ambulance, describing their bill as "mean." The Senate later passed its still-born version of R&R, but by then Trump had seemed to have lost interest.
The administration's problem won't turn just on efficiency vs. profitability, as in the flawed notion that government should be run like a business. Trump's problem seems to be that he took office unaware of its job description, unable to set administrative priorities and clueless on goal-setting. He seems to assume that he need only to tell Congress what he wants and then await desired results. That is naive and irresponsible.
The Obamacare debacle doesn't just suggest pessimism that other goals - tax reform, the fiscal 2018 budget and infrastructure - could suffer the same fate as Obamacare R&R. It is a grim illustration of how a lack of leadership leads to chaos. If it continues, voters who last year put their faith in Trump could be cruelly betrayed.
All of this is strengthening the routine partisan battles in Congress that often stall legislative progress. Sen. Bob Corker was quoted in The New York Times on Friday saying what for him was a biting comment on day-to-day issues in Washington.
"Things are starting to feel incoherent," he said, talking about intra-party ill will. "There's just not a lot of progress happening."
If Trump fails to use his "bully pulpit" for effective governing, St. Paul's warning will be prescient indeed - especially if flawed leadership leads to ominous consequences in the administration's alarming relationship with Russia.
Michael Loftin is a former opinion editor of The Chattanooga Times.