The third of Sir Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion — Action & Reaction — asserts “that for every action (force) in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction. If object A exerts a force on object B, object B also exerts an equal and opposite force on object A. In other words, forces result from interactions.” (Emphasis in the original: NASA Glenn Research Center)
Parallel dynamic exists in politics: Every action has consequences as well as unintended consequences. Statecraft counsels caution and conservative changes, notwithstanding criticism of career politicians.
Failure to consider other than optimal outcomes when attacking Iran haunts those miscalculating. American consumers purchasing petroleum pay a price.
I opined in March that, if high fuel prices remained at Memorial Day, political polling would reflect reaction.
This column is not for people treating politics as if football: our team against our opponents. There is time and place for an equivalent of religious fervor, but it is delusional to suspend objective analysis of constants that allow political science to be studied as if biology, chemistry, and physics; a social science.
Trigger warning is offered if incapable of pursuing detached analysis: One ought instead watch television channels tantamount to Pravda: Questions follow rather than advocacy and opinion.
The New York Times published an Editorial, on Friday May 15, 2026, entitled “THE IRAN WAR WORSENS AMERICA’S DEMOCRATIC EROSION,” the final paragraphs of which state:
“Over the past two and a half months, Mr. Trump has ordered thousands of strikes against another country and killed its leader. The war has roiled global energy markets and drained American munition stockpiles. Yet despite its scope and stakes, the president continues to show disdain for members of Congress who ask questions about the war and has not even provided a coherent rationale for it.
“Congressional Republicans deserve significant responsibility for the situation. They could and should do much more to constrain him. Congress could pass a resolution expressing its disapproval of the war and hold hearings investigating it, raising the political pressure on the White House. It could refuse to confirm nominees or fund Mr. Trump’s military priorities until he adheres to his constitutional duty to work with the legislature. Otherwise, members of Congress are participating in America’s slide from democracy.”
I would not place $100 on an incumbent Mississippi Congressional delegate’s being defeated in November. That said, innumerable entrenched elected officials find themselves unemployed after their performance becomes unpopular with voters to whom they answer.
Mississippi— and the American South — has a long tradition of treating service in Washington as lifetime tenure. However nothing prevents defeat by a timely challenger — even one seemingly unserious — once voters have had enough.
Mississippi has the pleasure and privilege of its senior Senator’s chairing the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services. I like Senator Wicker personally. Yet at what point — if petroleum prices increase exponentially, American military stockpiles are dangerously depleted, and adventurism abroad becomes politically unpopular — would tenuous support at home imperil Senator Wicker’s electoral future?
No one asks the question. It is not only pertinent but necessary and appropriate.
On the day that the editorial above appeared, the Business section of The New York Times commented upon Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Jerome Powell’s impending departure:
“Mr. Powell’s plain-spoken communication style made him popular across Wall Street, while his frequent trips to Capitol Hill won over lawmakers. He met more than twice as often with senators as his predecessors did, according to an analysis of his calendar.
“Mr. Powell leveraged that support this year when he took on Mr. Trump directly to defend the Fed’s independence. That fight has now come to define Mr. Powell’s legacy.”
The point is that a veritable minefield of issues exists that could create an explosion crippling any one of Mississippi’s delegates to Capitol Hill: Which might prove fatal? Who will be its victim? When?
Please pay close attention to questions in plain sight that no one poses: The law of unintended consequences could prove ruinous.
Jay Wiener is a Northsider
