Treachery

     My friend Harry was in one of his reflective moods. After the server had delivered our beers,
Harry took a long pull on his, gazed at me and said "Why did Judas do it?"
     Now, the thing to know about Harry is this: What you see is not necessarily what you get. On the surface, he's a card. Particularly after he's had a couple of drinks. But Harry also is a reader and a thinker.  Something is always going on inside his head. Every now and then, out of the blue, he'll nail you with a question or a comment.
     "You mean the Judas?" I said, wanting to be sure I caught the right stride for the conversation.
     "Yes," Harry said. "The Bible says he got 30 pieces of silver. Not chump change back then. It might have been as much as four months' wages for the average guy, depending on which specific coins were used. But like they say, money is only a way of keeping score. It measures how much each side wants the deal, and how they size each other up. How eager is the buyer? How eager is the seller? And does each have a clear idea of what they're trading? The authorities were buying information. But Judas was actually selling himself -- his person-hood. From the way the story ends, I guess he decided he sold too cheap."
     Harry took another pull on his beer and asked, "Do you know much about Benedict Arnold?"
     "No," I said. "Sounds like you've been reading up."
     "I have," Harry said. "He was quite a big soldier for the American side. Very brave. Won some important battles. But he was kind of a prick, and people tended not to like him much. He thought he wasn't getting proper credit for what he did for the American side, so he decided he'd jump over and be a big soldier for the British side."
     "I guess people betray for lots of different reasons," I said.
     "Yes," Harry said, "but there's often a common thread. They're taking sides. They are trying to be in with one group or another.  Odd kind of thinking isn't it? Trying to get on someone's good side by showing that you can't be trusted."
     "Yes, I said. "Not the way most people think. Why all this talk about betrayal?"
     Harry gave me another long look.
     "Oh," I said. "You're thinking about the president and his groveling to Putin at Helsinki."
     "Yes," Harry said. "The big orange oaf himself."
     "You think he betrayed his country."
     "Well, he's been betraying this country's better interests for a long time. But Helsinki put a special kind of focus on it."
     "You think he's committed treason?"
     "I'm no lawyer, but I think probably he'd have to get caught passing specific secrets or something of that sort."
     "How about impeachment?"
     "Before Helsinki, I'd have guessed not yet.  The impeachment bar is pretty high, and intentionally so. The founders didn't want us tossing out presidents just because we became disenchanted with them. If unpopularity and slick dealing were grounds for impeachment, Abraham Lincoln would have been toast several times over.  But Trump has made it clear that he puts certain personal interests above the obligations of his office. That could affect the midterm elections. If the effect is strong enough,  that could put him in danger of impeachment -- which is, at heart, a political decision. And yes, I do think he deserves it."
     "Why does he do it? Abuse his oath  of office?"
     "Well, if it looks like a duck,  and so forth. He is extraordinarily deferential to Russian interests. He feels beholden to them in some way.  Or under their sway. They have some kind of influence on him. Could be dirty pictures or some such thing. I think it's more likely financial -- that he's hip-deep in financial obligations to the Russians and that's why he won't release his tax returns."
     "What do you think he's up to in the longer term?"
     "Surviving, for starters, and feathering his own nest. The thing to remember about Trump is that he has no real convictions. He is interested in two things: money and personal status.  I read the other day, by the way, that the personal status thing is part of his reason for throwing cold water on the Russia investigation. He can't abide the notion that his election wasn't entirely an endorsement of him personally. Anyhow, he's put himself in a helluva vulnerable spot. Putin can say what he pleases about what passed between them in their private meeting. Trump is such a notorious liar that any denial from him would be suspect among serious-minded people. Putin has positioned himself to lead an American president around by the nose. That imagery could be dangerous to Trump, and it won't go away. We will see a lot of that image on television as elections approach: Trump's foolish grin beside Putin's gimlet eyes."
     "You say it could be dangerous to Trump?" I said. "Could be?"
     "Depends on who bothers to vote," Harry said.