In light of the recent events, it's worthwhile to make a comparison between our current president and the last, starting with two distinct moments on their campaign trails.
Barack Obama: "Where we are met with cynicism and doubt and those that tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people. Yes we can."
Donald Trump: "Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it."
These are just campaign speeches with no real policy implications, but they are intended to send a message.
Obama's message: "I'll work with you to make a better America."
Trump's message: "I'll make a better America."
One president wants you to believe in a cause and presents himself as working with you to achieve it. The other wants you to believe in him. Obama tells you he'll help you with a cause. Trump tells you he is the cause.
Why does this matter now that Trump's president?
Trump just said he won't take responsibility for a failed campaign promise, and that contradicts his own statements on leadership.
Trump said this week he wants to let ACA "fail," but he refuses to own his failure to provide an alternative. Instead of repeating "I alone can fix it," he is refusing to fix the healthcare system. Now he is sending a different message; failing to fulfill a campaign promise with a same-party majority is everyone else's fault, not his.
This should be political suicide. When you present yourself as the savior, you deny yourself the ability to pass the buck to someone else. Trump tweeted in 2013, "Leadership: Whatever happens, you’re responsible. If it doesn’t happen, you’re responsible.” Applying his own reasoning, he's responsible for not fulfilling a campaign promise and has now shot himself in the foot by refusing to take responsibility.
However, if ACA works and improves, he can't take full credit for that because it wasn't his baby. ACA was born during the Obama Administration under the leadership of a president who said, "Yes we can, yes we did" during his farewell address and committed to supporting any healthcare plan that is better than his own.
So far, neither Trump's administration or Congress has presented a plan that anyone can agree on enough to get the necessary votes, not even with a Republican majority. Unless Trump repeals and replaces with something that provides greater healthcare for the United States, all he can do is build on Obama's legacy, despite his efforts to tear it to pieces. If he can't kill Obama's baby, he'll be forced to feed it until it grows into a full-blown adult that will never call Trump its father.
So far, Trump's attempt to kill Obama's legacy has done nothing but strengthen it.
No apologies,
G. Miller
photo credit: Gage Skidmore.