When it comes to commenting on players kneeling during the national anthem, the President spoke and caused an uproar. The choice to speak reflects the weakness of President Trump's style…Forceful but petty. Petty because who cares? If the NFL is happy with sweating out playing the national anthem and wondering what's next, knees, fists, turning their backs, whatever, and the audience doesn't mind or better yet awaits the display, then why should the President insert himself into the situation? He shouldn’t.
And it is this response, especially in contrast to the deliberately neutral language the President used regarding the Charlottesville melee that creates the root of the President's problem. When his aggressive style is carefully muted and measured concerning symbols of hate, such as those who identify with white supremacists and then he indulges in hostile language towards football players kneeling, that's the disconnect.
This same petty forcefulness is evident in the President's handling of the health insurance problems of Obamacare. Here, the President campaigned on Obamacare's repeal but instead of studying up on the matter left it to Paul Ryan and his ilk, the very failures who passively allowed the Affordable Care Act to get passed without fanfare and then for years talked repeal without effect, and then dusted off some of the Republicans' old ideas and presented them as the "replace" option, which also was correctly rejected.
I don't believe we can blame the President for not knowing what he was getting into with the health insurance crisis of Obamacare, but once in office, since he campaigned on the law's repeal, it was vital that he highlight the direction he was looking for. Instead, crickets, until the Republican proposals were defeated.
This is where the President falls short and should have learned from Obama. Certainly, Obama did a lot wrong with Obamacare, most significantly for most of us, he 'sold' us on Obamacare with many persistent lies. But sell it he did. President Trump delegated the handling of his campaign promise to repeal the law to Republicans who had only proven their inability to do anything positive regarding Obamacare.
Here's where a brief study of his own promises and reality could have been an opportunity for the President:
In accordance with his campaign promise to not have people dying in the street, he could've advocated for the continuation of expanded Medicaid and a second chance for states that rejected that federal gift to the states to pay for more than 90 percent of their costs for newly insured under expanded Medicaid rules.
In accordance with his campaign promise to drain the swamp, President Trump could have asserted that his acceptance of a Republican replacement DEPENDED on a provision that the carve-out de facto exemption for public employees like Congressmen available under Obamacare must be removed and public employees would participate in insurance policies, both in how much they pay for those policies and the coverage they get similar to plans offered to other Americans.
If Trump desired block grants to states, he should have outlined the requirements of those block grants, especially a requirement that such money require that states comply with rules covering pre-existing conditions.
Finally, President Trump has failed miserably to remember why he won--He was more moderate than the nutty rightists who had produced a pathetic weakening of the Republican Party and he was pro-voter, acknowledging that he represented citizens and he was not choosing, as the Democrat extremists were a view of a "new" America that required older Americans, white Americans, male Americans to wake up every morning and engage in self-flagellation and apology in order to pacify the many and deep resentments of varied segments of our population. Instead, unfortunately, the President has made "nice" with the very elements of his own party that rejected him to begin with and that still reject him today and that more importantly have been rejected by the American people for a decade.
President Trump is 25 percent done with his job and must now regain ground. When it comes to health insurance reform, maybe it's dead but he should NOT compromise on the moderation that he promised in favor of the extremism on both sides.
