Trump’s laziness and aversion to political and legislative grunt work have seriously limited his success as president.
One of the worst aspects of Trump’s presidency has been his failure to engage in the hard and difficult work of leading, governing, and policymaking.
Instead, Trump too often has been content with tweeting and bloviating—as if loudly and boisterously saying something somehow sufficed and nothing more need be done.
But of course, governance involves a lot more than tweeting. It involves crafting public policies and legislation; cajoling lawmakers and the bureaucracy; forming and building political coalitions; working to communicate, explain, and persuade.
And here, Trump has been a dismal failure—mainly because he is too lazy and undisciplined to do the laborious grunt work required of any successful president.
Consider, for instance, the war on Christmas, which I discussed in my previous post. This is a serious cultural problem that transcends politics. However, there are certain things that a conscientious and serious-minded president could do to help make Americans less afraid to explicitly acknowledge Christmas.
For example, the president could issue an executive order explaining in detail that federal agencies have every right to acknowledge Christmas because Christmas is, after all, inscribed into law as a national holiday.
Thus government agencies that have Christmas gatherings or celebrations, or that wish their employees Merry Christmas, are not violating any federal law or policy.
The president, likewise, could give a major speech about the war on Christmas and why that war is antithetical to our history, culture, and political traditions.
He could explain why the Constitution permits public schools to have Christmas concerts and allows schoolchildren to sing Christmas carols.
The president could order his Department of Justice to examine the Constitutional questions involved in these and similar cases and controversies, which have arisen nationwide in recent decades.
Trump Is AWOL. In short, there are things a thoughtful and determined president could do to draw attention to this problem while helping to buck up Americans who have been cowed and intimidated by the militant secularists. Trump, though, has done none of these things.
What Trump has done is tweet—boastfully, impotently, and counterproductively. For example, on Christmas Eve, 2017, Trump tweeted:
Of course, this is a complete lie. Trump has led no such “charge,” and nothing he has done as president has made people more inclined to say “Merry Christmas.” On this issue, as on many others, Trump has been all talk (or tweet) and little or no action.
Unfortunately, Trump’s aversion to the hard and difficult work of leading, governing, and policymaking has not been confined to the war on Christmas. Instead, it has marred his entire presidency and undermined his ability to get things done on myriad issues.
Section 230. In the week before Christmas, for instance, Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). He said that one of the bill’s major shortcomings is that it does not include a provision to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996.
That law, Trump tweeted, “gives unlimited power to big tech companies.” Now, this may or may not be true; but what certainly is true is this:
Trump never made any serious or sustained effort to explain to legislators and the American people why Section 230 is a bad law that must be repealed.
Instead, Trump belatedly demanded that the law be repealed as part of another piece of unrelated legislation (the NDAA). A dictator can get away with that; a democratically elected ruler cannot.
The president’s job is to build public support for legislation through concerted political action. But the sad and lamentable truth is that Trump never has been willing to engage politically in a serious and sustained fashion. He’d much rather vent his spleen on Twitter.
The result: too many missed opportunities; too many initiatives never taken, and too many balls fumbled.
As a result, Americans today are no less afraid to acknowledge Christmas than they were before Trump became president—and Section 230 is no closer to being repealed either.
This is something GOP voters must recognize when, in 2024, they have to choose another presidential nominee. The party cannot afford to nominate someone like Trump—someone too lazy and undisciplined to lead and to govern.
To win politically and legislatively, the party needs a workhorse, not a showhorse or showman.
Feature photo credit: Dave Horsey, Seattle Times cartoonist.