Views expressed in opinion columns are the author’s own.

The failure of the American Health Care Act is a triumph for progressives, poor people and everyone who interacts with the American health care system. Liberals are rightly giddy: 24 million people will hold on to their health insurance, Medicaid will remain intact and insurance companies must still cover maternity care. Although “resistance” activism contributed to this win, for the most part, progressives only had to sit back and relax while the Republican party had a nervous breakdown.

The incompetence of the Republican health reform effort ­— from AHCA’s drafting, to its rollout, to President Trump’s legislative strategy — is breathtaking. The intellectual voice of the conservative movement, House Speaker Paul Ryan, fashioned a bill that could only muster a 17 percent approval rating. In an effort to boost AHCA’s popularity with his Republican caucus, Ryan revised the bill so that it would rob health insurance from the same number of people and cost the government more money. Trump, who promised a “terrific” bill guaranteeing universal coverage, regularly asked his advisers, “Is this really a good bill?”

Incompetence has defined this young administration. Trump’s other policy priority, the travel and refugee ban, is tied up in the courts partly because his advisers keep undermining it on television. The president’s energy secretary, Rick Perry, malfunctioned on a presidential debate stage when he forgot he wanted to eliminate the Department of Energy. Today, liberals delight in the incompetence of Trump’s administration. But this ineptitude has a dark side.

One can roughly divide presidential pursuits into three groups. Sometimes, the opposition party wants a president to be actively incompetent when advancing a policy goal. Most Trump priorities thus far have fallen into this group. When Trump’s health care strategy backfired, Democrats and progressives cheered.

But with regard to other presidential duties, everyone demands competence. For example, Democrats and Republicans both want the president to respond competently to a natural disaster. Indeed, there are pursuits opposing party members would want the president to operate competently, even if they disapprove of the president himself. If a Republican president waged an unjustified war, Democrats would likely oppose it. But Democrats wouldn’t want the Republican president to needlessly endanger American soldiers by adopting a foolish battle plan.

Trump hasn’t faced a challenge in either of those two latter categories. When progressives root for executive incompetence, they are rooting for Trump to clumsily tackle partisan priorities. That’s fine. But incompetence in one area infects all others. And very often, it’s those less partisan duties that alter people’s lives.

Take, for example, former President George W. Bush’s response to Hurricane Katrina. His delayed response to the disaster and his administration’s failure to coordinate local recovery efforts was devastating to the people of New Orleans. Of course, no one was rooting for Bush to fail. His team simply lacked competence. Compare that outcome to former President Barack Obama’s response to the Ebola outbreak. After some initial setbacks, Obama appointed an Ebola czar, pushed a multi-billion dollar aid package through Congress and sent 3,000 troops to West Africa. Despite public hysteria, the Obama administration coolly crafted a competent strategy. Due to the efforts of the United States, international organizations and African governments, Ebola has been eradicated in West Africa.

It’s difficult to imagine Trump responding to Ebola or Katrina better than either of our last two presidents. We’ve learned something profound from the first two months of the Trump administration: There are no adults in the room. The effort to pass AHCA was spearheaded by congressional Republicans, the folks who were supposed to reign during Trump’s foolish impulses. Neither Gary Cohn, Trump’s chief economic adviser, nor Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, could competently execute a health care strategy.

The Washington Generals, the longtime foil to the Harlem Globetrotters, play basketball like the Trump administration governs — so clumsily that it’s almost endearing. But if a natural disaster strikes or if Trump has to execute a battle strategy, we will long for the days when we could root for Trump’s incompetence.

Max Foley-Keene is a freshman government and politics major. He can be reached at maxfkcap2016@gmail.com.