Painting of Edmund Burke, Studio of Joshua Reynolds (1767-69). National Portrait Gallery

The new/revised/gutted/take your pick health care plan that will probably always be known as Obamacare has been criticized by lots of folks for lots of different reasons, but it all boils down to this: It will wind up hurting the people who are key to President Donald J. Trump’s base, the working poor, along with the disabled, the garden-variety poor and older citizens.

It’s yet another example of the cruelty that is the order of the day in the United States and extends even to the powerful. Where does the president get off accusing former President Barack Obama – as honorable a man as there is – of “tapping” him without any proof? (People who spend a lot of time tweeting and posting really need to learn spelling and grammar. But then, research skills might help as well.)

And why is the response of others to these Trumped-up charges, “Hey, not my job”?

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” Edmund Burke said.

He was an 18th-century, Irish-born member of Parliament who is considered the founder of modern conservatism. But he supported the American Revolution and defended the Roman Catholic Church in his native Ireland and Revolutionary France.

You have to wonder what this pragmatic, “compassionate conservative” – remember that phrase? – would’ve made of Trump.