Normal Americans are thinking about their paychecks, their job security, their health insurance, the price of goods and services and the safety of their children. Because they always do.
The political class and the media are thinking about race. Because they always do.
So as Donald Trump prepares to take office precisely because he convinced Americans that he is in tune with the same things that are on their minds, you have the astonishing spectacle of Barack Obama during his final overseas tour, warning that he doesn’t want to see America fall under a tribalist nationalism in which everyone sees themselves as members of their group rather than as part of a unified nation.
You first, Mr. President. You first, Democrats. You first, media.
I don’t exactly know how it came to be that the political class is quite so obsessed with race. I can tell you that as a black conservative it gives rise to some interesting questions I’ve heard many, many times.
“How can you . . .?”
“But don’t you think . . .?”
“Doesn’t it bother you that . . .?”
Yep. I’ve heard them all. I’m a Republican because I generally agree with the Republican philosophies on economics, national security and social issues. I think for myself, so I don’t look down at my skin and wonder if I’ve done the wrong thing because my beliefs conflict with what black people are “supposed to think.”
And I find that most of these issues really have very little to do with anyone’s skin color. Tax rates aren’t about skin color. Foreign defense alliances aren’t about skin color. Maintaining roads and bridges isn’t about skin color.
Unless, of course, it’s in your political interests to insist that it is, because everything is about race. And that’s pretty much been the mantra of the left for the past several decades. When they can’t win an argument on substance, they scream racism. And when they’re having trouble defeating a Republican candidate, they manufacture a pretext for calling that person a racist even if any fair and objective assessment of him would suggest that he is not.
That’s what they tried to do to Donald Trump. He may have said a few things that, misrepresented and taken out of context, could be used to make him look like a racist. But anyone who really knows him knows that he doesn’t have even a hint of racism anywhere in his heart. Many people have been led to believe otherwise – which I guess is one of the reasons you’re seeing riots – but the truth is Donald Trump is a good man who loves all the people of this country, and wants to make things better for them.
That said, if Obama is concerned about tribalist nationalism, where does he think it might be coming from? Here’s a thought: Maybe the people who are constantly categorizing people by skin color, nationality and gender have spurred an understandable instinct in people to defend who and what they are.
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When Hillary stood there weeks before the election and accused Trump supporters of being racists, sexists, homophobes and xenophobes, it may have had the effect of inspiring people to not only defend their character but also to defend the group from which they came. They might have never thought about it, or considered it very important, if Democrats and the media weren’t in their faces about it all the time.
Maybe every time there’s a shooting that involves the police, America wouldn’t instinctively see it as a racial story . . . but for the fact that this is always the way the news media presents it. Who keeps bringing race into the conversation? Hmm?
Personally, I don’t see this country descending into tribalism. Because as with the election results themselves, I don’t see the general public taking their cue from the media or the left. But if Obama thinks there’s a danger of this, maybe he should start with a little introspection.
Who keeps telling us all the time that everything is about race, gender and grievance groups? I think it’s your side that’s always doing that, Mr. President. Here’s a thought: Stop it.
