Tired of Being Told "Who We Are"?

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Americans are independent, free-spirited, and strongly opposed to being told what to do or who they are by anyone.  A few years ago this became apparent to the world when President Obama stated that "We are not a Christian nation."  Within minutes of his statement, Christian Americans flooded social media with statements like "This country was founded by Christians,"  "We are too a Christian nation," and "What does he mean telling the world that?  He doesn't know us."  It did not matter that we are a nation of nations, who happens to have been dominated by Christian views-the President told us and the world we are not Christian and received immediate backlash from Christians.

A few years later when the President announced that we had killed Osama bin Laden he again told the nation "who we are".  The President, his cabinet, Seal Team Six - whose name should never have been revealed to the world - and a handful of others had watched the action live.  They had the confirmation, allegedly in hand.  While they celebrated, the President once again told us who we are when he stated, "We do not spike the football.  That is not who we are," in reference to his reasoning for not allowing pictures of bin Laden to be released.   Sorry, Mr. President, as you again tell us "who we are" you seem to forget that we invented spiking the football and yes, we most certainly do that.

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, the President again reminded us of who we are when he told us that we take people from around the world as refuges.  His reference was to cries to not take Syrian refuges after an apparent terrorist attack in France by refuges.  Again, the President seems to forget that we know very well who we are.  Anytime the country has been concerned about a group of people entering, then we have almost always taken special precautions to stop them.  If this is not the case, then why do we even have a Border Patrol Agency?  Once again, we have done this so many times in the past, but the President seems to forget the history as he tells us this is not who we are once more.

Finally, just a few days ago headlines blew up around the world about Trump.  Donald Trump, the leading presidential candidate for the Republican Party said that he suggest we stop all Muslims from entering the country.  Immediately President Obama again pointed out that is not "who we are," many of the current presidential candidates did the same, and some in the Republican party even called for Trump to drop out of the race.  Everyone did it because that is not "who we are."  The first thing that should be noted is that Mr. Trump's full statement included the following "until we can figure out what is going on."  In other words, he said we should halt Muslims from entering the country until we can figure out what is happening - for example how did two radical Muslims slip into the country, obtain firearms (from a friend we learned now) and conduct a terrorist attack with all the current measures in place to stop them from doing just that.  In other words, regardless of where you stand on people entering the country and firearms, the fact is the government failed to keep these two out.  Trump is saying what many Americans have been saying.  He is saying, let's stop a minute and look over the process to see how we can fix it.  He is saying the same thing that President Carter said when he stopped anyone from Iran from entering the country without special approval!  Trump is saying the same thing that many Governors were saying when they said to stop the refuges from coming to their states just within the last month.  He is saying very similar words to what Republicans in Congress were saying when they introduced stronger security measures to screen refuges-a measure rejected by the President.  So what exactly is wrong with what Trump said?  This time everyone from Republicans to Democrats are telling us that the statement that Trump made is "not who we are" yet we have a long history of doing exactly what Mr. Trump is suggesting and just a fews before they were all suggesting almost the same measures!   

The bottom line is our government (Republicans and Democrats) seem very good at telling us "who we are".  It's impossible for them to tell us "who we are" because we are simply a nation too big and too diverse to be any one type of design.  We are gun owners and gun haters.  We are Christians and we are Muslims.  We are Republicans and we are Democrats.  We are pro-abortion and we are anti-abortion.  We are simply put "many".  This is what has made us strong for years.  We have been strong because we are many - imagine how confused the Japanese were in World War II when they could not figure out what the Navajo code Talkers were saying - not everyone was Navajo, but because Navajo is part of who we are, just as Cherokee and all other American Indians are part of who we are, we had a code that the Japanese never understood or translated.  We are many, period.  

It should be interesting to note that despite the Democrats and Republicans bashing Mr. Trump for his statement and telling him that is not who we are-even though it has been many, many times before-Trump rose in the polls again.  Maybe Democrats and Republicans need to stop and figure out that WE are tired of being told "who we are."  At least for now Trump has continued to rise in the polls despite his  refusal to allow political correctness, media bias with partial truths, and those in power to dictate to him how to act.  Trump is not only in the forefront of polls, but has been given standing ovations, growing support, and allowed to capture headlines around the world more than any other Democrat or Republican candidate.  Right now, "who we are" appears to be a nation who wants someone to stop political correctness and stand up to government for us, and Trump seems to have his corner in that group.