The true America was not the one that celebrated Obama and the multi-hued future he seemed to represent it was the one that viewed that future with trepidation and dismay. That is not who we are.” They expressed their loathing for Obama in a hundred ways, but at its center was the belief that he was not Us-not born here, not a Christian like he claimed, with a worldview “so outside our comprehension,” in Newt Gingrich’s words, that he could only be some sort of alien. In 2008, Democrats took Barack Obama’s victory as an affirmation that America was the kind of country they wanted it to be: multiethnic and multiracial, open and inclusive, forward-looking and forward-thinking.īut right away, Republicans said, “No. The question of who, exactly, we are as a country is something we grapple with in just about every presidential election, though in some elections more than others.
It’s as much a desperate plea as it is an assertion. How many times have you heard that said since Donald Trump became president? Candidates say it.
Supporters of President Donald Trump cheer during a rally in Orlando.
