Add Obama’s choice not to use phrases like “radical Islamic terrorism” to the list of egregious acts committed by America’s first black president. Or so many Republicans would have us believe.
After mass killings in San Bernardino last December and Orlando this past weekend, some politicians are having a visceral reaction — to the fact that Obama isn’t using their talking point.
Forty-nine people died in gay nightclub massacre in Florida and Republican leaders are demanding action — not to curtail the use of automatic weapons (or encourage more acceptance of the LGBT community), but for the POTUS to call the shooter a radical Islamic terrorist because somehow, that will make it all better.
Free-speech, but you must say this!
This week, Obama rebuked the Republican rhetoric with what the New York Times called “powerful words.”
“That’s how they recruit,” said President Obama. “If we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush, and imply that we are at war with an entire religion, then we are doing the terrorists’ work for them.”
For me, the call for “Obama to say what we want him to say” has nothing to do with terrorists and what to do about them, and everything to do with “we opposed any and every single thing this man says … because he’s black and trying to tell us what to do. While being black!”
Cue Bill Maher’s hilarious take on the Republican’s long-running reaction these last 8 years: “He’s black! Doesn’t anybody else see this! He’s a man black!”
If President Barack Obama started saying what his opponents demand he say, where would it end? How long before they start having further demands about what he should or shouldn’t say?
The opposition party trying to tell the president what and what not to say is a dangerous and slippery slope for any leader, especially the leader of the free world.
He’s not your puppet, he’s the president!
Randy Boyd author 