The majority of people do not base their decisions on race. Therefore, should our government make their decisions based on race? Should we/they look for racism around every corner, in every decision and every statement made? How important is race when it comes to the future of our nation?

In the day-to-day lives of most people, race is simply not an issue. Most people do not get up and think about how they can discriminate against someone based on their race. Yes, we deal with the issue of race when we fill out forms asking us to identify ourselves but that is usually one part of a larger picture. Many times these forms collect data on race to track issues of diversity.

Is the collection of this sort of data really important? Some believe that it is crucial to ensure that businesses and schools are diverse. Race is only one aspect of diversity. Within any given race there are numerous differences. Those differences within every race are what make us more alike while also ensuring diversity. There are many similarities between the races such as language, customs, geography, beliefs both religious and political, and history to name but a few. What separates us is simply focusing solely on race.

Our politicians and political commentators have done a fantastic job lately focusing solely on race, even when race is not an issue. We saw race become a part of the presidential election. Democrats accused Republicans of playing on the race issue when making an issue with the changes in welfare and the overall increase in welfare recipients. It even became an issue concerning healthcare and abortion. What liberals fail to understand is that conservatives believe in personal responsibility and limited government. That does not mean that we do not believe in helping those that truly need it. Personal responsibility, limited government and helping those that truly need it have nothing to do with race. Those are basics that no matter your race, you should believe in.

Seeing race in every issue seems to be a reoccurring theme in the liberal universe. I don’t think we have gone a week without Chris Matthews claiming some kind of issue with conservatives and race. Chris Matthews has even gone so far as to claim certain words when used to describe someone who is liberal and of a minority group as being racial code words or as he refers to it as a “dog whistle.” Of course other liberal commentators such as Bill Maher, Al Sharpton, Andrea Mitchell, Toure Neblett, and Rachel Maddow have continued to stoke the perception of overt and covert racism being a major issue in the Republican Party.

Recently, Representative James Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina joined in the race claims when he stated that the word “incompetent” was a racial code word when used to describe U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice. Republican Senators John McCain from Arizona and Lindsey Graham from South Carolina accused Ambassador Rice of being incompetent. When did the word incompetent become racist? The word incompetent as defined by Merriam-Webster means “inadequate to or unsuitable for a particular purpose.” Based on the Merriam-Webster definition, the Republican Senators were correct in their assessment of Ambassador Rice.

Ambassador Rice was not adequately prepared to go on the Sunday morning news shows to discuss the “terrorist” attack in Benghazi. She relied on the inaccurate and incorrect information provided to her by the White House. Even so, with what the average citizen saw on the news with the type of sustained attack and the types of weapons used, and being an insider I am sure that Ambassador Rice was privy to additional information, the average person would agree that an attack on a U.S. embassy on 9/11 was definitely a terrorist attack. Being the highly educated person she is, Susan Rice should have known better.

President Obama has essentially agreed with both Senators McCain and Graham without specifically saying so. President Obama gave a press conference where he said that the Senators should come after him for Ambassador Rice’s comments. The president sent Rice out to deliver the message from the White House. So President Obama is right that we should be questioning him and Representative Clyburn, if he was worth his salt as an elected official, would be taking the president to task for this. Instead he has decided to play the race card in an attempt to distract the American public.

We will never come together as a nation undivided as long as our politicians and political commentators continue to play the “race game.” There will be no pass go and there will be nothing left to collect if we cannot come together. We have to call out the politicians and commentators that simply focus on race and not the real issues. In terms of the terrorist attack in Benghazi, we have not forgotten that there was a real breakdown and four Americans died as a result. The administration needs to come clean as to what all they knew and we need to determine who is accountable. Determining who is responsible for this critical failure is not racist, it is simply the right thing to do so that it does not happen again.