I want an angry president

I want an angry president. I want a president who, upon seeing injustice, is so angry he cannot help but respond to that injustice both in word and deed.

Last week, the nation witnessed a heinous terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, and every one of us still aches. Some ache more than others. Some who have watched the details unfold are directly affected. Among them are those who barely escaped with their lives, those who lost loved ones, those who are recovering in hospitals.

The lost lives and broken families are enough to cause us all to weep, and we do. But when the weeping passes, we still need a plan. We're in a war, and it's not going away -- because those who have waged war are committed to our destruction. This battle demands a commander. I want a commander-in-chief with a victory plan. I want a commander who is so intent on victory that he has identified the enemy, called it out and is actively engaged in defeating it.

I want a commander who gets angrier at the enemy than at his own people, Donald Trump and talk radio. Sadly, America doesn't have that. I did see an angry commander address the terrorist attack, but I saw misplaced anger. I saw a commander who pointed his fingers at the very people who have been affected by injustice -- the victims, the country under siege. I saw a commander who should have been comforting and reassuring, but chose instead to politicize.

This isn't what I want in a commander. It isn't what we need.

I'm used to ultra-partisanship from the top. Not much surprises or disappoints me anymore; politics-as-usual is just that: usual. But what I saw in the speech days after the deadliest attack on American soil since 9-11 was both disappointing and embarrassing. It was a new low. I listened in disbelief to what could only be described as the scolding of Americans. We were taken to the woodshed.

And for what?

Well, there's this: How dare we actually expect a commander to call the enemy by name? Instead of identifying the enemy, our leader lectured us on why it's ridiculous to expect the commander to identify the enemy. We were chided and mocked and made to look like idiots. In the time it took to do so, the commander could have simply called it what it is. But he won't call radical Islam "radical Islam." He'd rather demean those who believe that calling out the enemy is a prerequisite to defeating it.

He won't call it out because he doesn't believe it. If he believed radical Islam is the enemy, he couldn't help calling it out. The Bible says it best: "Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks." In other words, what is in us will reveal itself in what comes out of us -- in what we say. We speak what we believe. He doesn't speak it because he doesn't believe it. Rather, he castigates the opposition party or criticizes Trump or blames Christians, all while bending over backwards to defend Muslims, thus revealing whom he believes are the real enemies.

Why does he do this?

Again, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. His argument is that words don't equal victory. No one suggests that words are like "magic," as he accused. But words do reveal what we believe, and what we believe is a threat, we will act upon. If we cannot say it, we cannot defeat it because we don't really believe it. I want a president who says it -- because that reveals he believes it, which indicates he will act on it.

I want a president who is more committed to terror control than gun control, one who gets angry thinking about law-abiding citizens unable to protect themselves. I want a president who realizes that terrorists and criminals won't obey new gun laws; they haven't obeyed the old ones. I want a president who gets angry at the thought of dozens of innocent Americans lying in a heap on a bathroom floor at a nightclub while one -- yes, ONE -- armed man terrorizes them for three hours. Dozens of gun-free, unprotected and vulnerable fall to one evil man with a gun -- in a gun-free zone. I want a president who angrily says to terrorists, "Never again," not one who speaks angrily to Americans who simply want a fighting chance and do not deserve to be demonized. I want a president who does not yell at the innocent while refusing to name the guilty -- but is so angry at the enemy, he commits to utterly annihilating it.

Adrienne Ross is an editor, writer, public speaker, online radio show host, former teacher and coach, Southeast Missourian editorial board member, and owner of Adrienne Ross Communications. Reach her at aross@semissourian.com.