With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grit and Grace

by Nikki R. Haley

But grateful for all the tools we have that allow us to become a better nation. Our ability to speak freely, to debate,

to worship, and to determine our own destinies—these are things to be grateful for, and to preserve.

An African American Democrat denounced me as not a “real minority” but “a conservative with a tan.” And a white Republican called me a “raghead.”

Republican caucus. It was a group I had belonged to in my years in the legislature, but it had never fully accepted me. The members had ways of doing things, like wastefully spending the taxpayers’ money without putting their names on the record in support of it. I had called them out on that and ended the practice as governor. They hadn’t ever really gotten over it.

Marco and I had both run as Tea Party Republicans in 2010.

Do I even need to bring up how former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal—a friend and respected colleague—had come across in his Republican response?

It was an early lesson for me in exactly who Donald J. Trump is. When he gets kicked—or thinks he’s gotten kicked—he hollers. But he doesn’t take it personally. He can put out a bad tweet about someone on Wednesday and go golfing with that person on Saturday.

We don’t need a different America. All of us need to show less entitlement and more gratitude for the universal principles that have made our nation great and will make it greater in the future.