Well, silly me, I must be some kind of a dolt. You see, when Barack Obama was elected, I thought perhaps we’d emerged from our long nightmare, and that reason and civility might return to the public discourse. I hoped I might be able to cease apologizing for being an American, and that my country and government and fellow citizens might no longer be the laughing stock of the known universe.
What was I thinking? For example, the recent debates over health care reform have proven me wrong, so wrong. That alone would be enough to dash my hopes, but there’s something else (and I’m not referring to “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” Gov. Mark Sanford).
I’m talking about the so-called “Birther Movement”. You know, the wingnuts that are convinced that President Obama wasn’t born in the United States, but in Kenya, and is therefore disqualified from the Presidency. At last count, 53% of voters in Virginia and 54% in North Carolina believe this.
How this nonsense can even be attempted to dignify with the word ‘movement’ astounds me; it’s the sort of ‘movement’ I’d think only comes out of a person’s backside. It’s apparently being led/propounded by a lawyer from Orange County, California (no surprise there), Orly Taitz. Check her out – she’s the sort of personality that’s normally only encountered in fantasy writing, where the author would be accused of creating a person that couldn’t possibly exist.
If you ask me, this “Birther” idiocy has, at its heart, nothing more than plain old racism. These fanatics can’t stand the thought of a black man occupying their White House. And, having nothing else on which to hammer the President, they’re going for the lowest of the low. They’re seizing on his heritage, and in so doing casting horrible slurs on the memories of two dead women – Obama’s mother and grandmother. Whatever happened to not speaking ill of the dead?
As if that wasn’t enough, a purported birth certificate showing Obama was born in Kenya made the rounds of the Internet, and was denounced by no less than Karl Rove.
You might be able to tell all this outrages me. We have serious issues to contend with here (there’s health care again), and these people are injecting sheer insanity into the public discourse. These people are testing my solid belief in free speech and taking away resources needed to solve our problems.
I guess I’ll go back to making excuses …
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http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/08/12/310350.aspx
http://rawstory.com/blog/2009/08/blogs-birthers-doc-fake/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orly_taitz