Why Obama Isn’t an American
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St. Louis blogger Thomas Knapp has two questions for the “birthers” who believe that Barack Obama is not a “natural born citizen” of the United States. His second is especially pointed: does it really make sense to be exercised about this particular clause of the Constitution if you don’t care about the constitutionally dubious character of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Knapp’s questions are rhetorically effective, but they also lead to more interesting considerations. If the “birthers” are not credible simply as zealous defenders of the Constitution — and they’re not — then where does their desperate desire to believe that Obama isn’t a citizen come from?
Partisanship is the obvious answer. Birthers are not a fringe phenomenon among Republicans, if this poll is to be believed. Fifty-eight percent of Republicans either believe that Obama was not born in the U.S. (28 percent) or are “not sure” (30 percent). But the poll doesn’t give a breakdown by ideology, and I’d bet gold ingots to federal reserve notes that self-identified “conservatives” would score higher than the GOP average in both categories of doubt. In fact, the presence of “conservatives” in the independent and Democratic cohorts probably accounts disproportionately for the birther-belief among those groups, too.
Now, that’s a hypothesis, but if it’s true that conservatives, even more than Republicans, are inclined to believe that Obama isn’t a natural born citizen, why might that be? Perhaps because pseudo-conservatives already know, without the need for any birth certificate, that Obama isn’t a true American. For them, being an American is not only about being a legal citizen, but about a subscribing to certain beliefs. Knowing that Obama is a de facto un-American, it might make sense (for a paranoiac) to suspect that he’s not a de jure American either.
For the movement Right, being an American means 1.) that you support U.S. military actions, no matter how questionable their strategic, moral, or constitutional grounds; 2.) you support capitalism — that is, corporate capitalism as it exists in the U.S. (if you don’t endorse this kind of economics, you must be a socialist or Communist); and 3.) you’re suspicious of Mexicans, Muslims, and non-British Europeans, especially the French, who are socialists and military weaklings. There might be a fourth item on the list: you ought to drive the most fuel-inefficient vehicle possible. (A flag-burning, Prius-driving open-borders communist might be wrong about a lot of things, and an awful human being to boot. But none of that makes him any less of an American.)
National Review has denounced the birthers. But if I’m correct about the roots of birtherdom, NR and other con movement mouthpieces are responsible for creating their mentality in the first place. After all, didn’t the magazine lead off its piece denouncing conservative critics of the Iraq War as “unpatriotic conservatives” with a quote from Thomas Fleming in which he praised the cultural superiority of France? The birthers are just practicing a cruder kind of patriotism-questioning. And their unshakable belief in the face of all evidence that Obama was born somewhere other than Hawaii is not so different from the neoconservative certainty that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling vast quantities of WMD with which to threaten the United States. Maybe Obama’s birth certificate is in Syria?
Accusing other people of un-Americanism has been a right-wing weapon of choice for a very long time — but don’t forget that the House Un-American Activities Committee got its start as the Communist-inspired brown-baiting McCormack-Dickstein Committee. (As Justin Raimondo recently wrote, “Long before [Joseph] McCarthy, there was [Samuel] Dickstein, who … coerced and abused witnesses dragged before his inquisition and ‘lectured them about their moral shortcomings.’”) The Left has played this game to a much greater extent than is usually recognized. There’s a reason Norman Lear calls his group People for the American Way. By implication, you’re un-American if you oppose them. Obviously, the Left defines un-Americanism a little differently from the Right — for progressives, you’re not a true-blue American if you don’t embrace egalitarianism.
Going back a little further, you can trace both the Left’s and the Right’s mania for 100 percent Americanism to the likes of Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. The Ku Klux Klan loved the idea, too. But Obama’s birther critics today don’t dislike him because he’s black. They dislike him because he isn’t an American.
See also: Jesse Walker on birthers, OC Weekly on Orly Taitz, and Philip Jenkins on anti-fascist hysteria.
Filed under: Ideology
“To the “Birthers” and to the king of the birthers, Lou Dobbs; Get a life. How many times do your questions have to be answered and your theories disproven before you shut up and crawl back into whatever hole you came from? Even Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter have stepped up and said how ridiculous of an accusation this is. Obama is a natural-born American citizen with a legitimate Hawaiian birth certificate. He was born in 1961, two years after Hawaii entered the Union. It’s indisputable fact. If you really need to stoop this low for ratings Lou, I feel truly sorry for you. You and your “birthers” are sorely mistaken and misinformed at best and ignorant sore losers at worst. I’m going with the latter.”
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http://thequintessentialgeneralist.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/birthers-bigots-and-budweiser-americas-ridiculous-obsession-with-barack-obama/
He was asked to document his eligibility, and he refused.
The press ignored it while piling atop a plumber. That’s why they’re squealing now. The issue _must_ go away for their narrative to continue.
His own admission of dual-citizenship should have prompted some investigative journalism. Concerns about his odd draft record, his odd passport history, the ability to attend Harvard without financial disclosure… all of these are reasonable questions too.
The birth certificate is one small part of his expunged citizenship history. Beyond that is his own transparency. Beyond that is the collusion of the press.
It’s a big issue. Calling people names won’t make it go away.
I don’t trust ANY politician and almost no one in the media. I’m NOT a Republican but still want two answers.
1) Why can’t we see his long-form? Obama knows that millions of citizens want to see it yet he continues to hide it. What/why is he hiding?
and most disturbingly,
2) Why don’t BHO’s supporters want to know the whole truth, especially since there’s a reward of $100,000 for proof that Obama is a “natural born” citizen of the United States.
OBAMA, STOP HIDING. SHOW US THE LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!!!
[...] McCarthy has a theory about the “birther” craze, particularly its ease of adoption by self-described [...]
Wrong. The COLB Obama made public before the election and which has now been verified as genuine not only by numerous media sources but by the representative of the Republican Governor of Hawaii, is the *only* birth record that the State of Hawaii issues.
Any Hawaiian applying for a passport or needing to supply proof of citizenship for any other reason sends their $15 to the Department of Health Vital Records and they will receive their own Certificate of Live Birth just like President Obama’s. They do not provide the original documents (or photocopies) to anyone — they have been archived since 2001.
Since Obama’s COLB clearly states he was born in Honolulu, he is a natural born American citizen. Period.
Thank you Daniel for a clear-eyed commentary on the difference between cheap divisive jingoism and true American patriotism.
You poor, poor boy. You’ve got such a mess here no one could even begin to deal with it. You are no anarchist. No Tory.
Your attempt at defining the “movement Right” gives you away.
Sure the wars are illegal, they all have been since WWII, and the races all suspect each other. But “corporate capitalism” is what? Crony capitalism…who does business together who don’t “crony”? Whew, you make me swoon goon. I don’t care where he was born…he is out of his mind. Obama is out of his mind. His ideas reek. His arrogance reeks. His desire to, regardless the price, “change” America is unamerican.
This is a joke. Just like the “reward” creationists offer to anyone who proves that evolution is true. Neither is a genuine offer. Any submission of evidence, no matter how compelling, would be rejected as a fraud or not conclusive.
The birthers are classic conspiracy theorists, just like the moon landing hoaxers and the 9/11 truther. It doesn’t matter how much evidence is produced to debunk their lunacy, they will never be convinced that what they believe is nonsense. The COLB is still considered to be a forgery, even though the State Hawaiian government has twice confirmed that it is genuine. (If it was a forgery, then it would have been trivially easy for the Vital Records dept to produce the evidence and charge Obama with fraud). But, of course, to the birthers, that just means that the Hawaiian government is in on the conspiracy, and thus the belief is maintained.
I find the emotionalism of the anti-birthers to be pretty entertaining. Its like you have a deep seated need to believe that no criminal act could ever take place that implicates a politician. How can that be?
I’m a “birther” because I have not seen any evidence he was born here. I’m not paranoid, I’m not a “conservative”, I’m just somebody who knows the evidence of photoshop and did my own analysis, and doesn’t take political hack’s pronouncements as “Evidence”.
I don’t care which way or the other– other than if he wasn’t born in the US, its slightly more interesting.
And I find it very intriguing, if he was born in the US, that he won’t produce any evidence to support it, other than the obviously photoshopped Hawaii certificate.
Actually, that they photoshopped one is the biggest direct evidence that he wasn’t born in the US. But his grandmother lends credence to the theory, and the fact that hawaii didn’t require people to be born in the state to issue certificates like the one they brought forward.
I think that anti-birthers are so emotional about this because they can’t stand the idea of anyone questioning the state.
They may not like obama, but they hate a free thinker even more.
I find the anti-birther movement to be amazingly irrational, while the birther movement seems to be simply asking questions. You could call them irrational if they started rejecting evidence out of hand (like the anti-birthers) ….. but the whole reason there is a birther movement in the first place is that what should be trivial to find evidence apparently doens’t exist.
So, rather than call them names, why don’t you show them to be wrong? You’d think that would be more effective, but namecalling is easier since there isn’t any evidence you can put forward to discredit them.
Only Republicans seem to understand the RULE OF LAW and dumbocrats swallow BO’s lies. We need one of our OWN KIND in the WHITE house! Republicans will crush the dems in 2010 when the lies of BO the kenyan are revealed!
Why is he hiding the long form? How will he explain the Kenyan Cert now released?
The tired “conspiracy theory” label is way over-used while trying to shut people up. Anyone who supports an illegal immigrant president has to be either dumber than dirt or have questionable motives.
Mr. McCarthy,
Politics, including the legal system, could be considered a discussion in which different elements consider policy together, but normally seems more like an arena in which different elements compete for supremacy. Groups like “People for the American Way” exist because liberals wish to defend themselves from conservative legal warfare. Considering that liberals feel that deterrence is necessary, why are you surprised that a liberal group exists, and why do you search for percieved threats in their title?
The inestimable Doghouse Riley had the best description of the ‘birther’ mania that I’ve ever seen:
“Full of shit” doesn’t cover it. The phrase suggests a world in which being full of shit would be contraindicated, where anyone of sound mind would avoid it, in which “shit” would lie in opposition to “gold,” or “delicious snack cakes,” or, metaphorically, Facts, and where one would try one’s damnedest to avoid being filled with shit… That is, it’s a real-world phrase, and Real is not the world these people inhabit, and hasn’t been for a long time.
DR FTW.
I’m gonna have to agree with the people over at Reason on this one (as I often do) a la Jesse Walker- If Lou Dobbs is leading the charge on something, more often than not that something is a big joke.
Joe,
I’ll certainly credit you with dressing up your advocacy of nonsense in a reasonable-looking package. Unlike most birthers you can spell and demonstrate a knowledge of grammar.
But phrasing nonsense in reasonable-sounding language does not make it sense, as Lewis Carroll so ably illustrated.
The ONLY relevant fact is that the State of Hawaii has repeatedly vouched for the fact that Obama was born in Hawaii and provided a document that is accepted as proof of citizenship for all purposes, including, but not limited to obtaining a passport or qualifying for social security benefits. Refusing to accept this proof can only call into the question the motivations of the questioner.
Strongly supporting evidence is provided by the appearance of contemporary birth announcements in two Hawaiian newspapers. Explaining this away requires accepting a fantastic conspiracy going back decades. I don’t know what their policy was in the 1960s, but many newspapers get their birth announcement information directly from the hospitals, but even if it were supplied by the family it’s incredible to think they would be making that up.
Joe, I don’t know what your motivations are, but when someone insists on declaring that 2+2 = 5 despite the proof being plainly i front of them, it is, admittedly very annoying at first. Eventually, though, it becomes amusing and that’s the evolving fate of you birthers. You are becoming akin to the Black Knight of Monty Python’s Holy Grail movie. If you’re not familiar with that, I am sure Google and YouTube can help you out.
The issue is that Obama was never fully vetted before his name was placed on the primary ballot. The COLB on its own does not prove or disprove if Obama was born in Hawaii. That is due to the fact that in the 1960’s anyone could walk in off the street and declare that a child was born at home with no witnesses and get a birth certificate.
Obama has claimed he was born in a specific hospital in Hawaii. There are only three sources that would prove that. One is the original birth certificate that Obama claims is lost. The second is the vault birth records THAT THE STATE OF HAWAII HAS ANNOUNCED THEY ARE HOLDING, but that Obama refuses to sign a release to produce. The third is from the hospital records, but Obama has again refused to sign a release.
So at this point in time the COLB does not confirm that Obama was born in a hospital due to the possibility of fraud on the part of whoever registered Obama. The vault records need to be produced to confirm the birth at the hospital. This is simply a matter of proper and fully vetting of a candidate.
If the vault records confirm the name of the hospital then fine. If, on the other hand they say Obama was born at home with no witnesses it raises the need for further vetting. What evidence is there he was born at home? Why would Obama lie?
Until the vault records are produced legitamate questions remain about the vetting process that should have been answered by the Democratic party before they placed Obama’s name on the ballot.
Actual the birth announcements are secondary evidence not hard to explain. The health department sent a list of all babies registered to the newspapers to be published. So if there was fraud in registering Obama, for example Obama was born in Kenya and was still in Kenya when his grandmother registered him (I am not saying that to create a debate, only as an example of why the vault records need to be produced to confirm Obama’s statement that he was born in a specific hospital).
The vault records will confirm the birth in the hospital as Obama has claimed. That is what is needed as proof on this issue. We all know the State of Hawaii has announced they are holding the records, Obama needs to sign the release and produce them and put an end to this.
I have to disagree with Mr. McCarthy: The color of Obama’s skin has EVERYTHING to do with both the birthers AND the tea party crowd!
I doubt there is a single person on this planet who believes that would happen. If Obama were dumb enough to give the Birthers the proof they ask for, their suspicion and hatred of him would only be redoubled. They would pore over any and every piece of evidence that Obama could provide, and would find the most retarded challenges to his citizenship, his patriotism, his humanity, or his existence on earth.
The most dishonest thing about the Birthers is that they say they have ‘questions’. No, they have certainty. They are certain that a black liberal guy with a funny name cannot be legitimate. They are certain that he’s not part of their country, and should be expelled.
Those wondering how to respond to those escaped inmates of Birther-fun Nation seeking the pleasure of your soapbox, you could do worse than print up laminated, anti-microbial cards bearing the immortal words of Michael Palin’s Interviewer to Graham Chapman’s Raymond Luxury Yacht (pronounced “Throatwobbler Mangrove”):
“You’re a very silly man and I’m not going to interview you.”
Or if, like me, you harbor a pious tearwelling fidelity to the demands of punetic justice, you could just laugh at them patiently and wihout cease, till the echoing radio waves deafen the cosmos.
Or you could style your ripostes after old Slinky commercials:
♫ Who winked our ‘hood
Who knew that he could
In hiding his birthplace from us
Barack, Barack, it’s all a big crock
Everyone knows he’s Kenyan
He’s Kenyan, he’s Kenyan
‘Least that’s what we Birthers all say
He’s Kenyan, He’s Kenyan
He’ll prove we weren’t bonkers some day ♫
The evidence is against eligibility. You must adhere to the Constitution to be elected – this is inarguable. We trusted government and professors to raise leaders, and what have we got ? Instead of condoning treachery, fight it !
“I keep one permanetly adhered to my foot, like a piece of toilet paper! Why can’t that traitorous muslim do the same?!”
This is not a racial issue. If there are questions, i.e., birth certificate,
college transcripts, they do not have to be release to the public.
But a background check by the FBI/CIA could weed out some of the questions. To work in several fields in this country you need a background check, why not the President?
Ronald Reagan must be shifting in his grave.
This is what the Republican Party has been reduced to – wild conspiracy theorists, religious zealots, cranky old men, rambling and barely cogent ex-beauty queens, people consumed with nostalgia for a almost-all-white America, anti-intellectuals, etc. etc.
The death of a once-great political party by it’s own hand.
The Republican Party is commiting suicide right before our eyes…
It is perfectly clear that our Congress knows, you know and I know Obama does not meet the Natural Born clause in our Constitution or he would stop it all and by by producing a valid, signed birth certificate and not some internet picture file. I can’t prove a negative when someone says show me he was not born in Hawaii and that I’m not a racist, but you can’t prove I’m not siting on a yacht in the Bahama’s drinking a cold one either.
The original “Birthers” signed their names to “The Constitution Of The United States Of America”.
DWB: He. Already. DID. It’s the same type of document you would get if you requested a copy of your birth certificate. This “vault copy” stuff is foolishness.
Look y’all stop even trying to use reason with Birthers. They’re angry that a liberal black dude with a funny name got elected president. What makes them even madder is that his mom’s white. So it tittilates them, but at the same time makes them feel all inferior to his super mack daddy father who stole “one of their women”.
At the same time, the nation now seems sorta hostile to them and they don’t get it. To them everything was wonderful when fake manly-man fake cowboy Bush was in power and it made them feel all warm and wet inside. They are too dumb to notice that Obama is continuing most of Bush’s crappy policies, of the “Long War”, bailing out shit banks, and spying on Americans. So they focus on socialists under their beds and the fact that Obama is really a sooper seecret Mooslim Kenyan African Communistikal Spy who will destroy America. Using logic is a waste of logic, time and effort. The only thing you can do with Birthers is enjoy the insanity, analyze what they are displaying about the inner soul of conservatism in the USA, and also note how our ultra-crappy mainstream media loves to put their dumb assses on television.
If you believe that the Hawaiian government bureaucrats who say that they have seen the original long-form birth certificate are lying, why would you believe them if they released it tomorrow? Couldn’t you claim that was also a forgery?
to all of you people who are trying to “kill” Obama’s presidency with idiotic birth certificate crap; regardless if his birth in Hawai’i is legitimate or not, what you really need to be focusing on is Hawai’i’s history, international law, and the ILLEGALITY of Hawai’i being part of the United States. The illegal overthrow and illegal annexation led up to the illegal statehood. Hawai’i is a “fake state”
The whole US political system is grossly dysfunctional. Birthers are one symptom and another symptom is that the Soros and public-employee controlled Dems no longer give a damn about the senseless US warmongering in Iraq and Afghanistan and continued US provocation of Russia. Terminate NATO now!
Push for Proportional Representation in state legislatures(too hard to do in Congress) so we can have the capability to create new grass-roots political counter-elites with no ties to the two vile major parties.
Really-why are so many mindless Dem partisans who are probably dependent on SSI checks commenting on a site for a magazine that calls itself “the American Conservative”?
Don`t make excuses for Obama.For GOD`s sake,how is any one suppose to trust this fool? If he is paying money to hide something ,then there is something wrong with his eligibility, or he wouldn`t hide it.We put Cliton up before the supreme court over a blow job,and you want to let this freako off the hook because hes black?