Is Racism the Driving Force behind all of the Birther/Obama Talk?

I don't dwell on National Politics that often, but I have to give my two cents on this Obama Birther debate

By now, everyone has heard of the birthers, that rabid crop of self-appointed patriots who insist that Barack Hussein Obama is not a legitimate president because he is not really an American citizen. What was once a nasty little rumor in the early days of the presidential race has since evolved into a full-blown conspiracy theory whose proponents, though "viewed as irrelevant by the White House, and as embarrassing by much of the Republican Party,

I would give birthers, those folks behind the oft-debunked claim President Obama was not born in the U.S., credit for being as persistent as they are ignorant. But folks with common sense, a trait birthers not only lack but seem unable to imitate, are helping to make their job easier.

Because really all the Birther movement seeks to do is continue spreading smoke where there was never fire. The longer good folks debunk the claims the further the political winds will spread this smoke.


The movement reminds me of the 9/11 Truthers who sought to not just blame President George W. Bush politically for the September 11 attacks but also convince the world that he was involved in the planning of them. The big difference is Truthers weren’t getting elected to state houses.

The comments made by some of these people are ignorant, cruel and vicious, going so far as to even attack the Obama children. Only a &$@#!%&*())EW@!(* would attack a child out of stupidity and hatred making it uncalled for, not to mention unacceptable.

Yesterday President Obama released his birth certificate, which I hope will end this nonsense that started back during the 2008 campaign by a democrat who was supporting Hillary Clinton. But let's be real, if you expect this to end, you wrong. Now expect these same people like Donald Trump for instance to veer in another direction (asking for Obama's college transcripts), while some will think that its a fake certificate.

We've had the likes of State Rep Mark Hatfield (R-Waycross) sponser a bill that would have required the president to show his birth certificate in order to appear on the ballot here in Georgia in 2012, even gov-elect Nathan Deal was in the birther camp while a member of Congress. Is he satisfied with the certificate released by the W.H. yesterday?

The fact remains that Obama is an American citizen by birth. Those who insist on disputing this fact are hiding behind it in order to camouflage their own bigotry and/or hatred. Shameful behavior such as this only goes to prove that the agendas of the Birthers, Teabaggers and other so called Conservatives are not about policy but about individuals that are not white and/or straight and how those who are different are not acceptable to what they deem a perfect world.

Perhaps it is too obvious to say that the birthers’ insistence on Obama’s illegitimacy is based on racism. Even so, why isn’t this collective racism at the heart of the debate?

After all, Americans have seen what happens when people of color dare to suggest that the country is anything but perfect: they are ruthlessly attacked. Take the rage over Michelle Obama’s remark during the presidential campaign that "for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country," which was treated as unpatriotic hate speech. Or the controversy prompted by Eric Holder’s remark that we are a "nation of cowards" when it comes to race.

From "Barack the Magic Negro" to e-mails depicting watermelons in front of the White House, to a image of Obama as a witch doctor, incidents like these were common during the '08 campaign. as well as people yelling terrorist at Sarah Palin rallies during the presidential campaign. Mainstream Republicans who wish to look respectable may want (some have) distance themselves from this lunatic fringe.

By now it seems everyone has put in their two cents (and then some) about the birthers. But while most media coverage has treated them as incurable wackjobs, hacks, pushing a conspiracy theory and the larger group of Americans who believed 9/11 was an inside job, the truth of Obama’s birth seems to fall into a slightly different category. Like all conspiracy theories, it springs from the fertile soil of collective denial.

A reader of Peanut Politics mentioned in a email i got that unlike all conspiracy theories, it thrives on a deep-rooted, racist belief that a black man with a foreign name could never have won the presidency in the United States through anything other than trickery, deception, or fraud.

The facts are this" PRESDIENT OBAMA IS A US CITIZEN! HE WAS BORN IN HAWAII, NOT KENYA, INDONESIA OR ANY OTHER FOREIGN COUNTRY! HAWAII BECAME PART OF THE US IN 1959, OBAMA WAS BORN IN HONOLULU IN 1961! CASE CLOSED!!!!!!!!!

For those who don't believe it, well, I'll just say a prayer for you when I'm in church on sunday.