Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Why the Birther Movement Endures

A recent article is headlined, "Only 26 per cent of Iowa Republicans believe Obama was born in U.S." I bring this up because of Donald Trump's quest to make the President provide his birth certificate. Now I have long held that "birthers" are no different than the Democrats who claimed that Bush stole the election, or that "Bush lied." There was absolutely no evidence to support those contentions, but they were made for the purpose of deligitimizing the President to prevent him from doing his job.
But I am beginning to think that there may be another explanation: We no longer trust the Main Stream Media, otherwise known as the Press Secretariat for President Obama. For instance, if you go back to the article linked above, it seems as though nearly three quarters of Republicans believe that Obama is foreign born. But if you read the article, you find that 26% also say that they don't know.
The reason they don't know, is that they do not trust the media to be honest. Let's face it, when Sarah Palin was nominated for VP, there were something like 70 investigators sent to Alaska to dig up dirt on her. How many were sent to Princeton or Harvard Law to find out anything about Obama? Do you know anything about his time at those institutions, or even anything about his life that is not in his books? In fact, someone who is an Obama biographer even stated not too long ago that a good portion of his book was just made up. But no one asks him any question about it.
It goes beyond that, from Nancy Pelosi saying that Republicans are going to starve 6 million seniors, or more locally, the radio commercial that says we are all now breathing in arsenic and polluted air since Denny Rehberg voted against the commercials sponsor's pet view. Yet there is no media saying to them, "That is false." Instead, they go running to the Republicans to ask their opinion of the Democrat's talking points, as if they have accepted them at face value.
The Fourth Estate has claimed for themselves the mantle of protecting Democracy by their ever probing and investigating of public figures. While it is good that they do that to the Republicans, it is their absence of the same strict scrutiny for Democrats which shows that they are nothing more than lap dogs for the Democrat Party. Of course Republicans don't believe them when the press announces that Obama is a natural born citizen. They don't believe them on anything else either.
I know that if I had to provide a birth certificate, I would have to make an application to Virginia listing my place and date of birth and they would send me a copy of my birth certificate. But is it really me? Sure I was raised by my parents who told me that is who I was, but I have no proof beyond their assertions. There is no photo of me being born, nor any genetic material tied to the certificate that could be tested to verify it is me. Personally, I have no actual recollection of the event, so I can bring no details to verify that it is me.
But that doesn't mean I am not the person on the birth certificate. But let's face it, the only solution for this to end is for the President to authorize the Governor of Hawaii to release his birth certificate to the public. Oh wait a minute, maybe that won't work.

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