Posted on 08/12/2009 8:49:07 AM PDT by mlo
The tone and tactics of the Birther movement—those who dispute Barack Obama’s American citizenship and consequently, his legitimacy as America’s 44th president—are eerily familiar. Birthers embody that mixture of “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy” that historian Richard Hofstadter indelibly called the “Paranoid Style in American Politics.”[1]
But before the liberal-left chortles too loudly about the GOP being in thrall to this ragtag group of right-wingers, it would do well to remember its own problems with conspiracy theorists. Truthers and Buffs are the liberal-left’s own variations on Birthers. Truthers, of course, claim that Bush administration neo-conservatives engineered the 9/11 attacks in 2001, while Buffs have long asserted US government complicity in the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy.[2] As Hofstadter rightly noted in this 1964 essay, “[M]ovements of suspicious discontent” are common to both ends of the political spectrum.[3]
[...]
President Obama should follow the lead of his predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, and release more of his personal records.[22] Access to the US government’s files on the assassination was vital to disproving some JFK assassination theories, and the 9/11 Commission report and NIST studies on the World Trade Center attacks have sucked much, though not all, of the air out of the 9/11 Truth Movement.
When it comes to the Paranoid Style, sunshine is the best disinfectant.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtondecoded.com ...
Please please do keep the spotlight on Obama "transparency." It's so fun to watch him keep running away.
No grand conspiracy theory; I cast no aspersions.
Just two questions. Where is the original birth certificate, and what citizenship did he claim in college.
Thats all. Simple as pie. Our most transparent president ever can answer whenever he gets around to it, I suppose.
Once again, few are questioning Resident Soetoro’s US citizenship. They just question whether or not he is a NATURAL BORN citizen, which is a SERIOUS question, especially since he refuses to prove it, and there is a fair bit of evidence showing he was whelped in Kenya.
Well the question is about eligibility, not his college career. So the college records have no relevence.
And the original long form is not required to prove eligibility since the official form Hawaii now uses has the necessary data.
Actually most birthers are perfectly grounded and quite reasonable. Most so-called birthers only insist that Obama provide the actual Birth Certificate (the one which is available in the Hawaiian Archives which would show the name and hospital) not the Certification of Live Birth. The fact is, most birthers think it is quite possible Obama was born in Hawaii as stated, but just want Obama to authorize the release of the Birth Certificate, which despite 100 brown shirt media stories that say otherwise, has not been released.....
Even worse than the person hiding from the question is an entire industry hiding from the question - the press, including Fox and all the talkers.
Not true, because there is no distinction in his case. Obama is not a naturalized citizen so he is either a "natural born" citizen or none at all. If he was born in Hawaii then he is a natural born citizen.
"..., especially since he refuses to prove it, and there is a fair bit of evidence showing he was whelped in Kenya."
There is no evidence that he was born in Kenya.
This is not "grounded and quite reasonable". Obama has released an official state certified Hawaiian birth certificate that is legal for every use that would require a birth certificate. It says he was born in Hawaii.
Says you. Mr Transparency knows why he doesn’t release them.
He doesn’t because he can’t because he dares not.
Better to send out his flacks to muddy the water.
This definition is extremely important and one which will be completely ignored by the left- how convenient!
There was a post from the Chicago Tribune yesterday by their contributor - who by the way has some sort of T/V local interview show. Something like a Mike Danza or Senza. He lumped the birthers in together with the truthers. He gave out the mantra of the "birth certificate" being authentic and widely displayed.
A more apt description they might use for "birthers" is termites. Getting right under their liberal leftist skins.
The guy is absolutely right. Sunshine is the best disinfectant. Now that we understand that, let’s take the long form birth certificate out of the “vault” and into the sunshine. That’s all.
If you haven’t seen this, you should watch it. http://la-gun.com/email/manning/
Funny thing is, I don’t remember the left going after the truthers while GW was still in office.
They were always crazy, toxic crazy. But I don’t remember the Left saying so when it might have been helpful.
Yes.
People who have legitimate concerns that have not been allayed about a constitutional issue in a Presidential election are placed at the exact same level as...
People who think that the President of the United States conspired with our enemies to murder in cold blood 3000 of his fellow Americans in a single day for raw political purposes, with the Vice President actually flying the planes by remote control.
This is precisely why I detest liberalism in all of its forms, and anyone of any political stripe who agrees with them even on this issue at this level.
Anyone who believes these are the same level is being a useful idiot. And we have some here on Free Republic.
Yes.
People who have legitimate concerns that have not been allayed about a constitutional issue in a Presidential election are placed at the exact same level as...
People who think that the President of the United States conspired with our enemies to murder in cold blood 3000 of his fellow Americans in a single day for raw political purposes, with the Vice President actually flying the planes by remote control.
This is precisely why I detest liberalism in all of its forms, and anyone of any political stripe who agrees with them even on this issue at this level.
Anyone who believes these are the same level is being a useful idiot. And we have some here on Free Republic.
Yeah, but WHY? Why release a COLB when the long form is the best evidence. Doesn’t make sense. It isn’t like it costs less to procure one over the other. Just sayin’.
In fact, the MSM has given the Truthers credibility from time to time. But there’s a BIG difference. The “Truthers” believe what they believe despite the debunking of every one of their theories by eye witness testimony, and the experiments of Popular Mechanics, structural and mechanical engineers, and physicists.
“Birthers” have been given no authentic evidence to counter their claims. No long-form vault certificate, just a COLB that has been “verified” by an Obama-sympathetic organization that is not recognized as experts in the science of document authentication.
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