My friend (no names) has a brother who I like and is a nice smart guy. He writes great articles about plants and botany. She is a liberal and he is a conservative. They recently started a conversation about birtherism I jumped in.
This is a portion of a conversation thread from a different website...
Refering to the following:
Jindal says he would sign Birther Bill.
Her: This is so stupid. Can we just concentrate on the big problems and let this stupidity go away?
Another person: I love Bobby Jindal..A real possible contender for President. If only he were ready to run..darnn(He would kick Obamas ass!)
Her: But the birther thing is just too silly! Can't they just let this drop? All evidence is that he was born in Hawaii, to continue to entertain the idea that he was born in Kenya, is to lose credibility. Just another thing to distract from solving the REAL problems we face in this country.
Brother: ...the problem is that it is not clear where he was born, Personally, I suspect that he was born in Hawaii, but has something on his BC that he is trying to hide. At least his behavior suggests that.
Her: xxBrotherxx, you sound like Haley Barbour: "I don't know why people think what they think," said Barbour. "This is a president that we know less about than any other president in history. But I have no idea why. I accept jus...t totally at face value that he is a Christian. He said so throughout the time he has been in public life. That's good enough for me. Do I think there is a vast right-wing conspiracy? No ma'am." Are you just parroting the Republican talking points?
Me: It is absolutely clear where he was born. He was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. To deny all the evidence is to deny that that you hate him for who is. This is a profoundly racist campaign. And by the way, Jindal would be buried by Obama, as will any other Republican candidate that doesn't re(f)udiate birthism, union busting, and the Ryan kill Medicare program.
Brother: With all due respect xxManoffirexx, I absolutely disagree with what you say. In the first place, why does race matter anyway? I don't care what one's race is. I care about what kind of policies the president supports and what kind of leader he is.... I do care about the president's background. I cared about both Bush's backgrounds and I cared about Clinton's backgrounds. Show me how that has something to do with race. The reason I care is that it helps to to understand from where the president comes from on issues. Nothing more.
Me: Race is THE issue about birtherism, because no other (white) President has ever had their nationality questioned. His is questioned because he is black, well half black, and if it wasn't for that, this wouldn't be an issue. Was Kennedy accused of being born in Ireland? No, he was accused of being Catholic. This is an argument ABOUT him being black. It is part of the litany of attacks against him. It smacks of Roveism. Throw as many accusations onto the wall as you can dream up, and see what sticks. People think he is a Muslim because he is black. They deny his mother's raising of him as a Christian because his black absent father was a black muslim. Despite even Billy Graham saying he is a Christian, Graham's own son this week cast aspersions about him being muslim. Ask 99.97% of African Americans if Birtherism is based on racism and 100% of the 99.97% will say yes. I believe them. Because to them, it is plain as the nose on your face. You can't see it because you are white and conservative and unexposed to all this. I am not calling you a racist, I am saying that you bought into the superficial covering interpretation of nationality instead of the true base of this which is race. ...The South is about race. I have lived there, and I now live there again. The confederacy revisionist movement is about the self denial of racism. These people are now trying to couch Lincoln as a horrible dictator terrorist, because to accept him as the defender of the United States brings focus to slavery and race.
Read the Texas Ordinance of Seccession:
"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.
That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States."
The Texas Ordinance of Secession (February 2, 1861)
This is unquestionably about race, and only race. The Birthers, (ergo the Tea Party, ergo the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is nothing without the South.) can't accept having a BLACK president, so they must subvert and nullify his qualifications for office. To say he is not qualified becasue he is black would bring them to a level with the White Aryan Nation and the KKK. This is not a popular position nor a poltically sucessful one so they must couch it in terms of nationality, so people spend an inordinate amount of time trying to prove a faslehood.
I agree that a president's background is important. Check his history, but don't make it about race. Many Presidents had questionable backgrounds. But they were all white.
Any more comments and I will update.
A final comment:
Sure there are legitimate criticisms or Pres. Obama, I have my own. But Birtherism is racist, about race, and we should confront it every time like a good progressive should, and that is to call the perpetrators of this the out and out down and dirty racists that they are, and the people that buy into it deceived and complicit.