Defending The Birthers
Let me start off by making something perfectly clear here. In order to prove one's citizenship, the Federal Government requires "A certified birth certificate has a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar's signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which must be within 1 year of your birth. Please note, some short (abstract) versions of birth certificates may not be acceptable for passport purposes." Hence, in my opinion, anyone who has not seen a copy of President Obama's birth certificate, and was not present to witness his birth, yet professes to know where he was born, either here or abroad, would be a "Birther". However, for this article, I will stick to the strict definition of those who believe he was not born in Hawaii.
I have been chomping on the bit to go at this one ever since Trump brought this up on the view and the racism card was immediately dropped by Whoopi Goldberg when she asked "Is it because he is black?" She went on to claim that nobody ever asks a white President for his Birth Certificate. I could almost let it slide from Whoopi, however, because she doesn't pretend to be a journalist. But today, when I saw this article from Leonard Pitts Jr, who does try to disguise himself as a such, I flew off the handle. I quote his article here.
In recent days, Trump, the reality show impresario and human punch line who has been threatening to run for president, has added himself to their number. For that, he drew a sharp rebuke from Whoopi Goldberg on "The View." When, she demanded, has any white president ever been asked to show his birth certificate?
Let the church say amen. So it is time to call this birther nonsense what it is -- not just claptrap, but profoundly racist claptrap.
And spare me the e-mails where you soliloquize like Hamlet, the back of your hand pressed to your forehead, eyes turned heavenward, as you moan how it is impossible to criticize this president without being accused of racism.
Criticize him to your heart's content. Give him hell over Libya. Blast him about Guantanamo. Knock him silly on health care reform. He is the president; taking abuse is part of his job description.
But this ongoing birther garbage, like the ongoing controversy about his supposed secret Muslim identity, is not about criticism. It is not about what he has done but, rather, what he is.
Like "state's rights," these controversies are a code, a dog whistle for those with ears to hear. They provide euphemistic cover for those who want to express alarm over the raw newness of him, the sweeping demographic changes he represents ("He's black! Oh, my God, they've got the presidency now!") without appearing uncouth enough to do so.
Memo to the pinheads: It doesn't work, folks. Nobody is fooled. You are about as subtle as Lady Gaga.
It is telling that the white candidate who was, in fact, not born in the U.S.A. (Sen. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone) did not face these questions, while the black one who was born in Hawaii has been unable to escape them.
I respond here to the last paragraph in the quote. I would like to ask Mr. Pitts if he is racist himself, or if he is just too damned lazy to make even a half assed attempt at doing his job. I would assume that a man of his stature has some pretty high tech research tools at his disposal. I don't, so I settled for a google search of the term "john mccain natural born citizen", and found 309,000 results. On the first page, we have a pretty interesting piece. It is this Wikipedia entry which links to this Library of Congress page which references S.RES.511 which resulted from an investigation by the Senate Judiciary Committee. During this investigation, there were two interesting quotes.
- Michael Chertoff: "My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen,"
- Senator Leahy: "Because he was born to American citizens, there is no doubt in my mind that Senator McCain is a natural born citizen," said Leahy. "I expect that this will be a unanimous resolution of the Senate."
Notice, it was their opinion that being born to two American citizens results in one being a natural born citizen. For this investigation, Senator McCain was asked for, and provided, a list of records which included his Birth Certificate. The result of the investigation was the recommendation and passage of S.RES.511 which declared John McCain to be a United States Citizen. Interestingly enough, the bill was co-sponsored by none other than then Senator Barack Obama.
While I agree that it would be racist to hold a candidate to a different standard based on his race, the motivation behind Mr. Pitts' article remains unclear to me. Is he so woefully incompetent that he rushes to beat the deadline without checking his facts? Or is it that he wishes for President Obama to be exempted from the same treatment that several white Presidents and Presidential nominees and hopefuls were subjected to? Yes, I said several. Chester A Aurthur, Christopher Schurmann, George Romney, Barry Goldwater, and Lowell Wiker all had to deal with the issue and the scrutiny.
While I'm at it, let me address the ridiculous claims of Bill O'Reilly that somehow 2 birth notices equals one birth certificate. I assume that if I were to visit the White House, at some point they would ask me for some identification. When they accept two newspaper clippings to let me stand in front of the President's desk in the Oval Office, I will accept two newspaper clippings for him to sit behind it. Until then, I feel that the President should have to show at least as much identification to occupy the house as I have to show to visit it.
Once again, let the record show that I make no claims to know where he was born. If I had to wager a bet, however, I would say he was born in Hawaii. What sickens me is the ignorance of those who toss the racist title on anyone who simply asks President Obama to go through the same vetting process that his white counterpart did in the same election.
