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I've been doing a little more reading about the whole "birther" phenomenon, since the topic of President Obama's "natural born citizenship" has been bubbling to the surface in the mainstream media of late. What I've found has done nothing to suck me into the conspiracy theory, and reinforced my notion that the whole controversy is utterly, completely and thoroughly ridiculous.
But what are the motives behind the adherents to this idiotic theory? For a goodly number of them, I'm convinced that racism--whether unconscious or overt--is at the root of most birthers' reasons for believing it. They simply can't believe that a black guy won. Possibly some of them are more xenophobic than racist, and have a problem with the fact that Obama had a father and a step-father who were both foreign, and had non-Christian beliefs. So, I'd guess that a majority of the birthers are some combination of racists, xenophobes and Christian fundamentalists who can not tolerate any hint of non-Christianity.
But what of those who insist that "all they want" is to see the long-form birth certificate? What is on it that they think they're going to find? Some say they want to see the doctor's signature, and some want to see the hospital of birth. Both of those items would be confirmation that Obama really was born in Honolulu (or not), and would say for sure, one way or another, if Obama was a natural born citizen. But is that all they're really after? I suspect that the reason that they really want to see it is for the potential reasons that Obama has not released it.
Of course, Obama may be withholding it for perfectly logical reasons like a) the original is lost, or b) he knows there is no reason to do so, and that confounding these crazies is more fun. They wouldn't likely believe the document was real if they saw it anyway. But there are all kinds of potentially embarrassing things on the document that Obama doesn't want us to see, if you try to speculate about it. I got out my own birth certificate to see what sorts of things I might not want people to know.
I was born in 1966 to teenagers. Mom was still in high school, and Dad was a college freshman. My birth certificate affirms that they were 18 and 19, that they were married, both white, and Dad was a student, and they didn't even ask if Mom had a job. Mom was asyphilitic. Whew! Mom didn't have syphilis! Other information confirms that we lived in the city limits of Columbus, and that we did not live on a farm. Mom didn't have any miscarriages, terminated pregnancies, stillbirths, or other children living or dead. I was delivered by a doctor, not a midwife, D.O. or "other." I was not part of a twin or triplet birth. And my birth certificate was recorded 27 days after I was born.
Now, there is nothing there that I find embarrassing. But if I was a public figure, and my birth certificate did say something, like that Mom and Dad weren't married, or Mom was under age, or had syphilis, or that Dad was a soviet spy rather than a student, I suppose I might want to suppress my "long form" document. So, when you hear "there's simply no other reason he'd withhold it, unless he's not a citizen!" I'm sure you can think of other explanations.
If you can't, I've got a website for you. It's a "birther" debunking site, and it absolutely demolishes the entire, tangled conspiracy theory. The things that birthers keep barking out, like "his grandmother insists Obama was born in Kenya" are absolutely untrue, and are extensively documented. That's another way you can tell the whole theory is bogus. . .they almost never have anything to back up what they're saying, and when they do, they take it out of context.
So, here you go. Go to Obama Conspiracy Theories: The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
But what are the motives behind the adherents to this idiotic theory? For a goodly number of them, I'm convinced that racism--whether unconscious or overt--is at the root of most birthers' reasons for believing it. They simply can't believe that a black guy won. Possibly some of them are more xenophobic than racist, and have a problem with the fact that Obama had a father and a step-father who were both foreign, and had non-Christian beliefs. So, I'd guess that a majority of the birthers are some combination of racists, xenophobes and Christian fundamentalists who can not tolerate any hint of non-Christianity.
But what of those who insist that "all they want" is to see the long-form birth certificate? What is on it that they think they're going to find? Some say they want to see the doctor's signature, and some want to see the hospital of birth. Both of those items would be confirmation that Obama really was born in Honolulu (or not), and would say for sure, one way or another, if Obama was a natural born citizen. But is that all they're really after? I suspect that the reason that they really want to see it is for the potential reasons that Obama has not released it.
Of course, Obama may be withholding it for perfectly logical reasons like a) the original is lost, or b) he knows there is no reason to do so, and that confounding these crazies is more fun. They wouldn't likely believe the document was real if they saw it anyway. But there are all kinds of potentially embarrassing things on the document that Obama doesn't want us to see, if you try to speculate about it. I got out my own birth certificate to see what sorts of things I might not want people to know.
I was born in 1966 to teenagers. Mom was still in high school, and Dad was a college freshman. My birth certificate affirms that they were 18 and 19, that they were married, both white, and Dad was a student, and they didn't even ask if Mom had a job. Mom was asyphilitic. Whew! Mom didn't have syphilis! Other information confirms that we lived in the city limits of Columbus, and that we did not live on a farm. Mom didn't have any miscarriages, terminated pregnancies, stillbirths, or other children living or dead. I was delivered by a doctor, not a midwife, D.O. or "other." I was not part of a twin or triplet birth. And my birth certificate was recorded 27 days after I was born.
Now, there is nothing there that I find embarrassing. But if I was a public figure, and my birth certificate did say something, like that Mom and Dad weren't married, or Mom was under age, or had syphilis, or that Dad was a soviet spy rather than a student, I suppose I might want to suppress my "long form" document. So, when you hear "there's simply no other reason he'd withhold it, unless he's not a citizen!" I'm sure you can think of other explanations.
If you can't, I've got a website for you. It's a "birther" debunking site, and it absolutely demolishes the entire, tangled conspiracy theory. The things that birthers keep barking out, like "his grandmother insists Obama was born in Kenya" are absolutely untrue, and are extensively documented. That's another way you can tell the whole theory is bogus. . .they almost never have anything to back up what they're saying, and when they do, they take it out of context.
So, here you go. Go to Obama Conspiracy Theories: The Light at the End of the Tunnel.
FAIL.
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