Shocker poll from Kos/Research2000 today.
A whopping 58 percent of Republicans either think Barack Obama wasn't born in the US (28 percent) or aren't sure (30 percent). A mere 42 percent think he was.
That means a majority of Republicans polled either don't know about -- or don't believe the seemingly incontrovertible evidence Obama's camp has presented over and over and over that he was born in Hawaii in '61.
I'm not sure why. Participation in the "birther movement" has become part of the political identity of "near fringe" conservatism best identified with Glenn Beck and the tea parties, the kind of conservatives who are more strident than Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter but haven't moved to the "far fringes" of neo-Nazism, Ann Randism, or the KKK.
The fact that 58% of Republicans have at least some sympathy for the birther movement is a sign of the extent to which the GOP has shifted farther to the right in response to the election of Barack Obama.
Thrush wonders when people are going to "start a serious dialog about the Birther movement being a proxy for racism that is unacceptable to articulate in more direct terms?"
But I wonder if there aren't other fundamentals of conservatism at work here. For example, I wonder how Republicans would respond to a question like this:
"Is America still the country you were born in?"
I think a lot of Republicans would answer "no" or "not sure."
That's a real issue as well.
Posts
3 comments:
I think it is simpler than all that. All conspiracy theories have some basic question at the root of them that needs answering. Most of the answers are not available due to time and the death of those who know the answer. We got a live one here. It seems that the basic question here is whether Obama was born in Hawaii or born in Kenya. As you know, the Kenya story has to do with his mother not being able to fly back to Hawaii that late in her term (and she wasn't 19 years old yet) so Obama was born in Kenya and upon arrival in Hawaii a Certificate of Birth was issued … and so goes … the story of another Birth Certificate showing up in Kenya, etc., his grandmother and ….
Well, I like a good conspiracy theory. But this one is more of a challenge to Obama by the Republicans to get Obama to accommodate them on something, anything really. In this case conjure up his original hospital Birth Certificate signed by the doctor in charge of deliver, the one with his baby foot prints on it in ink (at least that's how they used to do it back then in the hospital) not the Certificate of Birth that is posted on the Internet, which does seem to be legit by most recognized authorities anyway. Sure, all this makes a lot of Republicans look stupid but as long as it’s all part of a conspiracy looking stupid has a purpose.
This is one good conspiracy theory in that all those who do not like Obama can get on board. It's like waving a Confederate flag and telling yourself the south really won the Civil War. For some reason I don't find this one as odd as people make it out to be. It’s a win win game for Obama haters. Obama isn't going to not be president and the Republicans really can win the presidency next time, so get on board and just believe it isn't really suppose to be by saying its illegal and a conspiracy. It puts the ball in Obama's court to produce the original hospital Birth Certificate, which he never will. This conspiracy isn't going away any time soon. It's sheer entertainment politics.
What if he really was born in Kenya after all?
Until the hospital birth certificate surfaces, Obama was born in Kenya! This conspiracy theory has a future.
The first nine Presidents of the United States were citizens of The United Kingdom of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland at the time of their birth. They were subjects of the British throne and of the British Parliament. They were citizens of the increasingly vast British Empire.
Unlike those first nine presidents, Barack Obama WAS born in The United States of America:http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html
Post a Comment