Having received only three comments for my last blog entry with two of them my own, I seriously considered not blogging about this or any other subject.
By now you know that I capitulated, and this blog entry is proof of that capitulation. Many bloggers are blogging tonight about President Obama releasing for public viewing a copy of his long-form birth certificate.
The short form (certification of life birth) should have been sufficient, but this is America after all, home of the frightened and the bigoted.
What we have seen for the past two and a half years from the Birthers, the bottom feeding members of the Tea(2)Party is what
My country, 'tis of me,
Sour land of calumny,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my black fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' loss of pride,
From every mountainside
Let calumny ring!
Orly Taitz, the Birthters' favorite daughter, and chief exponent, was fast tracked for U.S. citizenship after she immigrated to the United States in May 1987. Citizenship was bestowed upon her in 1992, five years after arriving here from Israel. I guess it helps if you're a dentist and a lawyer.
What Taitz learned early on, it seems, is how willing some Americans are to keep blacks in their place, and how she could use this American penchant to believe the worst of blacks to build a reputation on exposing the newly-elected black president as an interloper, and a fraud--one who placed the crown of citizenship upon his brow without the requisite document to prove that he was part of the illustrative many who could. Had Obama not been black, this opportunity for self-aggrandizement would have had to take another turn, delaying Taitz' rise to fame and fortune.
But Taitz knew her adopted country well. She knew that her birtherism claim that the president wasn't born here, would be met with general acceptance, given how willing some Americans are to delegitimize a black man who had the temerity to rise above his station.
Hence the Boyification of President Obama began in earnest. Seeing what the birther claims did for Taitz and others, Donald Trump aspired to be the poster boy for the group, calling on President Obama to deliver, or forever be discredited as a cheat, and a fraud. The certification of live birth wasn't sufficient for Donald and others who wanted to see the president meekly surrender to the demands of his white critics and detractors.
No sooner was the birther claim laid to rest, following the release of the president's birth certificate, that Taitz and Trump (What's with people whose last names begin with "T"!), planted other conspiratorial mines in hopes of doing what they failed to do with the birther claims.
They have the president by the toe, and they won't rest until he hollers. And when he hollers, they still won't let him go, but find another toe to "catch" and persecute, even if they have to attach a bogus toe to the ten he already has.
Now, this whole nation would be well served if Taitz' citizenship was annulled, and she was shipped back to Israel, or to Russia.
8 comments:
BD,
Please don't stop blogging and don't sweat the lack of comments. Believe me, all of us are familiar with the echo chamber effect when blogging, but we gotta keep plugging anyway. You're a writer and that ultimately draws traffic.
BTW, did I ever tell you how much I hate blogger? The reason is that I'm always losing comments and I just lost a lengthy one I just made which is frustrating. Anyway, let me just paraphrase what I said.
Race is an issue here but not the only issue. It's being used to advance an economic agenda by driving a wedge into the electorate. If we think back over the past few months, we've dealt with the black panthers, Shirley Sherrod and the dust up between the T-Party and the NAACP. All of these events were attempts to loosen the racial faults lines and that's been the case since Obama's election.
The objective here is to outrage black folks and use that anger against us and the rest of the electorate. IMO, this is being done to cover the economic theft that occurring right under our noses. Basically, it's a huge diversion.
I have hope though as this may actually backfire on Trump, the birthers and the Tea and republican parties judging from the comments I've seen on the web. People aren't stupid. To be sure, you have a few who are, but mostly people are seeing this for what it is.
One other thing must be said as well. None of this would have any legs were it not for the press. I'm a firm believer that the intellectual level of the people generally rises to the level of discourse one is having. In other words, if there's a desire to have a thoughtful engaged citizenry, then the level of discourse is such that these sorts of things never make their way out of the barn to begin with. The fact that they do speaks volumes about the sort of society that the powers that be want to shape. If you want a compliant non thinking citizenry, then you appeal to the most base emotions and desires. That would include playing on race, sex, vanity or whatever else you can drag up. Behind all of this unseen however, is a definite political and economic agenda and it's the larger picture that I'm referring to. There's much sleight of hand that goes on here in America and these guys are playing the game at least 10 steps ahead of where most of us are at IMHO.
Upon further reflection, Obama probably should have continued ignoring these fools.
One
@Greg: "Please don't stop blogging and don't sweat the lack of comments."
Greg, you have always been a faithful reader and commenter on my blog, and for that I'm immensely grateful.
I will still blog, but just not as often: There're two books, perhaps three, that I must write while there's still time.
I would be remiss not to pass to posterity the information that I've garnered over the years. This is not an ego-driven boast, nor will it be an ego-gratifying endeavor. Each day I'm reminded that I'm leaving something undone, and that I must make haste to complete the task.
"I just lost a lengthy one [post] I just made which is frustrating."
Again, I feel that it's my loss. This is not your first time losing a comment here. I considered migrating to WordPress, but never took the steps to make it happen.
"All of these events were attempts to loosen the racial faults lines and that's been the case since Obama's election."
I can think of nothing more American than Republicans' exploitation of the racial divide, and I can think of nothing more un-American.
Who can say that he loves his country and at the same time sow the seeds of division, by appealing to the hatred, bigotry, and biases within our midst?
"[T]his is being done to cover the economic theft that occurring right under our noses. Basically, it's a huge diversion."
For too long we have left our national survival and prosperity in the hands of politicians who're more interested in their own survival and prosperity than ours.
We need politicians who work for the people with the same dedication and diligence as they do for themselves.
"If you want a compliant non thinking citizenry, then you appeal to the most base emotions and desires. That would include playing on race, sex, vanity or whatever else you can drag up."
The reason why this ruse works so well is that so many of us are predisposed to this kind of "appeal." You can't "appeal" to anything that's not in our nature. Until we Americans mature emotionally and intellectually, we will continue to be subject to this kind of emotional exploitation.
"Upon further reflection, Obama probably should have continued ignoring these fools."
That would have been a preferable course. But I think Obama was looking ahead to 2012, and that many Independents were falling into the Birther trap, to allow the controversy to continue.
When you think about it, Independents are having the biggest impact on Democratic policies, and are the group that Democrats seek to appeal to the most.
Party faithful in the Democrat Party, the base, rarely get much of what they want (They're taken for granted.), and Progressives receive less than the base (They're too far left of Left to be taken seriously.).
Two
One black blogger emotes: “Obama was his own worst enemy with this nonsense [not releasing his long-form birth certificate]. People tend to be overly suspicious, especially when it comes to politicians.”
I wrote:
No one can be more suspicious of politicians than me. Yet, we both know that this was never about Obama’s birth certificate, but his race. Had it not been that, it would have been something else. The Right was dead set on sticking something to Obama in some way or tutter. So let them focus on his birth certificate. He always knew that he could disprove their bogus claims. Better this than some other nonsense. As it is, they’re off to the races on other foolish demands.
I say Obama was clever.
Let me add this on Donald Trump. Trump and others like him are a barometer of where we are politically, and socially. From him and others of his ilk we can take the pulse of the nation.
We know that the Left would love nothing more than to elevate Trump to presidential caliber, to entice him to run as an Independent, hoping that his run would split the Republican vote.
We know, in addition, that some Americans are still languishing in bigotry, and racism, easily led by the nose to think that racial and social issues (gay rights, and abortion) or the major issues of the day.
We know, too, that political ideology "trumps" commonsense, and what's pragmatic, pushing the country in a radical direction to satisfy a radical agenda.
We know, also, that a large part of the populace is not sufficiently engaged politically to know what ails us, or to force those in power to respond appropriately to heal the economic and social wounds with which we've been inflicted.
And those that are engaged are patsies for such inflammatory, but untrue rhetoric as "death panels," "He pals around with terrorists," and we need a greater "free-market" economy as jobs are outsourced, and a Republican-conservative solution of "individual freedom," and a "small government" footprint, while at the same time stopping people from marrying those of their choosing, serving openly in the military, or coming between a doctor and his patient in matters of reproduction.
In the last election, our well informed electorate replaced Democrats and less than stellar Republicans with Tea Party hardliners, changing the power dynamics in the House, and part of the Senate.
We saw this shift take place in state houses and governorships as well.
The question is this: Now that the people have seen, once again, Republicans being Republicans, will they continue to support draconian solutions to our financial and economic woes, or will they support a steady, but more realistic approach to restoring the ailing patient to health again?
>>Trump and others like him are a barometer of where we are politically, and socially. From him and others of his ilk we can take the pulse of the nation.<<
You know what I think? I actually think that Trump and his ilk are a distinct minority in this nation. They just happen to have a large megaphone that makes them appear to be more numerous than they actually are.
There are millions of people who are just disengaged because their circumstances don't allow the luxury of time to even think about this stuff. I think there are others who have disengaged because they've just become political atheists. They've come to the conclusion that the entire system is broken beyond repair and are doing what they can to control their personal circumstances and environment so as to mitigate the impact of it on them. To be honest, I count myself in this latter group.
The unfortunate thing about the large number of disengaged folks is that it suppresses the vote and what would otherwise be a crazy fringe element winds up wielding power in excess of their numbers with a lot of assistance from the press. There is no way that this birther thing, or even the T-party for that matter, could have ever gotten this sort of pub without media cooperation. This bither issue was simply a media creation. They created a fiction and yet everyone has to respond to something that's not real, while that which is can't get addressed.
Fictions don't change realities as far as I'm concerned and that's what I'm interested in dealing with. As long as the national political scene continues to deal in fiction, I think we'll see folks continuing to disengage at various levels.
@Greg: "You know what I think? I actually think that Trump and his ilk are a distinct minority in this nation."
I certainly hope you're right!
If the political and social malaise is as pervasive as you suggest (and I have no reason to believe that it's not), I can think of no better time for people to shake off their usual lethargy than when the economy is running on low.
Government is more sorely needed than ever, if distressed people would have their lot improved, and their finances chugging along as their unemployment insurance move inexorably toward empty.
Excellent dialogue here and I wish I could add to it, but y'all pretty much nailed all the important points. How unbelievably ridiculous this spectacle has become! What a joke this country looks like to the rest of the world thanks to a handful of self-indulgent media moguls.
Greg, you have it down in your understanding of how the "megaphone" of corporate media is meant to keep the underclass distracted and arguing amongst themselves. Our job is to bring the curtains down on this show.
@Ernesto: "Our job is to bring the curtains down on this show."
How do you persuade people to take politics seriously, that policies made at all levels of government have serious ramifications for every aspect of their lives?
Perhaps they'd involved themselves more if they could see the hands of government reaching into their pockets and giving their money to the uber-rich, or in some other way personally impacting their lives.
I'm not sure that this clarity would awaken the sleeping populace and galvanize them into action.
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