For Carib News 9/20/16
The Republican Presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump, after years of perpetuating a hoax that President Obama was not born in the United States, on Friday, September 16 capitulated and confessed that the President was an American citizen. The Congressional Black Caucus called a Press Conference that afternoon to denounce Trump’s demagoguery.
Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus demanded an apology from the Donald. But an apology even if it was forthcoming would be found wanting. What the birther movement and Trump’s involvement does, it provides an insight into the thought-process of the extreme right. Somewhere along the road to Damascus, Trump was converted from a Democrat to a true believer of extremist and racist right-wing unfounded propaganda.
Trump was not the founder of the birther movement. One source of the birther movement began paradoxically with an immigrant born in Moldavia and who moved to Israel before settling in California. It is still a mystery how and why Orly Taitz, a professional dentist and lawyer, became obsessed with the notion that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and his birth certificate and social security number were fraudulent documents.
Orly Taitz went off in her wild excursion from the 2008 primaries when she filed a suit in the courts against California’s Secretary of State that Obama was not eligible to be on the ballot as he was not a natural born American. These lawsuits were summarily dismissed. But the more dismissals rendered by the courts, is the more obstinate Orly Taitz became.
When the lower courts would dismiss her frivolous suits, she would appeal to higher courts and continue the appeal to the Supreme Court. The challenge to Obama began in California but primary challenges were mounted in New Hampshire, Alabama and other states in the South. Eventually on October 3, 2009, Judge Land ordered Orly Taitz to pay a fine of $20,000 for the violation vis-à-vis the Federal Rule 11 of Civil Procedures. Taitz went through her appeal gestations but was forced to pay the fine for her frivolity.
That was not the end of Orly Taitz. This naturalized citizen continued yapping at the heels of an American born President. She embarked on using the Freedom of Information Act to see President Obama’s social security number. Again agencies and courts never succumbed to her buffoonery. When informed that trump had admitted that the President was born in the United States, the true believer “Taitz” argued that the Trump capitulation was based on his quest to win the Presidency.
Another version of the origins of the birther movement was researched and published by Loren Collins in an article titled, “The Secret Origin of the Birthers”. That article was published June 22, 2011 and focused on how right wing websites and blogs were responsible for spreading the absurd notion that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The Free Republic.com, one of its writers, FARS in March, 2008 began peddling the falsehood that Obama was an Arab-American and was not eligible for the Presidency. A compatriot of “FARS”, Allan Peters, with a reputation for vehemently opposed to Muslims, ran with the falsehood on his blog that Obama was born in Kenya. Other right-wing blogs like Freedom Enemies.com made a cotton industry of spreading falsehoods about the 44th President of the United States. These blogs and websites failed to pinpoint any source for their falsehoods and were motivated by their hatred of President Obama and fear of Muslims. These racists had difficulty accepting the fact that an African-American had been elected to the Presidency.
It is clear that Trump picks up and digests a lot of material from Alt Right websites. As he has conducted his candidacy for Presidency, Trump does not process information like someone who is educated and has some knowledge of scientific inquiry. Like Orly taitz, Allan Peters and FARS, Trump became a “true believer” to the falsehood that President Obama was not born in Honolulu. Trump was instrumental in using his celebrity status to injecting this venom into mainstream politics.
The electorate obtained another glimpse of Trump’s intellectual dishonesty when rather than having the courage to state that he was a peddler of falsehoods for years, he concocted another falsehood that it was Hillary Clinton who started the birther rumor and he, the Donald, did the country a favor by “finishing it”. That is another bold face lie and is a reflection of the flawed character of the man who seeks to occupy the White House.
Trump was all over mainstream media making the case that President Obama needed to show to the American public the long form of his birth certificate. Even when the President produced the birth certificate, Trump continued to argue that the birth certificate was not authentic. Even before the birth certificate was produced, Trump claimed that he had sent investigators to Honolulu and “you cannot believe what they are finding”. Another falsehood that has characterized his campaign.
Trump’s maligning of President Obama is the same way he has tried to characterize immigrants as criminals, that all Muslims are terrorists and that in every black neighborhood black people are afraid to walk down the street for fear of being shot.
Trump has created his own reality. What is astounding is that so many in this country have not been able to see that Donald J. Trump is a “con”artist. In regards to the birther movement, he certainly tried in earnest to “con” the American people and when he realized that he had to “fess up” he lacked the intellectual honesty to tell the truth. Black voters have been able to see through Trump and as President Obama has insisted, will vote in huge numbers for Hillary Clinton and keep intact the Obama coalition.
