1) He's right absolutely right when he says the following...
This is the silly season. But this silly story seems to me an indication of something more ominous. The demographics tell the basic story: a black man is president and a large majority of white southerners cannot accept that, even in 2009. They grasp conspiracy theories to wish Obama — and the America he represents — away. Since white southerners comprise an increasing proportion of the 22% of Americans who still describe themselves as Republican, the GOP can neither dismiss the crankery nor move past it. The fringe defines what’s left of the Republican centre.It's what I've been saying for months now: the logical endpoint of the birth fanaticism is that if you honestly believe Barack Obama is illegally the President of the United States and is using that power of that office illegally, then you also have to believe that he must be removed from that office by any means necessary. So, I ask the Birthers, what's your plan for that?The chilling implication is that a large number of Americans believe the president has no right to be in office and has fraudulently manoeuvred himself there.
I hope the secret service is on alert. If we thought racial panic had ended with Obama’s election, the resilience of this story in key parts of the country is a helpful wake-up call.
Which brings us to point The Second:
2) It's pretty meaningless that Sully is right because he basically has no credibility left on conspiracy theories after continually insisting for the better part of the last year that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin's son, even as recently as six weeks ago.
What really, really bothers me is that Sullivan can clearly see the problem with the Birther stupidity involving Obama and the real reason behind it, but continually pursues what's basically the same story going after Sarah Palin.
Now, Sister Sarah is no saint, her recent usage of Trig as a campaign prop yet again last Friday has earned her my personal scorn. I wasn't fond of her before, but at least I thought she meant well, deranged as she was I never thought her to be heartless. Now even that shred of human decency is apparently beyond her grasp.
But then again, it's the Birthers who apparently are hypocrites for the same reason Sullivan is: If Obama's birth credentials are questionable, then it's open season on the woman who would have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency, yes? Questions must be asked, right?
And the truth is both instances are ludicrous examples of the media frenzy going too far. The Obama birther issue is in my book several orders of magnitude worse for the reasons Sullivan gave, it's cover for planting the nasty seeds of a race war, but it does not justify dragging Trig Palin into this mess. I humbly offer the erstwhile Mr. Sullivan this advice:
Leave dragging an innocent child into politics to the experts like Sarah Palin.
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4 comments:
Here is a possible scenario
If Obama's birth credentials are questionable, then it's open season on the woman who would have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency, yes? Questions must be asked, right?
I suppose that depends on what the Constitution says about the alleged offspring of women who fail in their bid for the Vice-Presidency. My impression is that it is silent but perhaps either Zandar or The Stupid (I'm not sure which side the author is on) have a different view.
As to the notion that if Obama is in office illegally clearly an honest Birther ought to shoot him - have you really been saying that for months? Why?
If a person's highest value is respect for the Constitutional process, the logical next step after concluding that Obama was in office illegally would be to agitate for impeachment or a court intervention.
But help us out - did you argue that anyone unhappy with Bush v.Gore would be a hypocrite unless they took a shot at Bush, or were you able to imagine such people respecting the legal and Constitutional processes?
How about folks who thought the Iraq war was illegal? Also hypocrites for not killing Bush and Cheney?
The blog is titled Zandar v The Stupid - which side are you on?
If Obama's birth credentials are questionable, then it's open season on the woman who would have been a heartbeat away from the Presidency, yes? Questions must be asked, right?
That was sarcasm. Both the Birther controversy and the Trig Palin silliness are idiocy that needs to be dropped.
One thing that is not emphasized enough about those angry at Obama 8 months into his 48 month term is that there is a significant generational gap. Remember that the GOP support is strongest in the oldest demographic, and also that younger folk like myself overwhelmingly voted for Obama. We also don't care about 'teh gay' because more of our friends are gay, we don't want to fight a war on drugs because we use them, we aren't blaming others for the break down of the family because over 50% of our parents divorced. And, we grew up in a (mostly) racially integrated America where we never enjoyed the over privilege of whiteness nor feared having our country controlled by some vague "other". We want a country that works, this older generation wants a country that no longer exists.
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