The above and below videos show the level of derangement among the so-called "birther" movement--people who are convinced that President Barack Obama is not a U.S. citizen and that his birth in Hawaii is a lie. I have a word of advice to the birthers: seek professional help. You are playing with a few cards short of a full deck.
John Avlon, a former Chief Speechwriter for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, describes the Birther movement in a must see Daily Beast article:
The birthers may be Right wingers but crazies exist at both ends of the political spectrum. Who can forget the "truthers" from the Lunatic Left and the anti-government Libertarians who are convinced that 9/11 was a Bush/CIA/Israeli-sponsored plot to grab dictatorial powers? Both these fringe group of crazies are in the same league as the Holocaust deniers and those that claim the moonwalk never happened 40 years ago. (However, the moonwalk denier mindset did produce one of my favorite 1970s "B" movies: Capricorn One, a 1978 film starring James Brolin, Elliott Gould, and O.J. Simpson, Sam Waterson, Telly Savalas, and Brenda Vaccaro, about a faked Mars mission).
A number of organizations (including Factcheck.org, PolitiFact.com, Snopes.com) have looked at the evidence and found that this is all nonsense. So I repeat what I said earlier: seek professional help (of course, if you are a birther or truther or denier of any kind you probably won't because you will believe that the mental health professionals are also part of the conspiracy).
Unfortunately, birthers are starting to gain an audience and support from conservative members of Congress and congressional candidates. Of course conservative talk radio loons like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have been beating this drum since the campaign.
It is sad that our politics have descended to this level. Reasonable people should be able to differ on policy without one side calling the other "socialist" or "communist" or questioning the president's citizenship. Of course, whoever said these crazies were reasonable?
Hat Tip: Political Wire.
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2 comments:
It is absurd. And as you said, there are loonies and conspiracy nuts regardless of political affiliation although extreme partisan-ism appears to be one of the current driving forces. I’m don’t listen to much of the talk radio/TV but once in a while I tune into Michael Medved on my way home from work in lieu of music CD’s. He is conservative but is fair and reasoned for the most part. I do recall him tell a caller that the ‘birther’ issue was silly. The same can be said for those denying the results of the 2000 Presidential Election and the 9/11 conspiracy. It is unfortunate that people who differ on policies refer to name-calling including accusing the other side as wanting to intentionally harm people. What is more unfortunate is that the type of rhetoric appears to be effective in persuading people. And then there’s the irony that if Obama were a Republican, Rush Limbaugh would be against the “birther” movement while having Cindy Sheehan on his show.
msm3567--
I couldn't agree more with everything you said.
Thanks for stopping by.
p.s. one more conspiracy theory you could throw in there: FDR knew about Pearl Harbor & let it happen anyway so he could get the U.S. into war...
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