Find Out What’s Driving The Birthers, Deathers And Fringers

What a strange world, from Presidential birth certificate conspiracy theorists to a Congresswoman calling the administration a gangster government. Why are people behaving this way? It is insecurity, find out where it comes from and who is pushing it.

Something is amiss in the fabric of our great country and it is not just a deep recession. There are sign of a deep cultural divide that has some teetering on the edge of paranoia. The ultimate other apparently has landed in out midst and he is plotting to hand over our nation to the enemy like an overripe fruit. Never mind that President Barack Obama was elected by almost 70,000,000 Americans in a resounding victory over Republican John McCain.

Is this some form of mass hypnosis that has taken hold of a sizable portion of the population? No, this is the execution of a plan to exploit the fears of a segment of citizens for political gain and profit. Dog whistles and code words are flying around and some take them to heart. Throwing around terms like socialist, Marxist and gangster government are designed to create fear in the mind of some. The message is that they are coming to get you. This gang led by a President with a Muslim name wants to take your money, freedom and guns.

This type of fear mongering has turned into a cottage industry and those peddling speeches, books and television shows that pander to those feeling have become wealthy. An article titled “Sarah Palin's Earnings Over 9 Months Estimated at $12 Million” by Brian Montopoli April 13, 2010 and published on the CBS News website details Sarah Palin’s earnings from speeches and books over the first 9 months after she resigned as Governor of Alaska. Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and others are also fattening their bank accounts by selling fear to the fearful.

Let’s cut to the chase, some feel they are losing their deserved place in the pecking order of America as the economy changes and demographics shift. It is one of the oldest techniques in the world to sow fear and division to gain power and profit.

President Obama Produces His Birth Certificate And …

The thing that so many have clamored for has finally been produced. President Barack Obama produced his long form birth certificate and the reaction to it was shocking.

One of the first responses was, “He’s still a Muslim.” Of course, this is a hypothetical situation, but is exactly the type of response that would come from those with 10, not 1 reason they don’t support President Obama. Those ingrained attitudes are also exactly the reason President Obama should not show his long form birth certificate.

Barack Hussein Obama is the legitimate President of the United States. He was voted in by the people and sworn in by the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. President Obama met all of the requirements of the Constitution, election commission and every state's requirement for inclusion on ballots for President of the United States.

The other reason the President should not buckle to calls to produce a long form birth certificate is the satisfaction it would provide to the faction pushing the “He is an other” conspiracy theories. The satisfaction that group would get from having the sitting President complying with their requests would be immense. The symbolic damage of President Obama showing his birth certificate would be like he was pulled over, asked for his papers and that image would never go away. The individuals riding on the birther bandwagon are in a world of their own making and President Obama showing his long form birth certificate will not grant him acceptance into that club.  

Now some of these states have bills coming to their legislatures that require a birth certificate as a part of qualification to be included on their ballot for President. It is questionable if any of these measures will become law. An article titled “Ga. latest state to propose "birther"” by the Associated Press March 2, 2011 and published on the CBS News website goes into the details on the measure in Georgia. These laws seems to like rules change imposed in some sports when a player comes along and takes a quantum leap beyond everyone else participating.

This is the state of American politics today with code words, finger pointing and fear mongering as the order of the day.

Bully Politicians Attack Teachers, Public Workers And Single Mothers

 Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels

There seems to be something new that has replaced bullies at school and that is the bully politician. The bully politician seems to be pushing around teachers, firefighters, government workers in general and single mothers.

Governor Scott Walker is kicking workers in public unions even after they have agreed to financial concessions to deal with the state of Wisconsin budget issues. In other corners teachers seem suddenly to be scapegoats for our poor education system results. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee decided to take a round house punch at single mothers.

Is this a new trend to beat up on soft targets? An article titled “Mike Huckabee’s Portman slam marks a week of controversial comments” by Holly Bailey March 4, 2011 and published in Yahoo News goes into some of Governor Huckabee’s controversial comments. The former Presidential candidate made a reference to Oscar winner Natalie Portman as possibly glamorizing unwed motherhood. Single mother have one of the toughest jobs in the country and to get a slap like that was uncalled for.

Governor Scott Walker and others involved in a head-on assault on public labor unions have manage to gain supporters that are somehow painting public employees as a privileged class in society. An article titled “Mitch Daniels on Monday: ‘The elite in American society, really, are government unions’” by Jim Geraghty February 23, 2011 and published in the National Review details how Indiana Governor Jim Daniels stated that government union are the new elite in society. He stated that their pay and benefits are much higher than the public they serve.

Consider the situation and what is missing from the story. Many public workers such as teachers have college degrees as a requirement as do workers in other areas of government service. A word force that contains a large degree of college degree holding individual should have a decent average wage level, but to call public workers elite because they have decent pay, benefits and job security is a stretch. There was a time when decent pay, benefits and job security was a good thing.

Ask public employees about their job security with state and local budget shortfall and looming layoffs. An article titled “Unemployment falls below 9%, government cuts 30,000 jobs” by Steve Chiotakis March 4, 2011 and published on the public radio.org website examines how the overall unemployment rate for February 2011 went below 9% while at the same time 30,000 government workers were laid off. It seems that the tag of elitist is misplaced and maybe it belongs on the people throwing the term around.

Birther Bills Try To Block President Obama From 2012 State Ballots

 President Barack Obama

Here we go again. Multiple states have bills designed to force President Obama and any other Presidential candidate to produce a full birth certificate before being included on those states' ballot. The bills have made their way to state legislature in many states. An article titled “Ga. latest state to propose "birther" bill” by the Associated Press March 2, 2011 and published on the CBS News website goes into the details on the measure in Georgia. According to the article 10 other states have bills pending including Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Connecticut, Maine,  Tennessee and Indiana. Montana previously defeated such a measure.

This is the real start of the 2012 Presidential campaign. Possible Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a statement recently that President Obama’s world view was influenced by his Kenyan upbringing with his Kenyan born father and grandfather. Huckabee later said that he misspoke and meant to say Indonesia instead of Kenya. President Obama grew up in Hawaii and spent four years in Indonesia as a child with his mother and stepfather, but was primarily raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and that is in his biography.

It is more than a coincidence that a legitimate and former Presidential candidate would come out with Obama birth certificate talk before any Republicans officially declare to run for President. It is the first dog whistle to alert a certain voting block that he is with them, just in case he runs.

Wasn’t the birther business supposed to be old news? Well it never went away; it just died down for a while. The efforts to declare President Obama an illegitimate President seems to never end and some just won’t give in on the birth certificate business because those pushing it feel it is a disqualifier for a man they don’t think they can beat in 2012.