Eugene Robinson: The Nut Job as Political Force

[marmar]

from Truthdig:



The Nut Job as Political Force

Posted on Aug 3, 2009
By Eugene Robinson


If there’s been a more clinically insane political phenomenon in my lifetime than the “birthers,” I’ve missed it. Is this what our national discourse has come to? Sheer paranoid fantasy?

I’m talking about the people who have convinced themselves that Barack Obama was not really born in the United States, and thus is ineligible to be president. Even some commentators who usually are among Obama’s most rabid critics have acknowledged that this idea is simply nuts. Yet it persists, out there on the farthest fringes of the right-wing blogosphere. Oh, and also on CNN, which is usually a little closer to reality.

It has been definitively shown that there is not a scintilla of truth, or even the slightest ambiguity, in the whole “birther” idea. Officials in Hawaii have attested again and again that Obama was, in fact, born in Honolulu on Aug. 4, 1961. When the “birthers” demanded to see his birth certificate, state officials produced it. Journalists have looked at this complete non-story from every angle and concluded that it is, in fact, a complete non-story.

To believe otherwise, it’s necessary to explain the fact that birth announcements heralding the arrival of baby boy Barack Obama ran in two Honolulu newspapers in August 1961. So to be a card-carrying “birther,” you have to believe not only that Hawaiian officials conspired to fabricate records, but also that “they”—not state officials, necessarily, but the generic malevolent “they” who inevitably lurk behind the deepest, darkest conspiracies—somehow managed to alter or replace clippings in yellowing newspaper archives. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090803_the_nut_job_as_political_force/

[Somawas]

1. Being a birther is a lot like being a loyal Bushie.

Think of it this way. In the last eight years, if the New York Times had run photos of GWB in the Rose Garden, his pants around his knees, a goat in very close proximity, in front of him, with a look of shock and agony on it's face, the wingnuts would have denied flatly that the photos actually depicted GWB fucking a goat. They would have scoffed that it was the New York Times. They would have claimed that it was a Photoshop job. They would have pointed out that the genitals of the goat were not obvious or apparent. They would have pointed out that you could not actually see GWB's penis penetrating the goat. On, and on and on.

And yet, the photos would clearly constitute such evidence as would lead a fair mind to the conclusion that GWB had, indeed, fucked a goat.

[Myrina]

2. ... or they would claim that us Libruls photoshopped

W's head onto Bill Clinton's body, and thus its proof that Clinton's even more of a perv than they thought he was, and that W's more of a sainted victim than they thought he was.

:wtf:

[scarface2004]

3. i heard b h obama was really never born!!!

now what do we do?!?!?!

[LeftishBrit]

4. Well, surely from a right-wing nut's point of view, that makes him SACRED!

As far as they're concerned, human lives are only of value until they'e actually born!

[skygazer]

5. I'm partial to this line -

"Trying to analyze the “birther” phenomenon would mean taking it seriously, and taking it seriously would be like arguing about the color of unicorns. "


:rofl:

[Stuckinthebush]

6. There could be a video

of Obama being born, with the doctors and nurses surrounding him in Hawaiian shirts and leis, and ukulele music in the background, with the city of Honolulu clearly present through the window of the hospital room, and his father screaming "Here comes Barack Obama! What a great day here in Hawaii the 50th state of these great United States of America! God bless America!"

The birthers would still not believe it.

They are nut jobs and worse - racists.

[Doctor_J]

7. I don't think the birthers are any crazier than most Repukes

Glen Beck's devotees think Obama is setting up concentration camps. Bachmann's constituents think that the census, after all these years, is suddenly a black helicopter plot. The Limbeciles believe that Obama is a Marxist. And the insHannity folk think that waterboarding isn't torture. 70% of Repukes think that a dim-witted, corrupt, adulterous ignoramus, who lets her 15-year-old daughter have unprotected sex in the house, and almost makes that daughter get married as a campaign stunt, and who doesn't know what countries comprise North America, would be a great president.

All remaining Republicans suffer from some sort of severe mental illness

[Demeter]

8. I agree

And most former GOPpers, too. It isn't that the GOP has suddenly gone batshit crazy, it's that they've let the craziness all hang out.

They don't even pretend to be sane anymore. It must be a truly liberating feeling for those poor, tortured souls. But it still doesn't make them fit for dogcatcher, let alone higher public office.

[AdHocSolver]

9. The Republicans have turned themselves into a sideshow distraction.

The real issues are health care reform, huge deficits, loss of jobs, an economic meltdown.

We must not let them take the public's attention away from solving these critical issues.

The Republicans are lousy comedians who have lost their audience and are doing pratfalls to regain an attention.

If they succeed in preventing solutions to any of these problems from being implemented, then they will successfully alienate the public from the Democrats.

It is long past the time for President Obama to abandon the fiction of finding a "bipartisan" solution to the country's problems. The public can see for themselves that the Republican intention is to prevent any solutions. If Obama continues to cling to this fantasy, he will lose the public's confidence.

Instead, of trying to woo Republicans, it is time for Obama to put pressure on Blue Dog Democrats to get on board with health care reform. It is time for him to abandon the role of conciliator and start playing the role of the "alpha dog".