Birther Movement? How About Racist Movement?

It seems appropriate to talk about birth certificates just a day after our President's birthday. More to the point I want to talk about this ridiculous "birther" movement.

First the whole "birther" thing is no movement. It's a manufactured controversy that has been latched onto by desperate Republicans who have run out of ideas to gain support. Like the allegedly "grass-roots" Tea Bag crap this one is spurred by the media and fuels by the Internet.

Birth records for the president are not in question by anyone with any common sense, instead it is a lunatic fringe that is being goaded into action by talk radio hosts and conspiracy theorists. There are even fake documents allegedly from Kenya being circulated that do not hold up to scrutiny, but for the birthers that is not a problem.

In reality the whole birth certificate thing is about race, not country of origin. The birthers are incensed that we have a president who is of mixed race. They are incensed that the majority of the country has put racial hatred and prejudice behind us. They are angry that they no longer control things in this country. They are like petulant kids who don't get their way after being spoiled most of their lives.

Now this small number of spoiled white kids are being used by the GOP to create a fake grass roots movement. They are acting without reason or intellect and seizing on only the bits and pieces of information that can somehow support their silly premise. Somehow in the "birther world" the newspapers in Hawaii had a premonition that a newborn would someday become president, so they printed fake birth announcements 48 years ago. They ignore the birth certificate produced by authorities in Hawaii and widely circulated in the media.

Mostly, they ignore, or suppress the fact that their real outrage is over race, plain and simple. If Obama was white, there would be no birther movement. John McCain was born in Panama. Other than a few news stories, did a McCain Birther Movement spring up? Nope.

Let's call this what it is, a racist movement veiled in a conspiracy theory.