Is it really that much of a surprise that one of the primary advocates of the “Obama is not a natural born citizen” theory denies the truth of what happened on 9/11 ?
The plain truth will never mollify a Truther. There’s always a convoluted excuse – some inconsequential discrepancy to seize on, some photographic “evidence” to magnify into a blur of meaningless pixels – that will rationalize irrationality. Palin could produce Trig’s umbilical cord and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Alas, Trutherism thrives on both the left and right. Which brings us to the spate of lawsuits challenging President-elect Barack Obama’s U.S. citizenship. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court considers one of those suits filed by New Jersey citizen Leo Donofrio, who maintains that Obama is not a “natural born citizen” because his father held British citizenship.
There may be a seed of a legitimate constitutional issue to explore here (how is the citizenship requirement enforced for presidential candidates, anyway?) And at least Donofrio concedes that Obama was born in Hawaii. But a dangerously large segment of the birth certificate hunters have lurched into rabid Truther territory. The most prominent crusader against Obama’s American citizenship claim, lawyer Philip Berg (who, not coincidentally, is also a prominent 9/11 Truther), disputes that Obama was born in Hawaii and claims that Obama’s paternal grandmother told him she saw Obama born in Kenya.
Berg and his supporters further assert that the “Certification of Live Birth” produced by Obama was altered or forged. They claim that the contemporaneous birth announcement in a Hawaii newspaper of Obama’s birth is insufficient evidence that he was born there. (Did a fortune-teller place it in the paper knowing he would run for president?). And they accuse anyone who disagrees with them of being part and parcel of the grand plan to install Emperor Obama and usurp the rule of law.
What this means, of course, is that rational argument with these people isn’t really possible.
Evidence means nothing to them, because every piece of evidence produced simply becomes another link in the chain of a grand conspiracy that exists solely in their minds. We’ve seen it happen with the Kennedy Assassinations (both of them), the Challenger Accident in 1986, the 1990-91 Gulf War, the accusations about Bill Clinton during his Presidency, the militia movement of the 1990’s, Y2K, 9/11, and Sarah Palin’s youngest son.
Arguing with these people is pointless, because they are pathologically incapable of listening to opposing arguments without accusing those making them of being liars or part of some supposed conspiracy against a non-existent truth. Just take a look at the comment thread to the post linked above, or this one over at HotAir, and you’ll see what I mean. What’s important is that the rest of us not fall into the trap of thinking that their carefully constructed fantasies have any resemblance to the truth because, as Andrew Sullivan continues to demonstrate, even otherwise rational people can fall for nonsense.
December 7th, 2008 at 11:54 am
This is the most thoughtful and coherent comment I have read on this issue. I wish I had written this comment. This writer goes to he heart of the issue and does it in a very unbiased way.
The Intellectual Redneck
December 9th, 2008 at 8:40 am
[...] I noted last week, these people and the people who believe them aren’t going to be convinced by rational argument… They believe what they believe, and any evidence they are presented with that contradicts what they [...]
December 11th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
To Doug Mataconis:
Instead of arguing with facts, you attack the credibility of your opponent. This is the key tactic used when you have no facts to support your logic.
It is ironic how you declare that we cannot be convinced by rational argument, when you yourself are incapable of providing one.
I hope this didn’t fly over your head, I tried to dumb it down for you.
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:35 pm
It is up to OBAMA to prove that he meets all the necessary requirements to be President. We the American people are asking for this and he can fulfill this need by providing we the people with this document. Just as it is up to us to prove we are eligible to get a drivers license, or get a US passport, or a home/college loan, or to get into college. We do this many times in our lives by providing true an accurate information on ourselves that can easily be further documented and verified. He is hiding something, If you cannot see that then what smart facts can you provide to validate that he meets all the requirements to be a part of all the institutions that he has benefited from so far. Consistency provides one with a view of the true person. Yet he refuses to show any of his documentation, from birth through all the steps of his life. What is really amazing here is that people like you just accept such things without proof. It must be nice to view the world in such a simple manner.
Here are the facts -
Obama refuses to provide the facts
He refuses to provide his birth certificate
He refuses to provide his School Records, etc
He is a fraud! He has backed himself in a corner and by providing this information he will highlight all the mis-information he has been providing these US Institutes for his entire life in order to move ahead. Using false and invalid statements is -FRAUD-