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| Obama |
The
Birther movement refuses to join such absurdities as phrenology and astrology in
the trashcan of history. Birthers
believe Barack Obama was born in Kenya and therefore not qualified to be
president of the United States since the Constitutional requirement for a
president is that the person has to be born in the United States.
That
issue should have dissolved once Obama produced his birth certificate from the
state of Hawaii. However, that didn’t silence the lunatic
fringe. The outcry wasn’t even muted
when fact-checkers pointed out that Sen. John McCain, Obama’s 2008 opponent,
was born in Panama. Or Sen. Ted Cruz, a
2012 and 2016 opponent, was born in Canada.
 |
| Obama birth certificate |
Cruz
went so far as to insist that being born of an American parent anywhere made
the baby American, despite all legal evidence to the contrary. Besides, as Cruz, a birther, never hesitates
to ignore, Obama’s mother is American.
Finally,
the reality that Obama leaves office in January at the end of two terms has
also failed to quell the birther claims.
It seems pretty late in the day to continue such nonsense.
 |
| Trump as a Birther |
The
absurd claim has rattled on because Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump has encouraged it long before he actually ran for office. As a candidate, he didn’t correct a speaker
at a New Hampshire political rally who called Obama a non-American Muslim even
though Obama belongs to a Southern Baptist church and has been Christian his
entire life although his father was Muslim.
After all, Trump has been a major proponent of the Birther movement.
Now,
finally, he has recanted. Obama is really
American. We can all rejoice. However, being Trump, he can’t resist adding
a lie. He claims that Hillary Clinton, his
Democratic opponent for the White House, started the movement. That’s untrue.
According
to Politifact, an independent website that examines political claims: “There is
no record that Clinton herself or anyone within her campaign ever advanced the
charge that Obama was not born in the United States. No journalist who investigated this ever found
a connection to anyone in the Clinton organization.”
 |
| Clinton |
Moreover,
if true, the Trump would be claiming he and Clinton actually agreed on
something. That’s another lie.
So
how did the Birther movement start?
Supposedly, according to a published account, a Clinton volunteer in
Texas, Linda Starr, initiated the rumor and then convinced an attorney to
pursue it. A state Federal Court refused
to hear the argument, and the appeal was rejected by the U.S. Supreme
Court. Clinton was not involved, nor was
any member of her staff.
Of
course, lying is not new for Trump. It
allows him to deflect animosity toward him onto someone else.
The
truth be damned.
An
old journalism adage is that a correction never catches up with the original
story. Trump is counting on that during
his continual effort to ravage the truth.
Long-time
religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious
history with an occasional foray into American culture. He also speaks at
various religious organizations throughout Florida. He holds an ABD in
American Studies from Case Western Reserve University and an M.A. in
communication from Kent State University. You can reach him at
wplazarus@aol.com.
He
is the author of the famed novel The Unauthorized Biography
of Nostradamus as well as The Last Testament of Simon Peter;
The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information;
Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Comparative
Religion for Dummies. His books are available on
Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers. He can also be
followed on Twitter.
In
addition, you can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion, at
http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1
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