During the Presidential Elections of 2008 and 2012 Hawaii born Barack Obama was excoriated by the Tea-Party Patriots and Republicans that he was disqualified from being President of the United States because according to them he was born in Kenya.
Only it was a lie !!!
Orly Taitz, a California lawyer led the “birther” movement against Obama the Nation’s first black President on no evidence which indicated that Obama was born anywhere but Hawaii.
The birther movement was a modern day version of the slavery era “show me your papers” to which Obama eventually capitulated.
The Birther movement failed to gain enough traction to make a dent in the impression the broader American electorate had of Obama.
The movement sputtered and petered out after President Obama was re-elected in 2012 ‚which to some degree speaks to the motives behind the movement .
At the helm of the birther movement was the former Alaska Governor and one time Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and present Presidential Candidate Donald Trump who reveled in the birther controversy until President Obama made a comic spectacle of him at a White House Correspondence Dinner. Previous to that event the President had labeled the Republican blow-hard a “Carnival-Barker”.
Ironically hardly any of the so-called front-line Republican elected officials spoke out about the inappropriateness of the Birther movement.
Those who didn’t remain silent on racial grounds remained silent because in their minds it was good politics.
For Republicans politics trumps everything, that includes Country, it includes decency as well.
Republicans probably never contemplated this game being played on them and not by a Democrat but one of their own.
This cycle understandably, there is no slithery slimy Orly Taitz leading the cavalry into battle to protect the American Presidency from a Manchurian Obama, whom they all knew was a legitimate American citizen. This time around it’s Trump the Republican front-runner leading the Birther movement against candidate Ted Cruz who was born in Canada to a Welsh-American mother and a Cuban father.
Trump may be a Racist turd who wanted to de-legitimize Barack Obama using race as a dis-qualifier but unfortunately for Cruz and the Republican establishment Trump is also an ego-maniacal self promoter who is unconstrained by party labels.
Donald Trump remained Donald Trump nothing changed about the Trump Republicans embraced when he made those scurrilous attacks on the President’s right to his nationality.
So when the very same Donald Trump lashed out at a surging Ted Cruz in Iowa they were shocked. Many Republicans who were silent or cheering Trump when he attacked Obama’s citizenship were up in arms against Trump while simultaneously downplaying the questions he raised about Ted Cruz’s Canadian birth and citizenship.
Ted Cruz did not renounce his Canadian citizenship until it was expedient for him to do so.
Every Republican interviewed on the issue hurries to brush the issue aside claiming there is nothing there despite the fact that Ted Cruz was born in Canada.
How is it a non-issue when he was born in a foreign country but the guy who was born on American soil was questioned until he self verified?
No Republican believes the birther issue has merit after Trump stepped up his attacks on Cruz after his Iowa defeat.
What a difference Party and color makes in America?
Despite attempts to brush the birther issue under the carpet it is by no means a settled issue because the courts have not ruled on it .
Cruz’s own former Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe calls Cruz a “fair weather originalist” and accused him of “constitutional hypocrisy,”.
Speaking of Cruz to CNN Laurence Tribe said “Ironically, the kind of justices he says he wants are the ones that say he’s not eligible to run for president,” Tribe argued. “This is important because the way this guy plays fast and loose with the Constitution, he’s a fair weather originalist.”
Professor Tribe a constitutional law professor at Harvard students include President Barack Obama, Supreme Court Chief Justices John Roberts and Associate Justice Elena Kagan.
The comments were so riveting and illuminating of Cruz’s hypocrisy that his campaign refused to respond, hoping it would blow over..
These are serious issues the so-called main-stream media should be addressing, yet they just left it there in true CNN fashion and allowed the issue to go away.
Even though the Supreme Court hasn’t ruled on Cruz’s eligibility to be president of the United States Republicans who never miss an opportunity to wrap themselves in the Flag and proclaim their love for the constitution has no problem with Cruz.
Conversely Barack Obama an American born Black man was harangued and excoriated until he had to produce his papers.….
America has a very long way to go despite the rhetoric.….….….