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VOX

(22,976 posts)
83. ABSOLUTELY. Trump is the Grand Wizard of Birtherism.
Mon Sep 3, 2018, 08:07 AM
Sep 2018

More than seven years ago, Trump "introduced" himself onto the political scene with his sleazy, ugly birtherism LIES. He is still obsessed with Obama, and that obsession is rooted in pure, unadulterated racism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/17/us/politics/donald-trump-obama-birther.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FBirther%20Movement&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=18&pgtype=collection
Donald Trump Clung to ‘Birther’ Lie for Years, and Still Isn’t Apologetic
New York Times, 9/16/2016

It was not true in 2011, when Donald J. Trump mischievously began to question President Obama’s birthplace aloud in television interviews. “I’m starting to think that he was not born here,” he said at the time.

It was not true in 2012, when he took to Twitter to declare that “an ‘extremely credible source’” had called his office to inform him that Mr. Obama’s birth certificate was “a fraud.”

It was not true in 2014, when Mr. Trump invited hackers to “please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check ‘place of birth.’”

It was never true, any of it. Mr. Obama’s citizenship was never in question. No credible evidence ever suggested otherwise.

Yet it took Mr. Trump five years of dodging, winking and joking to surrender to reality, finally, on Friday, after a remarkable campaign of relentless deception that tried to undermine the legitimacy of the nation’s first black president.

In fact, it took Mr. Trump much longer than that: Mr. Obama released his short-form birth certificate from the Hawaii Department of Health in 2008. Most of the world moved on.

But not Mr. Trump.

He nurtured the conspiracy like a poisonous flower, watering and feeding it with an ardor that still baffles and embarrasses many around him.

Mr. Trump called up like-minded sowers of the same corrosive rumor, asking them for advice on how to take a falsehood and make it mainstream in 2011, as he weighed his own run for the White House.

“What can we do to get to the bottom of this?” Mr. Trump asked Joseph Farah, an author who has long labored on the fringes of political life. “What can we do to turn the tide?”

What he could do — and what he did do — was talk about it, uninhibitedly, on social media, where dark rumors flourish in 140-character bursts and, inevitably, find a home with those who have no need for facts and whose suspicions can never be allayed.

And he mused about it on television, where bright lights and sparse editing ensure that millions can hear falsehoods unchallenged by fact-checking.

“Why doesn’t he show his birth certificate?” Mr. Trump asked on ABC’s “The View.” “I want to see his birth certificate,” he told Fox News’s “On the Record.”

And so it went.

The essential question — Why promote a lie? — may be unanswerable. Was it sport? Was it his lifelong quest to court media attention? Was it racism? Was it the cynical start of his eventual campaign for president?

It might not matter. He kept doing it, even as his most senior aides assured the public that he had long since abandoned the fallacy.

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He had not. He was disingenuous until the very end, telling a Washington Post reporter just 72 hours before that he was unready to concede the president’s place of birth. But he treated the weighty topic, as he does so much else, like a television cliffhanger, promising a major declaration on Friday.

And then, around 11 a.m. Friday in Washington, he gave up the lie. But he conjured up a bizarre new deception, congratulating himself for putting to rest the doubts about Mr. Obama that he had fanned since 2011. “I finished it,’’ he declared, unapologetically. “President Obama was born in the United States — period.’’

Surrounded by, and in many ways shielded by, decorated veterans in his new Washington hotel, he could not resist indulging in another falsehood — that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, had started the so-called birther movement. She did not.

Much has been made of Mr. Trump’s casual elasticity with the truth; he has exhausted an army of fact-checkers with his mischaracterizations, exaggerations and fabrications. But this lie was different from the start, an insidious, calculated calumny that sought to undo the embrace of an African-American president by the 69 million voters who elected him in 2008.

In the end, it seemed, Mr. Trump’s plot to diminish Mr. Obama did not succeed. On Friday, the president of the United States seemed much bigger.

“I was pretty confident about where I was born,” Mr. Obama said from the White House, a wry smile crossing his face. “I think most people were as well.’’

And the president had this to say about the myth heedlessly spread by the man seeking to replace him: “My hope would be that the presidential election reflects more serious issues than that.”

K&R. I completely agree. They were all well aware of his extreme racism and how it woud harm lunamagica Sep 2018 #1
They are proud of it. erlewyne Sep 2018 #50
I'm afraid I have to disagree . . . MousePlayingDaffodil Sep 2018 #2
The common denominator is anger. At what I don't know. Sneederbunk Sep 2018 #7
I believe anger follows fear eleny Sep 2018 #22
This Cosmocat Sep 2018 #56
I gotta agree, just undefined anger running through their veins BamaRefugee Sep 2018 #54
Anger is a secondary emotion Cosmocat Sep 2018 #58
Anger that they and their kids are not getting ahead. Blue_true Sep 2018 #63
if vote for a racists you are a racists ! stonecutter357 Sep 2018 #8
thank you mercuryblues Sep 2018 #89
they may or may not be personally racist. . . Stargleamer Sep 2018 #21
Racism is not a continuum ismnotwasm Sep 2018 #23
+++ brer cat Sep 2018 #45
Have you forgotten that Trumpass's rusty fender Sep 2018 #31
One IS the thing one condones. dchill Sep 2018 #33
Exactly. If one condones it in others it is the same as participating in it onself. Texin Sep 2018 #43
I have to remember that. Butterflylady Sep 2018 #49
if they supported him they are ok with racism. JI7 Sep 2018 #38
I agree with you, but it seems to be a minority position marylandblue Sep 2018 #42
I know a number of them who definitely are not racists. Blue_true Sep 2018 #62
If they still support him now... Charlotte Little Sep 2018 #67
You have been here since 2003 - w/658 posts?!? alittlelark Sep 2018 #70
Then why would they support a world known racist like Trump uponit7771 Sep 2018 #71
I have a atreides1 Sep 2018 #80
Right. They listened to him saying things like "all those Mexicans Squinch Sep 2018 #82
my term - deplorable - and reasons vary. NRaleighLiberal Sep 2018 #3
Survey says! jcgoldie Sep 2018 #4
AND sexism! Squinch Sep 2018 #5
Not sure if this is correct Stargleamer Sep 2018 #6
If you knowingly choose a racist to run the country... jcgoldie Sep 2018 #11
sounds like good germans ! stonecutter357 Sep 2018 #12
Yes I know people like that Freddie Sep 2018 #78
K&R stonecutter357 Sep 2018 #9
I would disagree slightly. Chemisse Sep 2018 #10
Wonder why those "Dems" you are describing would choose a racist over Clinton jcgoldie Sep 2018 #14
NO - non Racists who didn't want to vote for Hillary voted 3rd party or not at all. KentuckyWoman Sep 2018 #20
Sorry to disagree snowybirdie Sep 2018 #13
Do your children know trump is racist ? stonecutter357 Sep 2018 #16
Absolutely, yes! snowybirdie Sep 2018 #30
Look again. KentuckyWoman Sep 2018 #18
Since my son snowybirdie Sep 2018 #55
Look again. KentuckyWoman Sep 2018 #68
This person hit it Runningdawg Sep 2018 #29
Yes Butterflylady Sep 2018 #51
So your kid learned his racism on the street? louis c Sep 2018 #52
See my previous post snowybirdie Sep 2018 #57
Hey, my best friend is a 70 year old racist who supported Trump louis c Sep 2018 #66
I've never met a republicon that wasn't a racist. nt RandiFan1290 Sep 2018 #86
K&R stonecutter357 Sep 2018 #15
They knowingly voted for a blatant racist (and criminal--he openly admitted to sexual assault). Garrett78 Sep 2018 #17
Oh, come on! peggysue2 Sep 2018 #19
The English language fails to describe them. bronxiteforever Sep 2018 #24
I agree, even when they claim some other reason ... CatMor Sep 2018 #25
I won't say that they are necessarily a racist if they voted for him, but... world wide wally Sep 2018 #26
zero sum game mentality handmade34 Sep 2018 #27
I agree. It is multi-faceted. I don't think every Trump supported is necessarily smirkymonkey Sep 2018 #60
k&R BlueJac Sep 2018 #28
Or greed. Funtatlaguy Sep 2018 #32
Their greed for lower taxes is, for some, sweetroxie Sep 2018 #90
pretty much Afromania Sep 2018 #34
insecurity --- entitlement C_U_L8R Sep 2018 #35
I think his hardest core supporters are racist, but ooky Sep 2018 #36
No, I believe it's actually fear borne of ignorance, in general. GoCubsGo Sep 2018 #37
I don't know if it is racism but I think there wasupaloopa Sep 2018 #39
Absolutely disagree. brooklynite Sep 2018 #40
Racism or tolerance of racism. moondust Sep 2018 #41
Here's my take on your post louis c Sep 2018 #44
Exactly! mountain grammy Sep 2018 #48
drumph strikes a chord of what are you going to do for me and mine MarcA Sep 2018 #46
Bigotry binds them. GeorgeGist Sep 2018 #47
I agree.... Heartstrings Sep 2018 #53
Agree Cyrano Power 2 the People Sep 2018 #59
I don't believe racism is really the answer to the OP grumpyduck Sep 2018 #61
Quietly enabling racism isn't much different than actively... 3catwoman3 Sep 2018 #64
+1, I'm wondering how this became a question here uponit7771 Sep 2018 #73
Are all assholes racist or are all racists assholes? GusBob Sep 2018 #65
Disagree. Absolutist statements (all, always, none, never) are almost always incorrect. Nt kelly1mm Sep 2018 #69
How is condoning racism any different? uponit7771 Sep 2018 #72
I disagree. Captain Stern Sep 2018 #74
Disagree. I give you this as an example--- SkyDancer Sep 2018 #75
Abortion and misogyny Freddie Sep 2018 #79
There is a historical confluence of anti-abortion activism and white supremacy. VOX Sep 2018 #84
Many white women are pro-life SkyDancer Sep 2018 #87
I agree WestIndianArchie Sep 2018 #76
Racism and ignorance TEB Sep 2018 #77
I've never met a republicon that wasn't a racist. nt RandiFan1290 Sep 2018 #81
ABSOLUTELY. Trump is the Grand Wizard of Birtherism. VOX Sep 2018 #83
There is a minority... Mike Nelson Sep 2018 #85
i wonder how many were Apprentice fans? Im still not convinced there wasnt subliminal messaging samnsara Sep 2018 #88
I say it's "entitlement" nadine_mn Sep 2018 #91
Message auto-removed Name removed Sep 2018 #92
You haven't pointed to credible evidence of your outlandish claims. I don't think you can. Try. . nt Bernardo de La Paz Sep 2018 #93
Message auto-removed Name removed Sep 2018 #94
No. Your ridiculous statistical claims about AA, Hispanics, and women. Bernardo de La Paz Sep 2018 #95
and selfishness. nt Hotler Sep 2018 #96
I for one think we need to carefully avoid this kind of talk. better Sep 2018 #97
And / or sexism n/t CousinIT Sep 2018 #98
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