Why No One is Buying Trump’s Renouncement of Birtherism
September 19, 2016

 
Share

Last week, in a desperate bid to attract minority voters and assuage whites he isn’t a bigot, Donald Trump finally, after 8 years, conceded that Barack Obama was born in the United States, giving NO explanation for his sudden reversal. It was absolutely comical listening to Trump surrogates over the weekend trying to defend Trump’s 8-year campaign of questioning the birthplace/legitimacy of the first black president. His new campaign manager, Kelly Ann Conway, even tried to claim on “Meet the Press” yesterday that Trump IS NOT a “Birther” and was “only reminding people” that Hillary questioned Obama’s provenance first. Trump NEVER believed Obama was born in Kenya! Where would anyone get a crazy idea like that?

All of this was brought about of course when major Trump supporter and campaign surrogate Rudy Giuliani made the ridiculous and easily disprovable claim on several news shows a week ago that “Donald Trump admitted President Obama was born in America two years ago!” Except that he hadn’t. As recently as last month, Trump called Obama “the founder of ISIS”… literally. Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt repeatedly tried to “Trump-splain” what his guest actually meant, suggesting to Trump that what he was really saying was that President Obama’s foreign policy failure resulted in the formation of ISIS. But Trump stuck to his guns and repeatedly rejected Hewitt’s attempt to put words in his mouth, instead implying that Obama was somehow sympathetic to ISIS, thereby explaining his reluctance to go after them in a way in which Trump believes needs to be done to defeat them once & for all (ie: “nukes”), thereby suggesting a connection between the two. It’s all part of the “otherness” Trump supporters attribute to Obama. “He’s not like us!” “He’s a Muslim!” (that spent 20 years in Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church. Wright is also a “secret Muslim”.) “He was born in Kenya” and therefore ineligible to be president of the United States. Yesterday on “Meet the Press”, another Conservative radio host, Alex Castellanos rejected the idea Trump was a racist, explaining that “there’s an ‘otherness’ about Obama” that explains away Trump’s questioning the president’s place of birth that isn’t steeped in racism. An “otherness“? Hmm. I can’t quite put my finger on it. What is it about the first black president of the United States makes him an unrelateable “other” to Conservatives like Castellanos? Figuring out that mystery is going to keep me up tonight. Not.

It’s all quite ludicrous of course, and NO ONE that previously believed Trump was a bigot because of his Birtherism, is suddenly going to vote for him now thinking maybe they misjudged him.

On my Facebook page, one angry Trump supporter felt the need to defend his candidate against accusations of bigotry (even though the thread was not about Trump nor racism), posting a photo of Trump with his arm around a black Conservative radio host and citing support from other incredulous African-American Conservatives like Ben Carson and former Congressman Alan West. Then, just to make sure he made his point, he punctuated it with a photo contrasting neatly pressed police officers on parade to some angry black rioters smashing a police car (because “it isn’t racist if you’re simply stating a fact”.) Of course, if these racists idiots weren’t idiots, they wouldn’t be racists now would they? Chalk one more up to a total lack of self-awareness.

So why is it no one is buying Trump’s 11th hour conversion to renounce Birtherism? What does a bigot have to do?

When I was 9 years old, my new step-mother was incensed that I no longer believed in Santa Claus. One might guess it had something to do with depriving her of the joy of playing Santa and missing the wonderment in a child’s eyes. But no, this was a joyless person, and threatened that I would not receive a single Christmas present if I didn’t renounce my disbelief in Santa (and don’t doubt for a minute that she didn’t really mean it.)

As any child would upon being threatened with “no toys for Christmas” if they didn’t play their silly game, I caved. I declared that I suddenly “believed in Santa” and… in an explanation that was as much to convince myself as it was my tormentor… I attributed my epiphany to “they wouldn’t have written all those songs if there were no Santa!” It was enough. I got my Christmas presents (all labeled “From Santa”) and I was never asked again. And don’t think for one moment she was bluffing. You had to know her (but be glad you didn’t.)

Listening to Conway, Pence and Christie tie themselves up in knots trying to convince voters (and themselves) that the REAL Birther in this race is Hillary Clinton, was almost painful to watch. But, as I pointed out last April [ibid first link], it WAS someone inside the Clinton campaign in 2008 that first released a 2006 photo of then-State Senator Obama dressed in ceremonial garb during a visit to Kenya that started “a whisper campaign” that Obama was “a secret Muslim”. The Obama Campaign attacked the Clinton Campaign for releasing the photo with clear malicious intent, to which Clinton responded indignantly that Senator Obama was “trying to change the subject”, yet never outright denied that someone from inside the Clinton Campaign leaked the photo. Nor did they try to correct the misimpression they created (reminiscent of how the Bush Administration never outright claimed Saddam was responsible for 9/11, yet they certainly gave that impression, and were more than happy to leave that misimpression out there to gin up support for the invasion of Iraq.) So when Trump claims Hillary “started the Birther movement”, there is a case to be made (though Trump turned her spark into an inferno.)

And so it is with Trump declaring that “President Obama was born in America. Period!” In the back of everyone’s mind, they are noticing he didn’t preface it with: “I am now convinced that…” Add to that, Trump gave no explanation for his sudden turn-around on the matter (even suggesting he NEVER believed Obama was not born in America, ergo there’s no reason to explain his reversal since this isn’t actually a reversal.)

But I will bet you a years salary that if you asked most Trump supporters if they believe Trump truly believes Obama was born in America, or is only saying it to get The Lib’rul Media off his back, they’d say the later. I’m even willing to bet most of Trump’s supporters themselves still believe Obama was not born in America despite what Donald Trump is now saying. Trump is a Conspiracy Theory aficionado… as is, I’m certain… most of his supporters: Small minds who see enemies everywhere and therefore “cling to their guns & religion” are also typically Conspiracy Theorists (FEMA Camps, Jade Helm, fluoridation of our drinking water, etc). Lovers of Conspiracy theories don’t suddenly reject their core beliefs of the last eight years.

He’s not fooling anyone. I doubt he’s even fooling his supporters. “Obama was born in America!” declared Trump. Yeah, and Santa Claus is real.
 

Trump flip-flops (to date):
Trump flip-flops

 

Writers Wanted Got something to say? Mugsy’s Rap Sheet is always looking for article submissions to focus on the stories we may miss each week. To volunteer your own Op/Ed for inclusion here, send us an email with an example of your writing skills & choice of topic, and maybe we’ll put you online!

RSS Please REGISTER to be notified by e-mail every time this Blog is updated! Firefox/IE users can use RSS for a browser link that lists the latest posts! RSS


 

Share

September 19, 2016 · Admin Mugsy · No Comments - Add
Posted in: Civil Rights, Election, myth busting, Racism, rewriting history, Right-Wing Hypocrisy

Leave a Reply