Over the course of the last couple of years the left wing media has tried to paint those folks who could be labeled as birthers as racists. Jim Corsi, who writes for World Net Daily, has written a book titled Where’s the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible to Be President. In this book he make several arguments that Obama is not eligible to be President due to (take your pick), a grand conspiracy, his father not being a US citizen, and/or his mother being too young to pass citizenship on to Barack Obama.
Personally, I think this whole birther issue is a load of horse-hockey. The long form, after finally being released, has proven Obama’s citizenship. Or sure, there are a few items that the birthers have latched on to such as a watermark, or an out of sequence numbering. But it really all boils down to is conspiracy of this magnitude couldn’t possibility be pulled off, except in the movies.
But I do have to support the birthers because of all the crap from the left wing media. Over at The Daily Beast, Michelle Goldberg has written an article that ties to tie Corsi birther attitude to racism. In his book Corsi makes an argument that the 14th Amendment cannot confer citizenship on the people the Amendment was written for.
Much of Where’s the Birth Certificate? rehashes old, debunked stories meant to cast doubt on Obama’s birth in Hawaii. But the book also claims that even if Obama was born is the United States, he still might not be a “natural born citizen” because of the father’s foreign citizenship, which would make him ineligible for the presidency. To make this argument, Corsi dredges up a constitutional theory popular in white supremacist and anti-immigration circles, making an invidious distinction between those granted citizenship by the 14th Amendment and those who were citizens under the Constitution as written. (Source: The Daily Beast)
But rather than look at the subject (14th Amendment) and argue the points that this amendment does confer citizenship on us all, she immediately pulls out the race card. There has to be many documents that discuss the reason why the amendment was passed. As a reporter and a columnist making these arguments, you would thinks she might try to back up her point with some knowledgeable background. All she does is link Corsi and the white supremacist knuckleheads.
Corsi’s ideas about a lesser sort of 14th Amendment citizenship have deep roots on the far right. Ratified in 1868, the amendment banished the whites-only version of citizenship affirmed in the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision. “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside,” the amendment reads. (Source: The Daily Beast)
I have to take some exception to her linking this to “deep roots on the far right”. With this one sentence she continues to perpetuate the falsehood that it racism and opposition to equality is solely the history of the far right and Republicans. The KKK and other organizations in opposition to equality can be laid at the feet of democrats. Unlike her “deep roots” statement, the ties between democrats and the opposition to equality is historical fact (not that this is taught in schools anymore). Heck, the recently departed Robert Byrd, and democrat lion, was a significant player in the KKK not so many years ago.
As a final touch, as if painting him as a racist wasn’t enough, Goldberg goes on to attack him personally (Alinsky’s rules).
Corsi is, in many ways, a preposterous figure. He has fallen far since 2004, when he co-authored the influential Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry. These days, he’s broadly seen as a crank; in addition to birtherism, he’s dabbled in 9/11 Truth and wrote a book warning of an imminent merger of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. But with Where’s the Birth Certificate? he’s managed to get a book steeped in white nationalist extremism onto the New York Times bestseller list. His movement might be diminished, but it’s still there, and it’s more rabid than ever. (Bold: PACNW Righty) (Source: The Daily Beast)
All in all, this really qualifies as a hit piece. She did not bother to mention and I’d guess she has never mentioned that one of the darlings of the left, Van Jones, is also a 9/11 truther and a communist nutjob all rolled together. Again, just a little research on her part, would have shown that Corsi’s feelings on the merger of the major North American countries are built on a foundation of truth (NAFTA comes to mind). He probably does take the whole merger thing a little too far, but he smells smoke.
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