To see the Republican Party fall prey to the alluring political "trump" card of Obama's non-citizenship on the premise of so many different, false, and often contradictory claims about his life and birth, is frankly embarrassing (m) when it's not outright irritating because of the party's disdain for 9-11 "Truthers" and its erroneous association of them with Congressman Ron Paul.But there's a deeper issue here, and it's related to the Republican Party's failure to fight the battle in the ideological arena, which is the reason why it has been rapidly losing its own soul and identity in addition to elections everywhere until the Tea Party showed up. That deeper issue is the GOP's entire approach to President Barack Obama.
Why shouldn't he be President according to the Palin Republicans? "Because he's not a citizen of this country!" they say, which isn't even true. But if we delve into the world of ideas and challenge Obama's very ideological premises-- or lack thereof, then we can give an even better reason why he shouldn't be President (and it helps that this one's true): Barack Obama is not a citizen of reality.
That's right. He shouldn't be President because he's not a citizen of this universe. He doesn't live in a world of cause and effect, where you can't just go spending trillions of dollars that you don't have and expect an economy to recover. Obama doesn't live in reality, where you have to produce something before you can consume it. He doesn't live in the 21st century where heads of state have clearly defined limits on their power and are not above the letter and rule of law.
Instead, Obama is a citizen of the Big Rock Candy Mountains or something, where "handouts grow on bushes" and "where they hung the jerk that invented work." He lives in a socialist Twilight Zone where bizarre and inexplicable things happen, where you can really have your cake and eat it too. He lives in the 17th century when executives could rush off to war on a whim.
Unfortunately the rest of America lives in the real world and has to suffer for Obama's attempt to live out his contradictions and force us to live them out with him.
My problem with President Obama isn't that he isn't a citizen of the United States. It's that he isn't a citizen of planet Earth.
And now, your moment of Zen:
(adapted from an article I wrote in 2009)
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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