Oh les Americains [the disgusting "Birther" Controversy]
I have generally tended to ignore the silly row going on in the U.S. about whether the current President was a native-born citizen or not - also known as the “Birther” debate - as a clear waste of time. More importantly, I think that the natural-born citizen requirement for the offices of US President and Vice-President to be both unwise and a source of abuse for the future.
But the idiots, led now by would-be Republican nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, have simply gone too far. They raised more questions about the “Birther” debate; then they had the un-mitigated gall to claim that the long form of the President’s birth certificate - released two days ago by the U.S. White House - was invalid.
Many other people, particularly black people, living in the U.S. are seriously upset about this. To quote a well-known poster named “Baratunde”:
As I walked to work this morning, I got a text message from ... Twitter announcing that President Obama would release his long form birth certificate. I stopped in my tracks as my immediate thought became, "It's happening again. This White House is caving in to extremism." ... Along with my surprise, however, I felt a deep sadness ... especially when I saw this disgusting video of Donald Trump. [This was followed by a Youtube video of Trump calling for a “Truth Test” of said certificate; see 'http://youtu.be/f6hsm81VXKY'.] ... It was during my viewing of [his] video that I began to cry. I thought of my ancestors, both direct and collective [such as Crispus Attucks, who is said to be the first martyr of the “Revolutionary” War], who had fought and died so that I might be treated as an American. I then thought of this fetid, smug, hate-filled, wealthy [invisible] white man taking credit for the release and yet still not being satisfied. ... So, tears in my eyes, pain in my heart and rage in my soul, I composed [the following] video message. More than written text, it comes close to expressing my full pain at witnessing a white man who was handed everything call the President of the United States (and me) a nigger. [Interpolations - all of them in square brackets - are mine.]
[If you have difficulty accessing this, a copy of the video may be found here.]
If Mr. Trump ever thought he had any merit for being the President of the country lying south of us, he has assuredly disqualified himself. Nobody who claims to be a leader would - or should - have had the utter chutzpah to make the statement he has just made, especially in light of how divisive and offensive it is proving to be.
What bothers me even more is that many people, particularly in the U.S., will not see anything wrong about the entire mess. Essentially, it seems to show that racism is deeply embedded in North American society. I have witnessed traces of it here in Canada as well, but never as rudely or as pervasive as it seems to be in the U.S. [A particular irony is that some of the most racist individuals here and in parts of the U.S. (at least one good American friend confirmed this to me) are recent immigrants from Eastern Europe; their apparent obliviousness to the relatively recent horrific consequences of that racism in their homelands almost guarantees they will try to do it again.] Have we so easily forgotten George Santayana’s warning “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”?
Even worse, it makes me feel unhappy about sharing even a continent, much less a country, with a people whose attitudes are like this. I may not be a person of color or of First Nations descent, but my father was an immigrant and I sometimes wonder who will be the next target. [I am also reminded of a German warning about Nazism. I hope people here in Canada will keep that last point in mind when the federal general election takes place this coming Monday.]
What do others think? As always, this inquiring well-perched philosopher would like to know.
UPDATE/ETA: the Tiresome neo-Tories may have won the Canadian federal election, but Donald Trump has decided to throw in the towel. Perhaps the “gag factor” due to his opinions was just too much for the voters. Who knows?