What is it?
Birtherism is based on the idea that former president, Barack Obama, is not a “natural born citizen.”
Obama was born in Hawaii, however if the theory came to be true, this would mean that he would not be eligible to become the president. Both of Obama’s presidential campaigns were riddled with nonstop rumors and conspiracies surrounding both his personal and work life. More specifically, whether he was born on American soil or not. The birtherism theory reached its peak once former president Donald Trump made public comments doubting Obama’s citizenship, in which an intense amount of political partisanship followed.
What made the rise of the “birthers” so controversial was the fact that all of the claims were backed by baseless theories rather than factual information. All in an attempt to prevent Obama from running for president.
The origin:
Questions surrounding Barack Obama’s “American identity” began to surface in 2004. Perennial Illinois political candidate and serial litigant Andy Martin claimed that Obama was a Muslim. Other theories claimed that he had been educated in a madrassa in Indonesia from a young age.
Then, in the spring of 2008, began the birtherism allegations. During this time, Obama and Hillary Clinton were battling in the Democratic parties in which Obama would go on to win his party’s nomination. Prior to Clinton endorsing Obama, some of her supporters started to circulate an anonymous email that sparked rumors about his birthplace. The email alleged that he was born in Kenya. Multiple theories involving his and his parent’s citizenship continued to arise.
In August 2008, Democratic activist and supporter of Clinton, Philip Berg, filed suit in federal court claiming: “Obama carries multiple citizenships and is ineligible to run for President of the United States. United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1.” This, and multiple other lawsuits from political figures filed against Obama and his eligibility to serve as president were all dismissed for being “frivolous and not worthy of discussion.”
There is no true originator to the birtherism theory.
Propaganda used to advance the Birtherism theory:
After Barack Obama’s first election as president, birtherism allegations stayed afloat throughout his entire term. In March 2011, the birther controversy reached an all time high due to one man: Donald Trump.
In an interview with the “Today” show, Trump stated that he has some “real doubts” regarding whether Obama has a U.S birth certificate or not. Trump would double down on these claims in multiple interviews after this. He later announced that he was sending a team of private investigators to Hawaii in an attempt to uncover the truth, he even “promised to donate $5m to charity if anyone could convince him Mr. Obama was born on US soil.” A prime example of the “bribery” persuasion technique.
Trump continued with the birtherism claims for years, even after Obama was re-elected:
An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama‘s birth certificate is a fraud.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 6, 2012
How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s “birth certificate” died in plane crash today. All others lived
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2013
Attention all hackers: You are hacking everything else so please hack Obama’s college records (destroyed?) and check “place of birth”
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 6, 2014
Was the issue resolved?
When the birtherism rumors first circulated in 2008, Obama’s campaign created a website called “Fight The Smears.” The website’s purpose was to debunk all of the major falsehoods against him. In June of that year, Obama posted a photo of his short-form birth certificate to this website in an attempt to prove that he was indeed born in Hawaii.
Despite his efforts, birthers were not swayed and believed the birth certificate was unauthentic. Even when more proof continued to roll in:
But, birthers still wanted more evidence.
For years, many birthers and conservative activists, including Trump, demanded that the long-form document needed to be posted by Obama’s birth hospital in order to be believed. However, this was not possible as Hawaii laws prevent photocopies of long-form birth certificates from being released to anyone. That is until the White House themselves released president Obama’s long-form birth certificate in April of 2011.
Still, birthers refused to acknowledge the document as authentic and adequate evidence. In which Trump continued to question Obama’s citizenship for five years. Between 2013-2015, when asked about his birthplace, Trump’s response was: “I don’t know.”
In 2016, he finally admitted that President Obama was born in the U.S. However, despite there being no evidence of their involvement, Trump blames Hillary Clinton and her campaign for starting the rumors.
What’s the general consensus?
Because of the abundance of proof that President Obama’s birth certificate is real, and he is in fact a natural born U.S. citizen, combined with Donald Trump’s own admittance of this, the general public mostly denies any truth of birtherism regarding Obama.
Lately, there has been some new buzzes of the birtherism conspiracy surrounding the current Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris. Once again, planted by Trump.
Leave a Reply