Tuesday, September 1, 2009
POLITICAL POPCORN
2012 and the Rise of the Inglorious Birthers
By
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
It seems that only Ted Kennedy's passing last week had curtailed a steamrolling,
full-court press that even the First Fan's prowess on the basketball court can't
stop: the Inglorious "Birthers", other right-wing zealots and their ideas that the
world (or at least the political future of President Barack Obama) will end.
Even "preachers" had been openly praying for the actual death of the nation's
president, creating the kind of climate that a young Minister Louis Farrakhan
did in the early 1960s when speaking with deep enmity toward Malcolm X, who
would be assassinated in 1965. Years later Mr. Farrakhan would apologize
for creating the climate that brought about Malcolm X's death.
And where healthcare reform is concerned, judging from recent town hall meetings that the mainstream press chooses to
show, one would think that everyone in the U.S. is up in arms against the chance
to make health care affordable for every American. It appears to be
precisely the opposite however, as there's an urgent call for renewed health
care for all. But it's important to understand that the fire and brimstone
inveighed at these meetings is not really aimed at health care reform but at a
calculated, carefully manufactured jumpstart at 2012 and a Republican
presidency.
The climate for fomenting outrage at Mr. Obama has spread faster lately than the
ongoing California wildfires, but in truth the outrage and hate was always there.
Back in early 2008, the tone was set by some Democrats during the presidential
primaries aimed at delegitimizing Mr. Obama. Hillary Clinton, then his
rival, stated on "60 Minutes" in February of that year that then-future
president was not a Muslim "as far as I know". (Being a Muslim in a
post-9/11 America was supposedly a bad thing to be.) Soon after in South
Carolina her husband compared Mr. Obama's run to Jesse Jackson's failed runs for
the White House. In late May 2008, now Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
would be at it again with comments that hinted at a possible assassination of
then-Senator Obama when she invoked the assassination of Robert Kennedy in his
presidential run in California in 1968.
Similarly, Republican politicians jumped onboard the gravy train of fear, hate
and
death wishes with former Arkansas Republican governor Mike Huckabee at the
National Rifle Association convention in May 2008 giving a speech where after a
loud thud backstage
he said, "that was Barack Obama - he just
tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak and, somebody aimed a gun at
him and he, he dove for the floor." (Huckabee later apologized.)
This year, the real summer movie: guns strapped to the legs of a few Americans
at health care town hall meetings both inside and mostly outside the meetings
where President Obama was speaking on healthcare. There were arrests (in
New Hampshire of a man with a screwdriver who was inside when the president was
speaking there.) Earlier this year and in other years,
Fox News and its ilk were singing the death
chorus about Mr. Obama and the abortion doctor George Tiller, saying he was
"Tiller the baby killer". Mr. Tiller was killed in late May 2009 and
exactly three months ago some in the U.S. media
made the link between
media influences and their cheerleading and inciting the killing of people they
disagreed with.
A scene from Roland Emmerich's forthcoming film "2012": for
Republicans Obama spells disaster, and fear of him
is being manufactured by the GOP. But some Democrats engaged in the very
same last year during the presidential primaries. (Photo: Sony Pictures)
Where Mr. Obama is concerned the mob mentality, fear-mongering and race-baiting
(swastikas were recently emblazoned on a sign of the office of a black
congressman from Georgia) didn't begin in 2009 however, but with the 2008 John
McCain-Sarah Palin Republican presidential campaign rallies where shouts of
"kill him" and "terrorist" could regularly be heard. Economy or no
economy, the anger and hatred in some parts of America could be heard lustily
and Republican politicians were reticent to stop it, with McCain and Palin
appearing to encourage it. And with a California congressman championing a
man last week at a health care town hall meeting who declared he was "a
right-wing terrorist", the far right isn't even trying to hide its venality.
There's more outrage leveled at Quentin Tarantino's film
"Inglourious Basterds" for historical inaccuracy than there is at the
inglorious birthers who repeatedly and falsely claim that the 44th U.S.
president was not born in the U.S. even with official birth certificates to the
contrary. Of course, race and racism are at the heart of such claims by
the far-right wing (and some politicians like Arizona congressman Trent Franks)
: the ridiculous idea that Obama is somehow not an authentic president or an
authentic American, since he is black.
But President Obama -- thanks to the distortion of the mainstream media filter
-- has suddenly gone from superhero to scaredy-cat in the healthcare debate,
with an unclear and lackluster (and often typically weak Democratic) message,
despite the efforts of the
website which spells out the health care truths,
falsehoods and misconceptions. The president needs to more courageously
assert his mandate for healthcare reform.
Finally, the master of disaster Roland Emmerich -- he's the architect of well-made,
big-budget apocalyptic disaster films ("Independence Day", The Day After
Tomorrow" and "10,000 B.C.") has directed "2012", which opens in theaters across
North America on November 13. The film has an all-star cast including John
Cusack and Danny Glover and portends the Mayan belief that the world will end in
December 2012. Cities crumble. Empires burn. Civilizations
vanish. The film's breadth is spectacular -- as seen in its trailer.
Republicans may use "2012" the film as their best friend
-- and may ask of President Obama and the Democrats of the 2012 presidential
election precisely the website address for Mr. Emmerich's film: who will
survive 2012?
Previous essay: President Obama and John Connor, resistance
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