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I would caution people from dismissing it as a too-crazy-to-matter fringe group. Trump's rise was certainly boosted by his involvement in birtherism. The Trum

I would caution people from dismissing it as a too-crazy-to-matter fringe group. Trump's rise was certainly boosted by his involvement in birtherism. The Trump equivalent of 2024 or 2028 is probably tweeting about QAnon right now.

spiderfarmer 6y ago
Birtherism was rooted in racism. It would not be a stretch to say Trump won partly because there are an awful lot of racists in the US.
- flutterdude420 6y ago
  Birtherism exploited racism. It was fundamentally a political tool used to identify true believers and to galvanize them to political action.
  - untog 6y ago
    Birtherism was inherently racist in and of itself, though. If Obama was white it simply wouldn’t have been a factor. It relied on suspicion of an “other” as a key component.
    - tuesdayrain 6y ago
      There's nothing inherently racist about attempting to claim your political opponent cannot legally be president.
      - untog 6y ago
        The racist notion of Obama being a foreign “other” was intrinsic to Birtherism. There is nothing inherent about that, no. It was an explicit piece of context. It is known and not under any debate that John McCain was not born on US soil (he was born on an army base in Panama), and yet Obama’s legitimacy was the one in question. It’s very obvious why one candidate was considered a foreign other and one was not.
      - acdha 6y ago
        That might be true in the abstract but anyone who had more than the slightest awareness knows that what was directed at Obama was based racism. The same people made racist comments about Africa in general, said he was inarticulate in ways straight out of minstrel shows a century ago, refused to accept his Christianity insisting that he was secretly following their favorite Other religion, and used various threats and rhetoric from the Jim Crow-era south against someone born in Hawaii. You don’t lynch someone in effigy because you’re trying to say that you don’t think they aren’t 35.

spiderfarmer 6y ago

Birtherism was rooted in racism. It would not be a stretch to say Trump won partly because there are an awful lot of racists in the US.

flutterdude420 6y ago
Birtherism exploited racism. It was fundamentally a political tool used to identify true believers and to galvanize them to political action.
- untog 6y ago
  Birtherism was inherently racist in and of itself, though. If Obama was white it simply wouldn’t have been a factor. It relied on suspicion of an “other” as a key component.
  - tuesdayrain 6y ago
    There's nothing inherently racist about attempting to claim your political opponent cannot legally be president.
    - untog 6y ago
      The racist notion of Obama being a foreign “other” was intrinsic to Birtherism. There is nothing inherent about that, no. It was an explicit piece of context. It is known and not under any debate that John McCain was not born on US soil (he was born on an army base in Panama), and yet Obama’s legitimacy was the one in question. It’s very obvious why one candidate was considered a foreign other and one was not.
    - acdha 6y ago
      That might be true in the abstract but anyone who had more than the slightest awareness knows that what was directed at Obama was based racism. The same people made racist comments about Africa in general, said he was inarticulate in ways straight out of minstrel shows a century ago, refused to accept his Christianity insisting that he was secretly following their favorite Other religion, and used various threats and rhetoric from the Jim Crow-era south against someone born in Hawaii. You don’t lynch someone in effigy because you’re trying to say that you don’t think they aren’t 35.