Birthers

Sometimes it helps to know that you are part of a tradition. I am part of the African American conservative political tradition, for what it's worth. And as such, I recognize those issues that are close to my interests as part of that tradition and those which just happen to be interesting at the time. There is always political dissonance, and a lot of noise about the meaning of that tradition, and today's noise is about Birthers.

Birthers are to Obama what Truthers were to Bush, a loud idiot minority stuck on stupid, or in Churchill's famous definition, fanatics: persons who can't change their mind and won't change the subject. Birthers believe that Obama should not be President because they claim he was not born in America. There are a lot of crazy and unbelievable things that can and do happen in this country that a little dilligence could clean up, but the provenance of the President is not one of them.

Intelligent opponents of Obama's policies have figured out ways to be provoked to defend the intransigence of Birther's hatred. That only goes to show a general lack of confidence in reason and the echo chamber that even our dispersed media generates. I say it's a waste of time and credibility.

So my point is to have this moment of obligatory seriousness to dismiss the Birthers and their defenders. You're all gone mental.