How are the birthers taking their defeat? I wrote already about Orly Taitz reconsidering her options. Many of the “usual suspects” haven’t published since the election, but here are some reactions from the Bad and the Ugly lists.
Canada Free Press
Not just a birther site, the Canada Free Press expresses a markedly gloomy outlook in an article by Dr. Ileana Johnson Paugh that begins:
Our Constitutional Republic died a peaceful death on November 6, 2012. Having reached the point of no return in a comatose state after years of progressive and illegal immigration assaults, the fabric of conservative society is now completely unraveled and Uncle Sam’s America is no more.
More interesting and perhaps more troubling is the invocation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in an article by Doug Hagemann, “Turning a political decision into your spiritual mandate.” Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and founder of the Confessing Church in Germany, a group that denied the authority of the Nazi state over the churches in Germany. Their manifesto, the Barmen Declaration, seems perhaps mild by today’s standards, but was certainly heroic in its time (note that Lutherans are called the Evangelical Church in Germany). Author Hagemann, however, didn’t mentioned Barmen, but rather focused on the capitulation of much of the church in Germany to the Nazis. While I know Bonhoeffer from his books: Letters and Papers from Prison and The Cost of Discipleship, most know him for his participation in a plot to assassinate Hitler for which he was imprisoned and executed. Even though the article says (at the very end), “Make no mistake – this is obviously not a call for violence, but a call for leadership to every Christian living in the United States,” and I would hold up Bonhoeffer as a man worthy of study and emulation, still the invocation of him in the present and the comparison of the United States to the Nazis is troubling.
CDR Kerchner (Ret)’s Blog
Charles Kerchner features a picture of the US Constitution being burned in a basket to highlight his article “Obama Wins—Our Republic Loses.” One must ask whether any actual Constitutions were harmed in the writing of that article. Kerchner sees the country heading towards socialism, and the public apathetic.
The Steady Drip
The Reverend Doctor Samuel O. Sewell has taken a markedly philosophical approach to the election results saying in his article “Post Election Resolve”:
I have been so involved in politics that I have neglected friendships, business, and my spiritual foundation. So my response to the election results is to reverse that trend; build my own prosperity, nurture my relationships with family and friends, and spend more time with my spiritual activities. Bunny says, “Now maybe I’ll get my husband back.” As I look at my adjusted attitude I think it is actually healthier post election than pre-election.
Obama’s Garden
I don’t know when this happened, but the Obama’s Garden blog has gone private, and I have removed it from my list.
drkatesview
Dr. Kate feels frustrated by the similarity in the two main political parties, writing in her article “There Should be No Doubt” that:
The
satanistsbanksters who have ruled our country since at least 1913 are still in charge, toying with us all on the same chessboard. It is finally time for a real third party to form…
Obama Release Your Records
ORYR has labeled the re-election of Barack Obama “Usurpation 2.0” in a new group of articles actually reporting other groups’ content. They are reporting Donald Trump’s “revolutionary” twittering on Election Eve, Taitz’ reconsideration, and in an article “This is Not a Government” by the Liberty Legal Foundation, where the issue of that killing of terrorists by the United States was raised. These summary killings are of concerned to many, but the LLF uses it as proof that the United States government no longer follows its own laws in a more general sense.
American Thinker
After not finding much at so many of the sites I checked, I had some hope that American Thinker would provide more juicy content, and I was not disappointed. Daren Jonescu, in an article “A Few Things I Never Want to Hear Again,” sums up his reaction to the election this way:
Tired. That is my overriding sensation as I write this. How to bang one’s first impressions of hell out on a keyboard?
Monty Pelerin’s post-election article “Obama’s Election Seals Our Fate,” is more explicitly dire:
The Obama re-election dooms the country. …
Obama’s vision of how the world works ensures a dire economy until an economic collapse resets everything. The rest of the world, apparently bigger Obama supporters than U.S. voters, will not be immune from the consequences.
If you are interested in now many different ways it can be said that we are “doomed,” read Pelerin’s article.
The Birthers
The Birthers.org says that it’s closing down after offering a congratulatory note to President Obama:
We have had a big difference in the term Natural Born Citizen with your supporters, and while I can still think I am correct I do respect the will of an informed body politic.
We had our chance to explain to America what we believe in and they rejected our argument. …
God Bless everyone, Obots included. May God protect Israel, for it appears that only God will protect them. Perhaps this is His plan after all.
Well God bless you too.
The Obama File
Beckwith at The Obama File is not so gracious, saying in a forum post titled “The coup d’état is complete”:
We now effectively have a Marxist dictator, Barack Obama, who will rule by his decree — the executive order — sitting in the White House.
One of the chain emails I saw this election cycle was some nonsense about Obama issuing more executive orders than all other presidents combined. In fact Obama is on the extreme low end of executive orders issued, as I reported in my article, “Obama executive orders: debunked.” I actually agree in part with Beckwith in his assessment of what will happen under a second Obama administration, such as the full implementation of ObamaCare. And it is likely that immigration reform will create a large number of new voters already alienated by the Republican Party. New appointments to the Supreme Court could move the court back to the center.
Observation
What stuck me about all of this is the paucity of “birtherism.” These folks are either getting on with their lives, or moving on to standard right-wing nut job anti-government rhetoric.
Was birtherism, as I have suspected all along, a political smear masquerading as a conspiracy theory, one that has outlived its own raison d’etre?
Great article Doc. I think two words describe the emotions at these sites: despair and resignation. Could it be after four years and two elections the slightest tiny sliver of reality has crept into their world?
“Was birtherism, as I have suspected all along, a political smear masquerading as a conspiracy theory, one that has outlived its own raison d’etre?”
Yes, along with a few other motivations like racism and xenophobia.
Thanks for the review of “day after” articles. However, it may be more indicative of the long-term intentions of birthers to see what they are saying at the time Obama is inaugurated. Please consider doing another review at that time.
Not really. The only reality they have accepted is “four more years” (with the limitation that many of them still hope “we can remove him”) and that the majority of voters wanted this (I’m actually surprised how few of them are crying “election fraud”, most seem to go with “so the enemy is the majority now”).
They have not accepted any other facet of reality (like that Obama isn’t a gay secret Kenyan-born Muslim hell-bent on destroying the country; that “liberals” are not devious traitors, demons even; that there is no vast conspiracy that only they can see etc.).
I have always considered birtherism a mutant strand of basic right wing paranoia. You start with the fact that there is a small but fanatical core of people who simply will not accept any Democratic President as legitimate. Ever. Remember how Clinton was a drug lord personally running his narcotics empire out of Mena airport and killing anyone who got close to the truth? The nut jobs will always be there coming up with this kind of stuff.
What made birtherism so virulent is the simple fact that Obama is African American. That taps into an old vein of prejudice in this country, freshly infused with fear of the country’s changing demographics. That’s why birtherism transcended equally nonsensical stuff like Mena to actually attain some cultural resonance.
Will Obama’s reelection end it? Not for the hardened core. But it might sap away the resonance it had obtained as a cultural meme. After all, there’s no point clinging to it as a reason to defeat Obama in 2012 after 2012.
Yes, indeed,. watching the initial reactions is hilarious, but it will take some time for the new reality (that is, the same old reality) to sink in. The Reds are just beginning their Kubler-Ross journey. Which, finds, shock of all shocks, in …
… denial LOL
Let’s hope they make it to ‘anger’ soon. Might as well get it over with.
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/david-horsey-illustrates-president-obamas-victory_b75099
OBC refuses to give up the losing battle.
http://obamaballotchallenge.com/can-you-help-us-prove-obama-stole-the-election
“We need to come up with other things that can be challenged in federal court.”
> obvious and stunning parallels between 1930’s Germany and present day America,
> specifically in terms of the Christian church.
I don’t see the parallels. And I’m puzzled how someone could write that.
And i.e. after reading that book.
The right, and in particular the evangelical right, have massive persecution complexes. I see it—and have lived it, gods help me—first hand.
It’s a go-to reference for anyone who doesn’t like what’s going on. Look up Godwin’s Law.
I was reading through the comments at Dr. Kate’s site, where most of the writers appear to be frightened old ladies, when I came across this gem. I’d love to hear what a psychologist would say about this:
“America is gone. We now have to learn to survive in a very different government.
It is now time to look to our survival. The revenge is soon to fall upon us. Retaliation—large and small—is about to be felt by all those who opposed him.
“In the last four years they (in this statement “they” means Barry, his supporters, puppet master strategists ,and all his co-conspirators) have worked diligently to gain power and keep by corrupting the Supreme Court, our entire judicial system, shred the Constitution, diminish the military and demeaned and ridiculed our religion, human values, traditions. They have crushed and demoralized America by destroying any recourse we had under American law to defend ourselves and inalienable rights from this lawless government. Nest they will go after the last corridor of free speech and accurate information to us—the inter net. They have removed any protections from the government we had. Soon they will begin the task of looting and ultimately performing the “final solution.” From now on, this is government ruling from big guns pointed at us. We are fish in a barrel.
“They are watching us. We are now no longer permitted to have opinions that disagree with the government. Under the HLS report—we are now enemies of the new government. That means they can now legally break into our homes without search warrants, remove us and detain us for undetermined amount of time, confiscate our bank accounts, take our children, loot our homes and steal our property.
“This is what we must do hence forward. Survival is the primary duty we now must consider. First we must maintain our physical and mental health. Clarity of thought and action by us has never been more necessary than these times peril stock up on extra supplies—food, emergency, and negotiable items. Then we must tone down our rhetoric against this government; learn to communicate in code, live like secret agents—under the wire. We must make ourselves invisible while hiding in plain sight. Do nothing to bring attention to ourselves or our ideas—i.e.: bumper stickers, front yard signs, wearing of religious symbols, displaying the flag, or be too willing to express your point of view. Guard—as if your life depended upon it—because it does– who you trust or will trust. Become very careful with whom you associate and share anything about yourself with co-workers, neighbours, and even relatives. Finally, we wait and watch. We watch for signs of a true and real underground of rebellion as eventually to revolution will begin. It will need us alive, healthy, prepared and willing to support them.”
Not a psych, but I’d say they’ve been reading too much* (and in the echo chamber too long—hit the rinse cycle!)
Somehow I think they already blew it on this point.
Coincidentally, I was reading from a book this morning about the flap over that report, written by the report’s author, Right-Wing Resurgence: How a Domestic Terrorist Threat is Being Ignored
You can read big chunks of it on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1442218967
Pretty interesting to see how the right wing propaganda machine misrepresented the report and how Homeland Security caved in.