I wasn’t sure it was possible, but this week Donald Trump succeeded in lowering the bar for political discourse in this country by turning President Obama’s birth certificate into a multi-day front-page news story. Spoiler alert: the President is an American citizen.
There have been voices calling for Obama to produce a birth certificate since early in his first presidential campaign. In fact, Obama supplied a copy of what is apparently referred to as a “short-form” birth certificate in 2008, according to a characteristically condescending press conference he gave on April 27. This was not good enough for so-called “Birthers,” who wanted to see a long-form certificate, which is usually not provided by the government.
Until Donald Trump jumped on the crazy train, this movement didn’t seem to be going anywhere. But adding his obnoxious personality and relatively large celebrity to the issue seemed to give Obama the kick he needed to seek out his long-form certificate, which was released Wednesday. To no one’s surprise – not even, I think, Trump’s – the birth certificate checked out.
This turn of events left me even more disappointed than usual with the level of discussion in American politics. Without time travel or teleportation there is no way that Obama could have been born anywhere but Hawaii. Almost everyone is willing to agree that those things do not exist; yet somehow political leaders and the media were dragged into this fruitless debate. Trump even said he was “proud” that his efforts had resulted in Obama producing the birth certificate.
After watching the story unfold this week, I was forced to do something I try never to do and agree with a politician. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick declared this debate a “new low for American politics,” and I could not have said it better myself. The Birther movement represents a level of xenophobia that simply should not exist in our society.
There is no use in saying that there were more important things to talk about this week, because there are always more important things to talk about than erroneous attacks on established facts. What we should really be complaining about is the failure of Trump and his fellow Birthers to respect the intelligence of the American people. We know better than to think that Obama’s mother could have somehow given birth to a child abroad while she was in Hawaii. We know better than to spend weeks talking about non-issues. We know that the economy is in shambles. But when political leaders and members of the media decide that we care more about Donald Trump’s ravings than serious problem solving, we lose the ability to participate in a constructive political conversation.
Perhaps this will be the worst distraction the 2012 Presidential campaign foists on the electorate, but anyone who remembers Joe the Plumber knows this is unlikely. At this point, it may be that the best we can hope for is that Donald Trump actually runs for president so we can spend the next eighteen months making fun of his hair.
