The American Lunatic Fringe

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Emma Lazarus

A True American sentiment.

Lately, though, I’ve been seeing more and more evidence that American attitudes are devolving into something where anything goes including out and out racism.  Here are a few of the more notable groups and their nutcase politics.

Birthers: Let’s face it, why would so many Americans believe that Barack Obama was not born in the US if there wasn’t irrefutable proof that 49 years ago his parents knew he would become president and so knowing hid the details of his birth.  And since Barack was born in the days of segregation they had to have been superior clairvoyants as well as good parents.  The only other conclusions you might draw are that latent bigotry in the US isn’t really latent at all, or racist sore losers who can't deal with having a black president childishly go about making up absurd conspiracy theories.  It saddens me to say, but I get the feeling there are a lot of racists in the US.

Thirteenthers: Our current 13th amendment bans slavery.  Iowan GOPers are, however, interested in reintroducing the 13th amendment originally put before the states in 1810. That one outlawed anyone accepting a “title of nobility” from a foreign state from ever holding political office.  That version of the 13th Amendment was never ratified.  So it seems that not only do the Thirteenthers want to ban Nobel prize winners (including Barack Obama) from holding office they also want to reintroduce slavery. It saddens me to say, but I get the feeling there are a lot of racists in the US.

OBTW: The Department of Justice did look into whether Obama needed Congressional approval to accept the Nobel prize under the existing emoluments clause, and based on the meaning of “foreign state” (which would not include the Nobel Prize Committee) concluded he did not.

Fourteenthers: The 14th Amendment conveys citizenship to anyone born on US soil. However, there are hints that a few top Republicans want to repeal the 14th Amendment.  Since it is incredibly difficult to repeal any Amendment to the United States Constitution, it must mean these few Republicans are at their wits end about babies born to illegal immigrants.  Especially if the illegal immigrants come from our south: there has been no mention of a problem with babies born to illegal Canadian immigrants.  So, again, it saddens me to say, but I get the feeling there are a lot of racists in the US, the vast majority of whom seem to be Republican.  If I was Michael Steele I, too, would be networking heavily.

Today one cannot simply say “proud to be American” without qualifying it.  Pity, that.