Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Concluding remarks (hopefully) on the Birthers...

There are plenty of spaces from which to be VERY critical of Obama--from the left or the right, from anti-statism to anti-capitalism, etc. But the unique suspicion of Obama (no president having ever been accused of being an Islamic, Afrocentric "manchurian candidate" before, no president EVER being asked to verify his birth certificate before) proves the Birthers aren't using systemic critique as their starting point, but white populist suspicion of the dark Other. You find me a Birther who is also a left-wing internationalist anti-capitalist, or even an intelligent, articulate libertarian of the classical rather than the Lew Rockwell variety, and I'll change my theory. But if you are in any way concerned about charting a critical course that transcends Obama, Bush, and the two-party system, the Birther fantasy needs to be thrown into the trash. Factually, it is an absolutely fabricated and impossible allegation, and connotatively, it is fueled by racism.

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