The Obama-Cruz birther situation is a lesson on political hypocrisy

by Raphael Stroud Apr 7, 2015 12:32 am

Rafael “Ted” Cruz is the first Republican to announce he’s running for president.

Donald Trump brought up a very interesting point, mentioning in an interview how Cruz was born in Canada.

Despite this Cruz has gone on to become the youngest, longest running and first Latino solicitor general of Texas.

But it wasn’t how Trump mentioned his Canadian birth, it was the way he described it as “a hurdle” he would have to overcome compared to other competitors, and not a bid-ending ineligibility.
Other Republicans don’t share Trump’s sentiments, believing it won’t seclude him from the presidency.

Mass media is even debunking the idea that you have to be born in the U.S. to be president, and Fox News gave Cruz the chance to clear the air over the “non-issue.”

Now turn the calendar back seven years and think of a certain smear campaign against a Democratic nominee.

President Barack Obama was hounded about possibly being born Kenyan because his father was African, even though his mother was American.

How low did the right go? Low enough to manipulate an interview with his grandmother to falsely claim he was born in Kenya.

Obama’s twice-released birth certificate was even accused of being forged.

This was a movement supported by Trump, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich—also known as people allowed to make decisions that affect the country.

And what party is complete without healthy (and one-sided) coverage by the “fair and balanced” Fox News to give the “birthers” an air of validity?

Former presidential nominee John McCain didn’t outright use the conspiracy against Obama, probably because he had his own nearly nonexistent issue to deal with: being born in the Canal Zone in Panama.

So far there has only been mild questioning of Cruz’s eligibility, but it’s still very early in the presidential race.

While I wouldn’t put it past Republican nominees to use Cruz’s birth as a campaign tactic—after all, Hillary Clinton did it to Obama when they competed—they would be shooting themselves in the foot if they didn’t.

Ignoring that it’s easier to bring right-wingers against a hypothetically African-Muslim candidate than a passes-for-white Hispanic Canadian, the Republican Party will have to acknowledge this discrepancy down the line or Democrats will have plenty of ammunition to call them out as hypocrites or even racists.

Republicans, notably Tea Partiers, spent the better part of Obama’s campaign broadcasting its suspicions of his eligibility. If they downplay the issue with Cruz, they risk extreme followers catching on to inconsistency.

The excuse with Cruz is that he was born to American citizens, but so was Obama and that didn’t stop anyone from treating him like an illegal immigrant.

When Obama’s nationality was questioned, it was covered like an actual issue, feeding the conspiracies as though anything could really come out of it.

But with Cruz so far, the media is going out of its way to clear any doubts, like it was supposed to back then.

There’s a really simple way to understand this.
Remember at the Oscars when the winning Mexican director received a green card joke and none of his European counterparts did?

I don’t want to say “racism,” but again, it’s easier casting doubt with a hypothetically African-Muslim than a Canadian-born Christian Hispanic who goes by Ted instead of Rafael—a man with no accent and fairer skin than most Latinos.

Not to shame Cruz on his ethnicity or first name choice, but he doesn’t need to be born in Texas to fit the right’s ideal of being as American as apple pie.

Barack Hussein Obama, on the other hand, is the socialist-communist-Muslim-Arab-Kenyan bogeyman Republicans use to scare “less tolerant” Americans into voting for them during elections.

See more at: http://spartandaily.com/137519/obama....gutNgtsu.dpuf