In my last post, from December 19, I wondered why there was hardly any talk at all -- from Trump and the press -- about Cruz's eligibility to serve as president of these United States. And up until about a week ago, there wasn't. As a matter of fact, ever since Cruz began showing signs that he coveted the office of Commander-In Chief (in early 2013) the ultra-conservative Senator from Texas seemed to be benefiting from a baffling lack of concern from, well, anyone, about the fact that he was born in a foreign country.
I mean, we had just gone through five years of angry declarations about the importance of the Constitutional requirement that (as the birthers and seemingly everyone else interpreted it) anyone seeking election to the office of President must be born on United States soil!
And despite all of the very recent and self-righteous histrionics about "the supreme authority of the Constitution," all of a sudden there was nothing but silence from the conservative media complex.
This hypocrisy was predictable, coming from the right, but what about the press? Back then, I didn't see/read/hear anything more than a few mere mentions that Cruz was born in Canada -- without any commentary as to the implications of this fact. And nothing from the libs or Dems.
But when Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014, I thought for sure there would be something said about this in relation to the firestorm we had just gone through with Obama.
However, the only thing I heard was the mere mention that he was doing it to be eligible for the Presidency -- again without anything said or explained about how this "renouncing" changed the fact that he was still born in Canada -- a foreign country.
Now, I must say that in doing research for this topic, I did come across some contemporaneous articles that talked a little about his eligibility. But I had to dig deep for them -- they weren't front page news. And almost all of the articles casually stated that, even though he was born in Canada, a foreign country, he was still a "Natural Born Citizen" because his mother was a US citizen.
Apparently, because this eligibility issue had come up before with Mitt Romney's father and a few others, a consensus of legal scholars had determined -- in their opinion -- that this was the case.
Now, my question is, why the fuck didn't anyone mention this during the attacks on Obama?
Everyone knew his mother was a US citizen. Which would have made the whole Birth Certificate question, at the most, secondary. At least to those who are now saying it's already settled law.
I didn't hear a single person mention it during that whole damn time. Did you?
Now we have every right-wing talk show blowhard who hates Obama, from Sean Hannity to Laura Ingraham to Mark Levin, declaring -- loudly and with angry indignation -- that there is no question that Cruz is a Natural Born Citizen because his mother was a citizen!
They are all saying, now, that it's a stupid waste of time and we should be talking about the real important issues -- like how come Obama had his college transcripts sealed? And how come no one ever saw or knew him when he was an alleged student at Columbia University? And how did he get into Harvard?
Affirmative Action!! That's how!!
OK, I'm kidding about that last part. They didn't mention that stuff just now. But they talked the hell out of it for the whole time they were giving Birthers a platform to report on this and other critically important information. And this stuff went on for years. And it still gets mentioned, even to this day.
I have a confession to make. When I first heard that Cruz -- arguably the most repugnant politician in the entire country -- was imagining a place for himself in the Oval Office... and that he was actually born in
a foreign country... I was filled with glee!
The whole irony of the situation was so beautiful.
Here was the perfect conservative Republican that the people (who hate Obama the most) would love.
As a matter of fact, there is a precise linear correlation between these two emotions.
Here, I plotted it on a graph so you can see:
Not only is the irony and correlation perfect but so is the justice.
This was Karma.
We all know Shakespeare's line -- "hoisted by one's own petard"
Here's what that means, in English:
To be hurt or destroyed by one's own plot or device intended for another.
Unfortunately, so far, things haven't been going exactly as it should, if this were a just world.
I will elaborate further in part three of "I Thought Birtherism Was Stillborn."
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