It’s a been awhile since I posted here, as the month of April somehow got away from me. This marks my attempt to get back on track.
Since the first rumblings of the “birthers,” I’ve been fascinated by how low people will go in order to undermine the strength of a particular candidate for the “highest office in the land.” Of course, there are examples of dirt digging and mud slinging in every campaign process, but the fact that almost three years later the issue continues to re-surface makes me feel a bit like we’re on the playground at the jungle gym arguing over which girl is Sally’s best friend.
The fact that Barack Obama had to release his birth certificate yesterday and that Donald Trump held a press conference to claim his role in that process just makes me wonder how much lower the country’s leaders are going to go in this next presidential campaign. Those of you who have followed this blog know that I’m not an Obama disciple. However, the amount of valuable time and energy that people, namely Republicans and conservatives, have spent on this birthing issue illustrates just how dire things actually are in this country. To think that the “intelligent” and “rational” people who are supposed to be the leaders of our country are baiting people around Obama’s citizenship and using that to further undermine his reputation calls into question what democratic representation should be accomplishing. I do not claim to be the smartest girl in the class; I stopped thinking that a long time ago. However, I do think that I tend to consider very carefully how people present information, and I’m not convinced that a vast majority of Americans necessarily do the same. Hence, the danger zone created by our national leaders. The either/or mentality that these men and women are spewing right now is epitomized by the current budget crisis on a macro scale and by this birth certificate crisis on a micro scale. Yes, people are reaching across the aisle. Yes, maybe the birthers have been silenced with the release of the certificate. But how did we get to these points in the first place?
My message to our national leaders in this moment: put on your big boy and big girl pants, stop sniveling around the jungle gym about Sally’s best friend, and start spending time being the intelligent, rational adults that we need to represent us. Otherwise, we’re going to be witnessing the rapid deterioration of the United States of America right before our eyes.