From Google comes the following definition:
Delusion: (noun)?/
1. An idiosyncratic belief or impression that is firmly maintained despite being contradicted by what is generally accepted as reality or rational argument, typically a symptom of mental disorder;
2. A fixed belief that is either false, fanciful, or derived from deception.
Perhaps one of the greatest defects in human beings is the propensity to believe in the irrational, the unproven, the illogical and scientifically and empirically contradicted. When certain people want something false to be true, they will simply decide to believe that it is true, and then they will misinterpret and twist cold reality into “proof” that supports their delusion
Put another way: just because logic, empirical evidence and confirmed results say that something doesn’t exist is no reason not to believe that it does exist…especially if you’re a conspiracy fanatic…or a “birther”.
When Barack Obama ran for president of the USA in 2008, it was revealed that his father was a Kenyan and his mother was an American. Someone who had a twisted idea of the requirements set forth in the US constitution started the rumor that the future president was therefore ineligible to run for for president of the USA because his father was a Kenyan.
Of course, the US constitution does not set requirements for a candidate’s parents; it only sets a requirement that the candidate himself/herself be a natural-born American, i.e. a person whom, at birth, carried US citizenship by virtue of having been born either in the USA or one of its territories or possessions; or having been born in a foreign country, was born of two American citizens.
Not to be phased by facts, these right wing conspiracy theorists now known as “birthers” modified their story’s details to claim that Barack Obama himself was born in Kenya. Since both of his parents were not American citizens, this meant that Barack Obama was also not a natural-born US citizen”, and thus was ineligible to become a US president.
Over the course of the following three years, researcher after researcher verified that Obama born a US citizen in Hawaii. In fact, in 2011, Donald Trump, while appearing to be a possible candidate for president himself, made the claim that Obama had not produced a long-form birth certificate from Hawaii and thus his citizenship was in question. In response to this ridiculous media grab by Trump, Obama released his long-form official Hawaii birth certificate, which resulted in Thump’s acceptance of Obama’s natural-born US citizenship. Days later, Obama authorized the super-secret Navy Seals mission that killed Osama Bin Laden.
After Trump acknowledged Obama’s right to be president (citizenship-wise, at least), the birthers seems to fade from view until the ultra-extremist immigrant-hating sheriff of Maricopa county, Arizona, claimed that his “posse” of investigators had determined that Obama’s long-form birth certificate from Hawaii was a forgery. That breathed new live into the birther loonies so that at this point, they actually threaten to take over the republican party mainstream, much to the utter horror of the mainstream GOP. Some examples:
* The Arizona secretary of state recently made headlines when he threatened to exclude Obama from the 2012 presidential ballot in Arizona, unless Hawaii sends him a certified copy of Obama’s birth certificate.
* The Iowa state GOP has written a plank into their convention platform which demands that presidential candidate must prove they are natural-born US citizens, starting this year. (They admit it’s an anti-Obama tactic!)
* Republican members of Several GOP congresspeople from Florida (Rep. Cliff Stearns), Colorado (Rep. Mike Coffman) and Missouri (Rep. Vicky Hartzler) have recently commented on the “questionable” status Obama’s citizenship.
* A republican candidate for US congress from North Carolina raised suspicion about Obama’s citizenship.
…and on and on.
The campaign of Mitt Romney, the republican nominee-to-be for president, as well as the Republican National Committee (RNC) is trying to back the birthers out of the limelight for two important reason. The first is that issue is stealing oxygen from the issue the Romney campaign and the RNC want to focus on: The slow economic recovery, which is the GOP’s best issue to win the votes of independents. But the lunatic extremist conspiracy “birthers” are pushing them away!
The Romney campaign as well as the RNC recognize this problem, but they haven’t figured out how to shut the deluded segment of their party up yet.
Well….how about this fact: Before a candidate for national office gets any traction at all, he/her is vetted by the intelligence assets of the USA – the US Secret Service, the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), and perhaps even the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the NSA (National Security Agency), the NSC (National Security Council) and any other black ops agency that the rest of us don’t know about.
Ignorance causes delusion. Delusion causes failure.
The democrats are loving this.
And so is We, the People!! 
Power to the birthers! May they take over the party and rend asunder what remains of what was a viable political entity. The right wing crazies (spoken to by God in heaven) know that they are on the right path and they will allow nothing – facts, documents, video recordings, etc. – to dissuade them from their destiny.
However, the upcoming election is going to be determined by a few people in a very few states – FL, VA, OH, CO – and because of those demographics anything is possible. Costa Rica anyone?
Lady D – It amazes me that Donald Trump is so uwraane of his racial bias towards the Black community. Who uses a phrase like ‘the blacks’ anymore?re: GOP candidates — I feel ya’. Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin are waiting in the wings.
Some people are just not completely happy until their enormous stupidity is on display for the longest term possible. The only thing worse than this…is if that person is worth hundreds of millions of dollars & could be in a position to be on display for years! I shudder to think!
Ann C goes along to get along’ now. Denouncing? The same way they made people dncounee non-Communists in Stalins Russia?Trump has some gutts, clearly, this is what is lacking in the GOP or bust crowd, thanks to Ann C, AND O’Reilly.Trump got a reaction from the Muslim in chief; these 2 a$$hats (Ann & Bill) barely make Media Matters once a month. O’Reilly and Coulter are not considered a threat to far left wing nuts.So, they will live through the possible mass killings, who knows How can anyone trust Obama?I just got back from vacation, and saw the release of Obamas b.c’.Very timely .. Considering Trump would not leave the issue alone.
Howie,
Great post as always. I would also like to add that New Hampshire, where I live and work (ZBW) made national headlines with the Birthers as well. I wrote a short piece on my blog call the NH Labor News. I worked with Granite State Progress to make a video of the outbusts in the state house as well.
Cheers
Matt
New Hampshire Labor News: Are your State Reps Behaving Badly??? http://bit.ly/MC9qdw
Matty, is that you. Matty Matthewson. Long time no see.
One of the reasons Donald has magaend to stay in business is that the banks lent him so much money, they are literally in business with him -and if he goes down, the banks go down.Trumped!: Donald Trump’s Cunning Rise and Spectacular Fall from the Inside by John R. O’Donnell, a former employee -Circa 1991 -details that The Donald is not so hot of a businessman.
Anyone who can make millions of drlalos and beg the american people to just send him one dollar because he is broke does not even get my thought of a vote. He can’t run his own check book how can he run the American check book??