Trump's Pride Is A Mark of Shame

Did you ever become excited by an expectation and end up disappointed, smoldering and seething in anger, feeling weak and weepy?

Twice this week I felt this way. Once when my lawn care service dumped the leaves under the shrubs rather than carting them away. The second time when the President pre-empted the “discussion” and released the “document,” citing “better things” to do.

Lord, that only made things worse. I hurt my back screaming at the TV. Why? Shouldn’t I have been ecstatic? Didn’t Barack strike a blow that would clear the air? Now nothing would interfer with my curious interest in “the dress.”

But quickly, those who were in the silent ranks rose to object. “Proof,” they shouted. But India was more concerned about the new security team Obama is installing. The Dutch were having a good laugh at the idea that Barack is Afrikaans. Canada had passionate supporters on both sides; those against are appealing to technical issues to prove the certificate is false. If I were going to create a fake document, wouldn’t I make it perfect? Aren’t the issues being raised evidence of its veracity? There were smudges (I predicted a focus on one of the “X”s), it didn’t show the marks of leather binding, the doctor died eight years ago, the date the clerk marked it received was four days after the birth, the signature says “ukelele,” and was the copy real; after all the online pdf could be easily opened and its components moved around with a click in several software programs!

Sadly, I don’t think the issue can ever be proved to the satisfaction of the mainstream fringe. But let’s work backward. Eight Presidents were British citizens. Few senators until recently had proof of their birth. Fifteen presidents lead a country in which owning slaves for a lifetime was legal under a simple property contract. (I’ve read the bill of sales, which incidentally didn't have to be filed as legal documents.) Since before Dred Scott, from the beginning of the Republic, the cry has been for “proof,” but the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall rejected the legal, common sense arguments of proof in Dred Scott and later in Plessy. The 11 states which seceded from the Union pre-empted any attempt at proof and began the nation’s most tragic war.

The frenetic, intense focus of these cries is Obama, “his words.” For those who doubt with such absolute certainty, He is his own PROOF he should not be allowed to hold office. They argue their prima facie a priori assumption: this man was ineligible; he should not be President; he is accused. He is not the first. A long, long, distinguished list of African-American politicians from Reconstruction to modern times have faced legal challenges, including Harlem's Congress member Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Even the incessant demand by the social voice for "paper" whose a historic echo. South Africa once required its African citizens to carry pass books. Unable to produce one? You were arrested and locked up on the spot. Those enslaved sent on errands carried day passes subject to inspection by an free person, to ensure they were in the proper place.

The vote for Barack changed a world many believed in and cherished. Now nothing is authentic. but myth makes their world real. Myth is all that is available to people whose hearts are wholly frustrated with the present. The legal issues aren't really important; they intend to will Barack into non-existence. Their hoax demands that the President of the United States prove he is an American.

From some deeper region of their minds, they force him to wear the masks of their fears: the loss of face, the loss of self-respect, the hint of cowardice, the futility of his true aim, how his remarkable success outrages them; he must wear their humiliation. They challenge his honesty and deny his fundamental humanity. For their world view and for reasons unavailable, it is a practical necessity that Barack Obama’s existence as President be denied by a theory one can grab by degrees.

Outside of the President’s words, the greatest conspiracy in the history of modern politics would have to be in place if the certificate he posted on the White House web site isn’t true. Two administrations of Hawaiian government, one under a Republican administration, and countless officials and lawyers would have engaged in fraud and forgery of the highest order and risked their political lives to criminal punishment if the certificate is fake. “I want him to prove it.” He has, but it doesn’t “meet” the perpetual doubt that holds out the hope for the return of what is both cherished and lost to the irrational fear of the private soul. We can nitpick and parse and split hairs and cast blame upon the victim (Obama), claiming injury for those whose demands will never be resolved. Their fears say about Obama you are different, devious, immoral, duplicitous, and don’t deserve office; you embarrass us, haunt us; you cheated, connived, lied to 62 million Americans and the world, but not to me. They accuse him of manipulating, but it is they who manipulated and stretched reality to hold on to a dying legacy they cannot let go.

The release of Obama’s birth certificate will not pacify the main fringe that cannot accept an African American president. Nothing Obama can do will send them a final, acceptable signal.