The notion that Obama isn’t a natural born citizen of the US is wrong on so many levels,
and is so easy to disprove. As the father of two biracial children born on foreign soil (Germany) to a non-American mother, I can tell you with absolute certainty that even though Obama’s father wasn’t American, Obama has automatic US citizenship because his mother was a US citizen, regardless if she was under 18 when she had him. It also does not matter where he was born; as long as his mother did not renounce her citizenship, he is a natural born American citizen. Period. A child does not automatically lose their US citizenship when they are adopted by a non-US citizen (as was the case when Obama was legally adopted by his Indonesian stepfather), since citizenship and custody are two totally separate issues. The fascinating irony of the whole subject of Obama’s birth certificate is that it was brought about by a woman named Orly Taitz, a laywer and dentist living in California who herself isn’t a natural-born US citizen, but born and raised in the former Soviet republic of Moldova.

In her arguments against Obama she places great emphasis on the fact that his father wasn’t a US citizen, not realizing that in the US, as opposed to other countries, priority is not given to the father’s birth origin over the mother’s; even if Obama was born in Kenya, as the “birthers” believe, he would still be considered a natural-born US citizen because of his mother. I guess she also forgot that even if both of Obamas’ parents were illegal aliens, he’d still be a natural-born citizen because he was born in Hawaii (a fact that has now been confirmed twice by Hawaii state officials).

What makes the “birthers” so fascinating and disturbing is the general makeup of the part of the US population who are believers in the movement: older, white Southerners. Ironically, this is the demographic that makes up much of what is left of modern Republican Party base. Sadly, this movement speaks to a much bigger problem facing the GOP; the changing racial makeup of the US and the inability of many Republicans to deal with it. The “birther” movement is most definitely immersed in racial politics, despite having Alan Keyes as a vocal supporter. Keyes, who is black, was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for the US Senate representing Illinois in 2004 by – you guessed it – Barack Obama. Shockingly, many Republican leaders are of the belief that this kind of race-based politics will work well for them in the upcoming 2010 and 2012 elections, although the election of 2008 proved that exactly the opposite is true. The most obvious sign of GOP racial politics is the opposition among conservatives of Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor. At face value, the notion that Sotomayor shouldn’t be appointed to the court because she’s a so-called “reverse racist” is just plain silly, especially given that she’s more experienced as a judge than anyone else currently sitting on the court. That coupled with the latest imagined controversy on the right regarding Obama’s comments on the arrest of a black Harvard professor in his own home by a white police officer, with several prominent right-wing media celebrities calling the President a racist because of the remarks, and you can start to see a pattern of racial division being instigated by the right wing. Fortunately, America is changing in its views about race: the 2000’s are definitely not the 1970’s. The GOP has in the “birther” movement and its outdated, failed race-baiting strategy a serious problem going forward, especially given that they need African-Americans and Latinos if they ever want to win elections in a meaningful way in the future.

With only 26% of Americans calling themselves Republicans, The last thing the GOP needs right now is a complete takeover by the lunatic right. They’re circling the bowl, and if they don’t take the right steps to stop the madness coming from the far right of their party, there will be no stopping the flush.