A Childs Song Can Explain Trumps Birtherism

For decades’ children have learned how to identify which of a handful of objects presented does not belong within the group through a song; One of these things does not look like the others. We all learned the song in school or watching Sesame Street, and it helped us learn the skills of identification and patterns that prepares us for future subjects like math and science as we progressed through school. Donald Trump, however, appears to have taken this innocent child lesson into the dangerous adult practice of racial identification for the purpose of pointing out who they believe does not belong.

Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush all served the nation in the highest office during Mr. Trump’s adulthood. Not one time during these administrations did Mr. Trump ever ask for these presidents to produce their birth certificates nor had he ever attempted to delegitimize these presidents by suggesting they were not Americans. This all changed with the election of Barack Obama, the first President of the United States who does not look like the forty-three others.

Beginning in 2011, when Mr. Trump was contemplating a run for president, he reignited the birtherism story at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) by telling the audience that President Obama “came out of nowhere” and people who attended the same school as he did say they “never saw him.” Mr. Trump even took it a step further in an interview with Bill O’Reilly when he suggested there may be a birth certificate and maybe (notice how he always uses the word ‘maybe’ when he wants to insinuate without fully coming out to say what he really means) it says he is a Muslim.

Again and again in interview after interview Mr. Trump continued his assault on the legitimacy of President Obama. His distortion of the truth and inciting the worst fears and hate of a small but vocal minority of the American population has continued for years, and has even been expanded to include Hispanics. Mr. Trump may finally come out and say President Obama was born in the United States (and tanks to him we all know this to be true), but we will know that it is because of the expediency of a political campaign and not because of what he believes deep within.