My sister is a Birther...ugh!!!

[azlatina]

I was having a discussion with my sister over coffee Saturday morning & politics came up. I shared with her a rather loud discussion I had with my republican boss about President Obama. She says that she doesn't understand why President Obama refuses to show his birth certificate. I reply he has, the state of Hawaii has certified his birth, etc. I then told her don't you think that the CIA, FBI, Justice Dept, Senate, Congress, etc. vetted him extensively. I asked her if she had any faith in any of those organizations. She just replied "well he still refused to show it." I asked her why haven't any of our past presidents been asked to show their birth certificates. They are only asking for President Obama's because he is black. I then told her that Rmoney's dad was born in Mexico & he didn't have to show his birth certificate when he ran for president. She just shook her head & asked me where I get my info. I told her I read news sources from around the world to get my information. I am so disappointed...(for a little background, my sis lives with a man who lives & breathes Faux News & Rush so I'm sure he has had a major influence on my sis -- she kinda follows the man in her life...

On a good note, a lady sitting at a table next to us overheard our conversation. She said she was a lifelong republican & she plans to vote for President Obama. She said a lot of her friends who are republican are doing the same. She is interested in volunteering so I gave her my contact info...

[FLyellowdog]

1. Good news from that Republican...

but the indoctrination that your sister is being subjected to is horrendous. Typically when people say they watch Fox they mean they watch it exclusively and there is little or no hope that they will listen to other news. Of course, this is what the right wingnuts count on. Facism in its best form.

[azlatina]

7. She used to vote Democrat...

Her 20+ yr career is with Head Start, one of the programs that the Republicans want to eliminate.

[Zoeisright]

25. Wow, she's really stupid.

Here's what a conversation with a birther looks like, ad nauseum:

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

"Show me the birth certificate"

"Here it is."

[DeSwiss]

2. You have my sympathies.

But the Wiki knows-all:



George Wilcken Romney (July 8, 1907 – July 26, 1995) was an American businessman and Republican Party politician. He was chairman and president of American Motors Corporation from 1954 to 1962, the 43rd Governor of Michigan from 1963 to 1969, and the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from 1969 to 1973. He is the father of former Governor of Massachusetts and 2012 Republican presidential presumptive nominee Mitt Romney and was the husband of former Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Lenore Romney.

Romney was born to American parents living in the Mormon colonies in Mexico; events during the Mexican Revolution forced his family to flee back to the United States when he was a child.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Romney

- And ask her how she feels about John McCain. He was born in Panama......

[azlatina]

5. I thought about McCain after we parted ways...

[sadbear]

3. Just remind her that she was adopted.

[azlatina]

30. She is my half-sister...

Her brothers & sisters (total of 8) on her dad's side are all Democrats and support President Obama...Yeah!

[sadbear]

34. Close enough.

[Warpy]

4. Every family seems to have at least one of them

Mine is a cousin nobody else in the family can stand to talk to because he just won't stop ranting no matter what.

However, I've heard a lot of Republican women say they're waking up to what their party has become. Many will stay home since they don't like our party, either. A few will vote for Obama. The rest will vote third party.

[Politicalboi]

6. If your sister is young enough

To have kids, she better read more than what World Nut Daily and Faux give her. Does she even know her birth control can be taken away, or too expensive she won't be able to afford it. Does she know Paul Ryan would rather see her die than to abort a baby that could kill her to take to term?

[azlatina]

9. We had that discussion too...

She did not seem to be listening to what I shared with her.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Ask her if she would feel that way if Obama's father had been

Bertil Hans Olsson (from Sweden) or Bernard Henry O'Hara (from Ireland) studying at the University of Iowa.

I think the combination of Barack Hussein Obama (Senior) and the University of Hawaii is just too non-white for some people.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. In the reply I sent to my former boss I asked the question but

about Barry Winthorpe III from Great Britain.

[FLyellowdog]

15. Exactly! nt

[Cicada]

10. Problems with birther argument

Your sister's logic is that Hawaii birth seems doubtful because Obama did not initially release certificate etc. But what about problems with the Kenya theory? 1. What are odds pregnant mom in US would go to Kenya for birth given quality of African health care? Why would she even want to go there? 2. How could college students afford it? Back then commercial flights to Africa cost a fortne. Round trip would cost as much as a year tuiton room and bard in college. Barack's father and other Kenyan students could fly to school in USA only because of a special noncommercial flight arranged for them all. 3. Two newspapers reported Hawaii birth at the time. 4. Many officials in Hawaii confirm record of Hawaii birth. Why would they all lie? No one wuld tell the truth were those records not there?
So problems with Hawaii birth theory are not enough. Sis must also explain away problems with Kenya birth theory.

[azlatina]

19. I don't think any presentation of facts would sway her...she will follow the jerk she lives with...

[Kalidurga]

11. I am so sorry to hear that...

I suspect I have a number of them in my family. But, I haven't talked politics with them since 2010 or so. It was after the tea baggers got in that I found out how radical the party became. My family is mostly non voting conservatives, but I still really don't want to hear their views on Obama. I won't ask and if they tell, I am going to change the subject. Or just not talk to them, I really don't need the headache.

[riverbendviewgal]

12. What was your sister's reaction to what the lady at t he next table said

I am curious.


My brother is a birther and hates Obama because he is black...He lives in NJ.

[azlatina]

18. No reaction or comment...

[NNN0LHI]

13. Don't leave your children with this nut for even short periods of time

That is the best advice I can give here.

Don

[Jack Sprat]

16. That's why it is almost total futility

to reason with them. It's like they have become zombies under Murdock's control. I expect them anytime to start walking with a zombie gait with their flesh rotting and their eyes in a hypnotic stupor. You're tempted to try snapping your fingers in front of them to see if they react. I feel for your having a sister repeating this, but at the same time it's very uplifting to hear the reactions of the lady at the neighboring table. Uplifting indeed that some are actually thinking for themselves.

[otohara]

17. Former Best Friend Married GOPer

This was a woman who applied to work for Greenpeace ... Then he came along and for a while she resisted his GOP garbage... But then in 2000 voted for Bush, bought the lies, and we are friends nomo.

I would really like to know what she thinks of the new mean spirited, racist, etc....GOP

[azlatina]

20. She does not think its racism...

I want to discuss with her how our mother was an illegal in AZ for a while & that in our current political environment, she could be stopped & deported if she does not have her papers with her. She will be 84 yrs old on Thursday.

[otohara]

23. Oy

Your sis needs to be reminded of her roots. My mom Hispanic...I embraced it...my sister ...not at all.

[Archae]

21. All the far-right relatives I had are dead now.

Or I just never see them anymore.

The worst was an uncle, who was just plain vicious, and he got worse when he drank a lot.
Which was just about all the time.

Finally his liver exploded.

[Cha]

22. Sorry about your sis, aziatina..

I'm grateful I don't have to deal with that in my family. The only one I hear about that is faux news mashed is my former husband..poor thing, I knew it would never work out decades ago.

Great News about the republican who heard the dust up and volunteered her recent conversion!

[_Liann_]

24. Birthers are racist haters plain and simple.

Both his mom and pop were registered college students in Honolulu, Hawaii -- they couldn't just up and leave any time without losing their grades and losing their student registrations.

Kenya was on the Yellow Fever Travel Restriction at the time. Doctors would not, and could not, vaccinate a pregnant woman with the Yellow Fever Vaccine on the way out. Children could not enter the US without proof of Yellow Fever Vaccination, and children under one year old were never vaccinated -- too dangerous for small infants.

It could not have happened that mom left the country and returned with baby Barack a couple months later to continue school without missing a beat, for a lot of reasons, but these are all you need to know right now. It didn't happen. It's a lie told by sociopaths intent on harming suckers who let them prey upon their gullibility.

Your sister is a racist hater and now you know.

[Tx4obama]

26. I absolutely LOVE to hear about republicans that are now going to vote for Obama

seems like there have been quite a few posts here on DU lately about them.

I just LOVE 'em.

[JoePhilly]

36. I think lots of Republican women are going to tell the husband they will vote Romney,

and then when they are in the voting booth, fully in control of their own body, they'll vote for Obama.

[DavidDvorkin]

27. Tell your sister that "natural-born citizen" does not mean born in the USA

Even if he had been born in Kenya, Obama would still be a natural-born citizen because of his mother and hence eligible to be president.

He has no reason to lie about his birth, wherever he was born.

[grasswire]

28. my sister too...........AND she joined the NRA last year

Brainwashed. She's an L-dotter and a teabagger too.

[Hestia]

29. I'll up you one - my twin is one also. Can't even get into a decent conversation, it's Faux this

Faux that, doesn't want to hear a word unless it comes from their mouths. About 30 years ago he asked when I became so liberal - I told him it was when our dad was bragging in front of my friends that he voted for Wallace! I remember being mortified, didn't know why, but just knew that was absolutely wrong. Hell, I wasn't even that old! What, 12? After that I started watching the news and asking my mom who she voted for. Thank goodness, it was the Democratic ticket. I harangued (well, almost) into voting for Obama in 2008. She said she did. I need to make sure she does it again - I'll bribe her with some good Italian food.

[Heather MC]

31. Don't forget John McCain was not born in the US either

[abelenkpe]

32. So is my mother, brother and uncle

I understand your frustration.


Great news about the lady deciding to vote for Obama though!

[The Doctor.]

33. "Name one President who has provided more proof of citizenship than Obama."

Shuts them down every time.

[DarleenMB]

35. My SIL posted this yesterday on her FB page:

Article 2, Section 1, Paragraph 5 - "No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, ..."

Note that the Constitution does NOT say "born in this country", it says "natural born Citizen".

Article 1, Section 8 delineates the "Powers of Congress", including the power in Paragraph 4 "To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, ...".

Congress gets to pass the law that says who is natural born and who is not ... something the First Congress proceeded to do in their second session with the Naturalization Act of 1790, holding that "the children of citizens of the United States that may be born beyond Sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born Citizens".

While the Naturalization Act of 1790 has been superseded several times, that particular standard has been maintained.

Even in the case where only one parent is a citizen, citizenship descends to the child with very few exceptions.

The only exception I know of is where the FATHER holds U.S. citizenship, the child does not come to the US during the father's lifetime and the child obtains his/her majority (18th birthday) in a foreign country before attempting to claim his/her U.S. citizenship rights.

Obama's MOTHER was a U.S. citizen. Had he been born on Mars, he would still be a "natural born Citizen" of the United States.