Looking back at the Barack Obama birth certificate "scandal".

[kentuck]

It was not Donald Trump's first foray into political propaganda and lies to try and destroy his political enemies. But it was the first that went national and was widely successful with the right-wing of the Republican Party. It, too, was pushed by FOX News and right-wing outlets such as Rush Limbaugh.

Lest we forget, even after Obama showed his birth certificate, Trump declared that it was "fake". And most of his followers believed him. He saw first-hand how effective he could be with his lies and propaganda.

Obama's birth certificate was just the beginning of the lies. We have seen how far he has taken them. It was unfortunate that he never paid a price for his lies about the birth certificate.

[Diamond_Dog]

1. To my dying day

I will never understand the total thrall that Trump has over some people.

To me, he is narcissistic, ignorant, a bully, a coward, hateful, revengeful, and immoral. How anyone worships the ground he walks on just defies explanation.

[Lochloosa]

7. He's a Racist. That's really all you need to know to understand his support.

[japple]

12. In addition to being racist, he's a thug and a bully who is a champ at insulting

others. That's why his supporters like him so much. He's just like they are.

[spanone]

2. A lot of mainstream media supported the Obama birth certificate crazy

Obama Chides Media For Role In 'Birther' Controversy

April 27, 2011

There comes a moment in almost every American presidency when the commander in chief turns media critic in chief.

For President Obama, that moment occurred Wednesday morning. He released his birth certificate to quell persistent rumors that he was somehow not born in this country — and his remarks were carried live by the nation's leading cable news channels.

"Let me just comment, first of all, on the fact that I can't get the networks to break in on all kinds of other discussions. I was just back there listening to Chuck [Todd of NBC News and MSNBC]," Obama said. "He was saying, 'It's amazing that he's not going to be talking about national security.' I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it."

Obama said that for too long the nation has been distracted from weighty matters by "sideshows and carnival barkers." While he did not name whom he meant, the barker he had in mind was a specific New York City real estate developer, reality show host and putative potential Republican presidential candidate. Donald Trump lately has been boasting that he has sent a squad of investigators to Hawaii to pin down the facts of Obama's birth and that people would not believe what they were finding.

https://www.npr.org/2011/04/27/135778712/role-of-media-in-the-birther-controversy

[Freethinker65]

3. Trump was/is a master of The Art of Media Manipulation.

[bucolic_frolic]

4. The strategy was time-tested with the OJ Chase and Bill Clinton's Bad Hair Day

The former of which was hype and ratings and money, the second of which never happened and was fed by (probably money-fed) conservative echo chamber. In my view, the GOP speaks in one voice - lies!

[gab13by13]

5. The driving narrative today

is the Big Lie. When a country loses faith and trust in our elections it ceases to be a democracy.

I am hung up on DOJ not prosecuting the Cyber Ninja fraudit, it fomented the Big Lie.

[CrispyQ]

6. IMO, without years of The Apprentice, he never would have won the repub nomination.

He had years of exposure in people's living rooms as the supposed successful, tough-guy businessman. I knew a couple of trumpers surprised to find out (after they voted for him) that he'd declared bankruptcy, not just once, but six times. Frickin' morons.

[OMGWTF]

10. MAGAts are not smart people.

They are lazy-brained, cold-hearted, haters.

[JanLip]

13. I know one magat

That’s an airhead. If you try to explain anything to them you get an empty look on their face..Smart but stupid. 🤪

[young_at_heart]

8. One aspect of his deplorable lies that isn't discussed

very much is the tremendous amount of stress caused to so many people, especially the elderly. I know he is the reason that I eventually had to take medication for stress. I am now 83 and the stress continues daily, it seems!

[IronLionZion]

9. I have yet to see documentation proving TFG isn't a festering pile of garbage

Thankfully we are in "nobody wants to work anymore" now. Because back during recession, US citizens like me became foreigners real fast. "foreigners are stealing our jobs" even stealing the US presidency (Barack Obama) and Vice Presidency (Kamala Harris).

[hay rick]

11. It was the sell your soul moment for Republicans.

Those who knew it was bullshit decided they could live with it. A lie which was inconsequential in the real world opened the door for the torrent of falsehoods that followed. Republicans had chosen the slippery slope and were carried away by their own momentum. They rationalized the falsehoods by accepting the proposition that Donald Trump was a liar but he was *their* liar. Fox News propped up Trump's faithful by popularizing all kinds of Crooked Hillary, Hunter Biden, and other conspiracy theories which could not be proven or disproven by sloppy coverage but supported the narrative that the Democrats lie and cover up the truth so it's only fair for us to do the same.