Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:04 pm
Bill Maher took to his blog to slam Republicans for their racist hypocrisy concerning Ted Cruz and President Obama’s birth certificates.
Bill Maher wrote on his blog that,
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The Constitution says, “No Person except a natural born Citizen… shall be eligible to the Office of President.” Cruz says he’s eligible to run because his mom was a U.S. citizen, and therefore he’s a U.S. citizen who didn’t need to be naturalized. Great, but then what the hell was that whole Obama “birther” thing about?
Over half of Republican primary voters thought President Obama was illegitimate because they claimed he wasn’t born here. They didn’t give a damn that his mother was. If they don’t have a problem with Cruz running, it’s just an admission that they only care when it involves one of the black countries.
Can you imagine if it’d turned out President Obama wasn’t born in America and had lived the first four years of his life in Kenya? They’d be drawing up the articles of impeachment. Donald Trump would take a victory lap. Then again, he took a victory lap when it turned out he was wrong, which everyone already knew, so maybe he’s just a douche.
But here’s the thing: Ted Cruz is perfectly American enough to be president. His mom was an American citizen. His father became an American citizen. And every memory Ted probably has is from the years he spent in America. Except for when he was at Harvard, which he considers the Soviet Union.
Maher also pointed out that Republicans favor Ted Cruz over Marco Rubio, because Cruz is a openly hostile to other Latinos. The Republican base is in favor of Latino leaders, as long as they embrace the party’s hostility towards their own people.
You won’t hear many Republicans questioning Cruz’s eligibility to run, because he is a Republican from Texas who has embraced his party’s anti-minority rhetoric. It’s almost like the GOP has made Sen. Cruz an honorary white guy.
For years Republicans have continued to deny that that their birth certificate conspiracy was about race, when in reality, it has always only been about race. While Obama was closing out the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, the Republican Party decided that they were going to use racism as a political strategy. The questioning of Obama’s birth certificate was supposed to be a reminder to white voters that Barack Obama wasn’t like them. They were supposed to treat him with distrust and suspicion.
Maher was right. If the situations were reversed and Obama had been born, and spent the first four years of his life in Kenya, Republicans would be impeaching him as we speak. But the rules are different for Republican candidates, who aren’t black Democrats. Republicans can keep trying to fool themselves with claims that their lingering belief in the great Obama birth certificate conspiracy isn’t race based, but the truth can be found in the fact that they have no issues with Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president.
Race based politics are always an ugly thing, but racial politics laced with such obvious hypocrisy are a humiliating insult to us all.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
