Birther Control

Honorary Texan.  A good friend of mine from college and a native of Texas enjoys calling me that.  He once said, if I had not told him that I was originally from California then he would have just assumed that I was another southern boy like him and his friends.  I attended graduate school in Arlington and have been living in the Lone Star State for a little under four years now.  To hear that from someone who is fiercely loyal to a state that takes pride in something like this, I choked up a little.  I love living in Texas and I love the people.  This is why it is so aggravating when someone makes me lose faith in a state I refer to as home.  Who is the culprit that is making every Texan look like a backwards dumbass?  This person is State Representative Bill Zedler (R-Arlington).  What did he do which is so aggravating and an embarrassment to the entire state?  He introduced a bill on January 23^rd.  No big deal, right?  Wrong.  Wrong.

H.B. 650 states that in order to be placed on the ballot in Texas to run for President and Vice President of the United States, they must provide the Texas Secretary of State with a birth certificate from the original issuing authority and proof of residence and this will be a public record.  Wow.  Just when you thought all the birther nonsense was over and we could all return to normalcy.  The more things change the more they stay the same.  Let me Tarantino this by starting from the end and working my way backwards.  The birther movement and this bill are racist.  Nothing more.  At this point you must be rolling your eyes but deep down inside, you know I am right.  Zedler is a Tea party politician and they seem to be the only ones keeping this idea alive.  Naturally, most Democratic Party members and Progressive groups in Texas and around the nation are outraged at this, but, it is interesting to note that even most moderate Republicans are shocked at this as well.  The general consensus is Bill is a day late and a dollar short.  Bill states, “I think there is a minimum standard of information that ought to be required of all candidates”.  All candidates?   Really?  If it is for all candidates then why does this only pertain to people running for President and Vice President of the United States and not every candidate in Texas? 

Zedler has assured us this bill has nothing to do with Obama but he did introduce this bill two days after the Presidential Inauguration.  Ah Ha! A Clue!  This whole movement came about because of the election of the first African American President.  It was never an issue before Obama and he is the only one it was aimed at.  No one was demanding to see the birth certificate of John McCain in 2008 or after.  I can feel people screaming at their screens right now.  Why would they check his birth certificate?  John’s a war hero who would probably bleed on the flag to ensure that those stripes stay red, but, he was not born in the United States.  That’s true; I did not just pull this fact out of my ass.  His parents were American citizens and he was born on a U.S. military base in the Panama Canal Zone.  Military bases in foreign countries are not considered sovereign U.S. soil.  McCain is an American citizen because his parents were and I do not doubt his citizenship or his devotion to his country.  My point is why is his citizenship more sacred than the Presidents?  What is the primary difference between McCain and Obama?  Is it because one is a Republican and the other is a Democrat?  This is doubtful and the fact that it has been definitively proven that Obama was born in America just makes it seem like this is about race. 

Many republicans and tea party politicians are trying to change the game so they win more elections.  Gerrymandering did not work and now they are trying to introduce new state laws that would award electoral votes based on congressional district results and not majority votes.  Do people really think that candidates for President are not vetted and determined if they are American Citizens?  Candidates for national office are constantly vetted by the FBI, other government agencies, and private citizens working on campaigns to find anything that would disqualify them from office.  This is the greatest country on Earth and there are ways of keeping just anybody from running for President. 

Zedler has said this bill is not about Obama, but, this would not be the first time he has not been honest.  This bill is pointless and just provides another layer of unnecessary government bureaucratic red tape.  I thought the point of the Republicans and the Tea party was to keep these kinds of intrusive government laws from happening, but, I guess I am wrong.  This bill would provide politicians with ammunition to hurt their opponents.  If you oppose this bill then what are you hiding?  Why won’t you turn over these documents if you are an American citizen?  I doubt this bill will pass and if it does than in the future there will be a Supreme Court decision overturning this law.  In the meantime, this bill harms candidates and pushes Texas even close to turning into a blue state in 2016.  What this bill really does is address certain groups of people who may want to run for office and tells them no matter how much you accomplish or how high you ascend, you will never be accepted.  You will never be one of us.