Brain Lemon

I would like to share a small experience I had yesterday, and what I feel it means for the Tea Party movement as a whole.

Yesterday, a list that I have been on sent out one of the most ridiculous birther pieces I have yet seen.  It included full-blown pictures of Obama’s supposed Kenyan birth certificate, along with the farcical assertion that his Hawaiian certificate was “forged”.  I immediately emailed the list owner, asking him why he would send out this nonsense.  His reaction?  In what barely amounted to English, he ended up challenging me to meet him face to face, if I was “man enough”.  Really – this was a reaction expected of a child, not a fully grown man.

I had to reach the conclusion, then, that at least this one group has been completely taken over by birthers, and I think that many groups around the country have suffered the same fate.  They are indeed like a disease that slowly infiltrates a group, turning otherwise intelligent people into raving loons.  And every group they take over quickly turns into a conspiracy-theory cesspool that has no hope of being a legitimate player in politics.  It is like a cancer, and once it takes the brain, the creature is rendered useless and dead.

It is my firm position, then, that this sickness must be cut off immediately whenever it is discovered.  Unfortunately, this can be tough, as it can hit even otherwise stalwart folks, who might otherwise be allies and sources of information.  But once birtherism earns its place as a legitimate idea in someone’s mind, they are compromised and must be cut off for the good of the movement as a whole.  If we do not remove this ugliness from our midst, it will continue to infect and eventually destroy the long-term viability of the Tea Party movement.

My policy, then, is what I would also urge others to do – when you hear someone talking about birtherism, do a little probing, and if you find that this person genuinely believes Obama is not a citizen, cut off ties.  If you follow them on Twitter, unfollow them, even block them if you have to. You can argue with them if you so desire, but most likely to no avail.  Their minds have been captured by what can be referred to as Obama Derangement Syndrome – that is, a tendency to believe literally insane things about Obama due to an intense personal hatred of him.

The quicker we do this, the sooner we can minimize the damage done overall.  I would, then, strongly advocate a no-tolerance policy.  It is the only way we can avoid becoming a laughingstock and maintain the integrity needed to be a long-term political player.