Author: Trevor Ladd Date:2/15/2015
Editor: Elizabeth Wood
Was Barack Obama born in the United States?
America’s great democratic president, Barack Obama, is often hostilely accused by the political right wing of being born outside of the United States, and more specifically, Kenya. This is an absurd statement that can be easily falsified once exposed to the hard facts lended to the public by the White House. A large amount of commotion was started about Obama’s citizenship by the “birthers,” who are a group of mostly white, middle to upper class, christian, conservative-republican men who engage in the tribalistic group action of labeling elected officials in government that they don’t care for as non-natural born citizens in an ill-fated attempt to get said officials removed from office. The White House was quick to shut down any conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama being born outside the U.S. by releasing his long form birth certificate at WhiteHouse.GOV1 for review by the public. Now, one would think this would, reasonably, be proof enough for the citizenship of any other American, but in the curious case of Barack Obama, the ‘birthers’ tribe still won’t give into the evidence. They’ve began to label the certificate, calling it fake, a forgery, illegitimate, etcetera. These statements should merely be disregarded, they hold no merit or weight. The people that claim such things about our President of the United States, while ignoring the easily acquirable proof of his citizenship1, rightfully earn their own set of labels, such as ‘ignorant,’ ‘racist,’ ‘biased,’ and ‘tribalistic.’ Upon reading this essay, it should be irrefutably clear that our president was not only born in the United States, but that his roots run deep in our great country.
One may inquire what the significance of the citizenship has to politics and presidency. To elaborate on the matter: Under Article Two, Section One, Clause Five of the United States Constitution, it states:
”No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”(US Const. art. II, sec. 1)3
Essentially, if the President of the United States happens to not be a natural born citizen3 , the Constitution reserves the right to remove the most powerful man in the free world from the highly touted presidential seat. The constitution would essentially mandate his immediate removal from office, which would invariably be a dream for anybody who opposes our presidents leadership. Which, of course, is why our presidents’ citizenship is even being called into question in the first place, in addition to being black. The Republican Party innately has a strong disdain for Obama. First of all, he is a Democrat, making him a member of the opposing party. Therefore, they fundamentally don’t want him in office merely because of their tribalistic support of the Republican Party’s agenda. One couldn't call him or herself a Republican if he/she doesn’t do and agree with everything the party believes in, even if it goes against their own independant beliefs. They’d use their tribalism-fueled emphaticism do anything and everything within their power to have a democrat removed from the presidency, it’s a sure win in the minds of the members of the GOP.
One may ask why Barack Obama is the first president to ever have his citizenship called into question repeatedly, or perhaps even inquire as to what singles him out amongst Republicans. The answer may be quite simple: Barack Obama is our very first black president--how foreign! Doesn’t it seem reasonable to call into question over and over again the legitimacy of our president’s citizenship, regardless of all of the proof1 that’s been placed before us, simply because he happens to be a black man? It certainly shouldn’t be. These are racially driven accusations, and they are only brought about by the unfamiliar and foreign color of his skin in the White House. There are people in Congress who deem racially driven accusations as acceptable, even necessary, and these people continue to uphold and support the actions of the ‘birthers.’ Thusly, the ‘birthers’ are allowed to continue on with their ignorant march, a racially driven attempt at a smear campaign lividly directed toward our President.
In the end, will their ill-willed efforts amount to anything, will they do enough to disprove the citizenship of our president and have him removed from office? It would certainly appear not considering the lack of any substantial evidence. The only shreds of opposing evidence that the GOP has as evidence in favour of their stance is circumstantial at best and certainly illegitimate. For example, the Obama birth certificate released by the Kenyan Government. Considering the country itself wasn’t even established until two years after Obama’s birth4, we can immediately disregard this as false. The Obama opposing forces have been met repeatedly by pragmatic people with real evidence proving his place of birth and citizenship at every corner. He was in fact born at the location denoted born by his birth certificate, Honolulu, Hawai’i.
Is there still hope for the Republican Party to disprove his legitimacy as President of the United States? At this point in his presidency, it most certainly appears not. It’s a little late for that, however it’s quite amusing and says good deal about the Grand Old Party for the fact that they are still attempting to prove his citizenship false. At the very least, after all is said and done, these ‘birthers’ will do little more than damage the name and legitimacy of themselves and their own party, along with its choices and actions.
After having been subjected to the fact that there is an immense amount of proof regarding the legitimacy of president Obama’s citizenship, it is only responsible to see that any remaining doubt be disposed plainest of indefinitely. President Obama’s family roots run deep in our country--in fact, he is eligible to be a member of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.5 Due to his family’s service in the Revolutionary War, he is made eligible and meets the requirement of being a male descendant of someone who served in the Revolutionary War.6 His mother, Ann Dunham, was born in the United States in 1942 in Wichita, Kansas.7 She was an achiever of some of the highest honors in education and earned her PHD from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.8 While she was working towards her degree, she became in close acquaintanceship with Barack Hussein Obama, Sr. who was a student from Kenya studying at the University of Manoa. This all serves as grand evidence to repeal any accusations against Obama Jr.’s citizenship for the fact that his mother was of United States citizenship and she married his paternal father in the United States. All it takes to be a “Natural Born Citizen” is to have the fortune of being born to an American family with citizenship. No matter where Obama would have been born, it wouldn’t matter. His citizenship would still be within the United States. So not only does the public possess Barack Obama’s birth certificate, they have his parents marriage certificate9 and proofs of citizenship as well. Left without any option, one has to declare Obama, undoubtedly, a citizen of the United States, and therefore rightful heir to the seat of the President of the United States in Washington, District of Columbia.
Cited Sources:
(1) Birth Certificate, VIA WHITEHOUSE.GOV: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/birth-certificate-long-form.pdf
(2)The official “Birthers” website. http://birthers.org/
(3) Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
(4) Obama was born August 4th, 1961(age 53), the Republic of Kenya was formed in 1963: http://www.kenyarep-jp.com/kenya/history_e.html
(5) National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution: https://www.sar.org/
(6)Obama as a descendant of the Revolutionary War:
(7) Peters, Susan (2009-01-27). "President Obama: from Kansas to the capital, part II (video at videosurf.com)". Wichita: KAKE 10 News (ABC). Retrieved 2009-09-12.
(8) Dewey, Alice; White, Geoffrey (November 2008)."Ann Dunham: a personal reflection". Anthropology News49
Reprinted by:
Dewey, Alice; White, Geoffrey (2009-03-09). "Ann Dunham: a personal reflection". Honolulu: University of Hawaii Department of Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2012-04-02. Retrieved 2010-11-22.[dead link]
(9)Marriage: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2012/07/were_ann_dunham_and_barack_obama_really_married.html
