Working Minds Essay #101: Anti-Obama Hoaxsters

Essay #100 on the topic of voter suppression was printed as a Letter To The Editor in the local Valencia County News-Bulletin newspaper on August 29th, which generated a telephone call from a local octogenarian Republican who took exception to my statement that "If the Republican Party had anything of value to offer the American voter they would not have to lie and cheat and steal to win elections."

Among the many false right-wing memes that that person offered was the long-debunked notion that President Obama inititated some conspiracy to keep records of his student loans secret. That story includes ludicrous details like Obama used a false name, that he applied *as* a foreigner, and so on.

So after the phone conversation ended, I checked that one story out – Republicans never check with reality, very blind faith is sufficient – at snopes.com, with quite satisfying results. {link here}

The Obama college records hoax began on April Fools Day – that's correct! – in 2009 with a fake Associated Press news item email.

1) The fake A.P. email failed twice on the surface: first, it did not conform to A.P. practice, and second, it was written by a person without training in journalism.

2) Organizations mentioned in the email did not and do not exist.

3) Fellow students at Occidental College remember 'Barry' Obama very well, and kindly; no record or memory has been located of the spurious pseudonym Barry Soetero.

4) The source of the supposed tuition funding has never had a program for foreign students: American citizenship is required.

So here is the problem for Valencia County residents and other readers: These and other lies of local and national Republicans have not been discredited, at least, they are very comfortable in repeating such lies.

These Republican lies float around Valencia County and Albuquerque and New Mexico and America like hantavirus.

* *          * *          * *          * *But here is what is now true: All who have read this essay can be certain of two things.

A) Anyone who has parroted one or more of these Republican neo-con lies in the past or does so in future is now known by you to be someone who lies without their conscience being bothered one whit. Republicans do not fact-check, Republicans will not issue corrections for their falsehoods, Republicans will blame you for questioning their blind obedience to the fascist oligarchs and to the Koch Brothers-funded propaganda machine.

B) You can truly never again trust anyone who has repeated the 'Obama college records conspiracy' hoax. Never again, whether it be your employer or a neighbor or relative or some overpaid bilge-mouth pundit on the Fox Noise Channel. When they repeat this lie, you know that everything that they say is now suspect. And the same is true of the 'Obama was born in Africa' hoax and the 'Obama never went to Columbia' hoax.

* *          * *          * *          * *If the Republican Party had anything of value to offer the American voter they would not have to lie and cheat and steal to win elections.
Copyright 2012 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved