a short note to the administration
Aren’t you all supposed to be young, hip, internet-saavy social networking types who were suprised to find upon moving into the west wing that government technology infrastructure was stodgy and behind the times?
Assuming this is the case, I’d think that you’d be aware of one of the cardinal rules of online behavior:
Really, by releasing the birth certificate on the white house web site, having a press conference about it, or pretty much acknowledging the whole “birther” thing at all, that’s really all you’re doing.
Sure, it may feel like giving these folks exactly what they’re asking for in order to satisfy them and “put this business behind us” is the rational thing to do, but you know, it’s really not.
Want to know why? Because by acknowledging this kind of behavior in the first place, you’re encouraging it; it’s not like putting this out there will actually convince any one of them to change their belief that the President is illegitimate. It’ll just make them louder, and of course, the media, seeking ratings and advertizing dollars, will spend the next week covering the supposed controversy with all kinds of bloviating about “inconsistencies” and “kerning” and “pixels” or whatever, instead of all those other “important things” we both believe should be part of the national conversation, like responsible government policies to address unemployment and crumbling infrastructure and and making sure the congressional hurdles which legally allow the government to not default on it’s loans are dealt with.
Really, if you’re going to spend time addressing the fallacies put forth by the right wing, spending some time defining what the debt ceiling actually is, and how it differs from the representation certain Republican congresspeople are offering would be time better spent. By addressing totally unrealistic claims by fringe conspiracy theorists with delusions of relevance, you’re just offering them evidence that they’re really on to something.
Responding to arguments rationally is only workable when the party you’re in conflict with is also a rational actor. Otherwise, you’re just feeding the trolls.
On the other hand, maybe the people like Amanda have a point: you can’t just ignore the bully, you have to confront the falsehoods. It’s a lesson John Kerry didn’t get back in ’04.
Also, by giving these folks exactly what they want, perhaps they’ll go so far off the racist deep end that they’ll overplay their hand – at the very least, by making this the story, Republican hopefuls for ’12 are going to be put in the position of having to take a position on the whole birther business – which is only going to fracture the already fracturing coalition between old-money corporate republicans and the frothing nutbar social conservatives whose votes they need to stay in office.
Or, maybe the peak wingnut theory is wrong…I just hate that we have to deal with this instead of actual, you know, economic policy. I think the president feels the same way.
April 27th, 2011 at 7:17 PM