For more than five years, anyone who questioned Barack Obama’s constitutional eligibility to be president has been treated by the news media with utter contempt, ridicule, scorn, derision, mockery and disparagement.
The constitutional issue of the “natural born citizen” clause could not even be discussed intelligently on any news network without guffaws, taunting and put downs.
But that was then. This is now.
Having never scrutinized the basic facts still surrounding Obama’s questionable case for eligibility, the news media are already in a feeding frenzy over the potential eligibility of conservative Republican Ted Cruz, who has not even announced his intentions about running for president in 2016 or thereafter.
If it wasn’t clear before, it is transparent now: It was never a matter of what the Constitution said for the news media. It was never a matter of the established facts of Obama’s parentage and birth. It was all about protecting Obama.
Here are some of the headlines from what I call “the new birthers”:
- USA Today and Associated Press: “Sen. Ted Cruz still citizen of U.S. and Canada”
- The National Post: “Ted Cruz not the first to be stymied by America’s ‘natural born’ rules”
- CNN: “Can Ted Cruz run for president?”
And that paragon of objectivity, the appropriately named Daily Beast, took a left “birther” jab at Cruz in a recent piece headlined, “Seven Reasons Chris Christie Isn’t Toast.” One of the seven reasons, it turns out, is “Ted Cruz was born in Canada.”
With all this heavy-duty investigative journalism and newfound faux enthusiasm for the Constitution suddenly on display, it’s obvious the No. 1 fear among the elite media is that Ted Cruz might actually run for president.
They fear him not because he was born in Canada. They fear him not because of any concern for the U.S. Constitution. I will even be more generous to the Cruz smear machine than it was to me when I questioned Obama’s eligibility by rejecting the notion it is because the senator from Texas is Hispanic. They fear him because he is a bold, eloquent, charismatic, principled, committed defender of American liberty.
I have been labeled by the Big Media as “the birther king.”
I have been systematically blacklisted by all cable news networks for raising the issue of Obama’s eligibility and trying to discuss it rationally and openly.
The last straw for me came in 2012 when, during primary election night analysis, I explained why Sen. Marco Rubio could not and would not be the vice presidential nominee of Mitt Romney – much to the astonishment of my colleagues on the panel at Fox. I simply said, “He’s not eligible.” That statement rendered me ineligible for future appearances – even though I was right.
So if anyone has the right and the duty to weigh in on Ted Cruz’s eligibility, it’s me – even though no one is asking.
My answer is, “I don’t care.”
I don’t care because the Constitution was not written and ratified to be applied to some and not others. If no one cared about Obama’s questionable eligibility, despite his shocking lack of transparency and thin paper trail, then they have no business questioning Ted Cruz – who has released his birth certificate, renounced his Canadian citizenship and upheld every provision of the Constitution to the best of his ability throughout his life.
For the record, I would have preferred if the issue of natural born citizenship were openly debated and discussed before Obama assumed office and began his all-out jihad on the Constitution. I would have preferred if my colleagues in the news media had taken seriously their responsibility to be watchdogs on government and hold all politicians accountable to the rule of law. I would have preferred if the motivations of those of us seeking the truth about Obama’s eligibility status and life story had never been impugned.
But now that’s all water under the bridge.
Our country is in shambles.
“The new birthers” got their way.
For better or worse, they set the standard of eligibility by precedent.
They can’t have it both ways – revising the standard up when they don’t like the candidate and down when they do.
Do I expect that to settle the matter?
Of course not.
Those who actually believe government is best which governs most will, unfortunately, use all means necessary to undercut men like Ted Cruz.
And that’s exactly what “the new birthers” are doing.
Media wishing to interview Joseph Farah, please contact [email protected].
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