Birthers and Trump Strike Again - This Time Attacking Harris, Omar and Motherhood

After the most-watched-ever Democratic Debate, it didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to tweet that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) didn’t seem like an “American Black.” Nor did it take long for his son, Donald Jr., to promote a post questioning the Democratic challenger’s racial identity, who is an Oakland-born biracial child of a Jamaican father and Indian Mother. This goes for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). She’s been hounded by Birthers with “baseless rumors” that she skirted immigration laws to become a U.S. citizen. Consequently, racism isn’t the only foundation on which all tyranny is built. So is sexism which is modeled on male-over-female domination.

But there may be something more to their attacks than just racism or sexism. Since the epicenter of women’s power in general is “birth,” it may also deal with motherhood. Putting aside political opportunism, remember that Trump and Birthers are usually patriarchal authoritarians, some with a history of sexual assault. What they fear most is women-led movements that redefine leadership roles-such as a woman president, and women who critically examine issues of gender. In psychological terms, it’s a paradigm shift that’s just too great to comprehend. As for motherhood and birth, it’s the one thing they can’t control or have power over.

Loudest Voice of the Birther Movement
Trump was actually the loudest voice of the Birther Movement, which was a “manufactroversy”-a constructed conspiracy asserting that presidential candidate Barack Obama was not a natural born citizen. Theories alleged that his Hawaiian birth certificate was a forgery and that he was born in Kenya. Trump repeated this fake news with an added twist. He tried to link America’s first black president with the Muslim Brotherhood. Even when Obama released a certified copy of his long-form birth certificate, Trump claimed victory. “I am really honored and I am proud, that I was able to do something that nobody else could do,” he said. (1)

But by then it was too late. An August 2016 poll showed that 72 percent of registered Republicans still had doubts about president Obama’s citizenship. (2) Some went as far as associating him with radical militants during the 1960’s. Others, like Republican author Dinesh D’Souza, capitalized on Trump’s Birther controversy-a controversy he promulgated more than anyone else. In “The Roots of Obama’s Rage,” D’Souza depicted Obama as a black African who carried an anti-colonialist rage against Western dominance and American Exceptionalism. In “The Manchurian President,” he tied Obama to communists and other anti-American extremists.

That Little Girl Was Me
Those closest to Trump claim that of all the Democratic candidates he fears Harris the most. It’s for good reason. She’s a well-spoken prosecutorial lawyer and polished debater. This was evident when she pointedly challenged former Vice President Joe Biden’s record on race. As Biden tried to dodge his segregationist policies, Harris told of a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public school. She then said: “And that little girl was me.” By far the most memorable moment of the night, it may have ended Biden’s chances. It will also go down in history alongside Sen. Lloyd Benson’s remarks to then Vice President Dan Quayle.

Although Trump and Donald Jr. have deleted their tweets, they won’t be able to escape Harris. To be sure, she’s already warned Americans to fight those who try to rob people of their history. This goes for women, as millions are kept down or shut out through institutional violence. As Harris rises in the polls, she plans to continue to campaign on progressive ideas. One is respecting all women and making sure that the woman’s experience of giving birth is more than a nice extra but absolutely essential to society. For her, a nation is only as strong as its protection of equal rights for all. This includes achieving women’s economic, political and social equality with men.

Birth Was the Death of Her
Omar is another woman politician being attacked by Birthers and Trump. In addition to alleging she once married a man-possibly her own brother-to skirt immigration laws, they claim she filed federal taxes in 2014 and 2015 with her current husband, Ahmen Hirsi, while legally married to but separated from former husband Ahmed Nur Said Elmi. Despite her pleas for privacy, the attacks are getting worse. So are the death threats against her and her family. Sadly, she’s had to take further precautions and hire extra security. Never did she imagine that in America, her birth would be a mistake that she would have to spend her whole life trying to correct.

Something else she never imagined is being accused of a Somali citizen instead of an American citizen. Another rumor started by the Birther Movement, it includes ties to radical Islam like Obama. Some say this is probably due to her sudden ascent as the nation’s first Somali-American lawmaker who’s won global praise for her international platform to champion human rights. Neither does it help that she’s been a leading critic of Israel and Trump’s immigration policies. Above all, she herself was once a refugee. This has consequently encouraged more conspiracy theories and false accusations about her life and citizenship status.

More Difficult Paradigm Shifts
Despite the attacks against their race and gender, Harris and Omar are champions of interpreting the world from the perspective of women. They share a central, defining goal to understand climate change through gender equality. Women (and marginalized groups like children) are affected by climate change disproportionately due to social and economic inequality. It entails deaths. They also want Americans to know that women and children are at a greater risk of sexual assault and domestic abuse after natural disasters and in areas of conflict. In fact, 80 percent of those left behind in the Ninth Ward after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans were women.

What’s more, for Harris and Omar their greatest heroes were their mothers. Their greatest hope, for their children to have the same opportunity as others-and make it their duty to make sure other people have those opportunities as well. (Two more difficult paradigm shifts for Birthers and Trump.) They also recognize that America is at a pivotal moment in history, that for many their ideals are at stake. Ideals which not only afford gender equality but economic and political equality. This means fighting for equal opportunities in the workplace and social provision-childcare, maternity leave-while confronting the militaristic and violent traits of race and sexism.

Superior to the President
Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis wrote, “The only title in our democracy superior to that of President is the title of citizen.” Can the same be said for the title of “woman,” or even “motherhood”? To be sure, no one is ever born a good citizen; just as no nation is ever born a democracy. Rather, both are processes which continue to evolve through nurture and trust, and trust and nurture. At the same time, the duties of citizenship are competence, understanding, courage, unity and willingness to serve, the exact opposite of Birthers and Trumps. When any American is deprived of these such virtues, all Americans are deprived.

As for Rep. Omar and Sen. Harris, they don’t expect the attacks from the Birther Movement or President Trump to go away. Born out of ignorance, they recognize it’s a way of appealing to a specific audience’s preconceptions and prejudices. Rather than making a legitimate argument, Trump and Birthers can only attack at a more personal level. It’s moreover a tribal instinct, albeit primitive, to degrade and classify competitors, or those they fear or don’t understand as inferior. Regardless of these and other attacks, they plan to serve and work on behalf of the American people. This includes uniting a nation instead of dividing it through politically polarized rumors.

Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling.

(1) Sorgatz, Rex. The Encyclopedia of Misinformation. New York, New York: Abrams Publishers, 2018., p. 42.

(2) Ibid., p. 43.