The 'birther' movement had all the qualities of a gambit: a pawn, an opening strategy, a way to identify a guilible constituency.
Now, we have " Thirteenthers " who claim there was a conspiracy that usurped the original 13th Amendment with the new 13th Amendment ending slavery.
This idea is not news to me. It's been kicking-around for over 20 years. In 1993 I attended two conservative think tanks out east, the Briar Patch and Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute. At the time, a misanthrope who called himself "Barefoot Bob" promulgated the notion that the original 13th Amendment had been mysteriously supplanted with what we recognize as the 13th Amendment dealing with slavery.
The second time I came in contact with the notion of an original 13th Amendment was when I ran for Congress and I challenged my opponent's petition on the clause in the original 13th Amendment that forbids anyone with a title of nobility to run for Federal office. The Election Judge and the election lawyers were intrigued but non-plussed.
I posted in a diary today that reminded me of the story of the original 13th Amendment. So I googled 'Barefoot Bob' and 'original thirteenth amendment'. Barefoot Bob is deceased and I saw the word "Thirteenther" for the first time.
In Newsweek, July 2010.
http://www.newsweek.com/...
The Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia is a conservative public-policy think-tank. I hesitate to call it Republican, because in Morton Blackwell's "Rules of Public Policy" his first rule is: "Keep as many to the Left of you as you have to the Right of you," It was an overall good experience for me and I really enjoyed the shopping and spas in Georgetown, particularly Dean & DeLucca's to-go deli YUM.
The conservative Briar Patch was ostensibly a public-policy think-tank but held no notions of bi-partisanship and was heavily into OPPS, Opposition Research. That's bascially political spying and one-up-man-ship.
When I ran for Congress, one of the guys I was dating was a lawyer and Constitutional law lecturer. No. It was not Barack Obama. :) even though my guy was also from Harvard. He thougt I reminded him of Kate Winslett, my slavic-germanic looks I guess. I think even calling it 'dating' is a stretch, because all we really did was go-at-it in bookstores and libraries. Mandrake Books in Harvard Square had a book I had just published and that's where we met. :) I've had many lives and many masters.
Back to this theory that there is an original 13th Amendment, it sates that anyone who holds a title of nobility is ineligible to run for Federal office. So my lover at the time, a constitutional lawyer, came up with this strategy for me.
Ask my opponent, by what right in the Constitution, does he run for Federal office?
Since lawyers have the title of Esquire, (Esq.) and swear allegience to the Court of King James, lawyers - those who practice law for money (not those who study the law) are barred from holding Federal office. This is high-level hair-splitting,
I applied this argument and in my case, the Court was not moved to remove my opponent. Although, my Congressional opponent did give me a "job well-done' for presenting the argument before the Court.
Now, decades later, I realize that resurrecting the argument serves no other purpose than to divert guilible Republicans from formulating a platform - it's a red herring.