About 8 years ago, I attended the Iowa caucus that started the road to Barack Obama becoming President. I was for Obama.
If you have never been to a caucus, especially in Iowa, each candidate must get so much of a percentage of the "voters" in order to be a viable candidate. Supporters of viable candidates try to attract supporters of candidates not viable to support their candidates.
Some of the supporters of the nonviable candidates refused to support Obama because he was black. They never came out and said so, in so many words, but it was the reason they refused to support a black person as President.
Of course, these voters were the older generation, and as is known, Obama won Iowa and eventually went on to become President.
Now I support Hillary for President, because I see her as the next logical step for moving the country forward, but this is not what this "diary" is about, my support for Hillary.
What this is about is the "Tea Party" and the "Birthers" and the "Republican Party".
During the 2008 campaign, talk started to circulate and pictures started to be floated of Obama being Muslim and not being born in the United States.
McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate, and she started spouting "Obama is "pal"ing around with terroritst." At one point a McCain supporter stood up and said she did not trust Obama because he was an arab.
As most know, McCain took away the mic from this supporter and corrected her statement. Even though McCain corrected the statement, Sarah Palin was left out there to continue her hateful talk after Obama was elected President.
And then Republicans in Washington held a secret meeting to discuss denying Obama a second term.
If you remember the ObamaCare fight, people were questioning Obama's legitimacy to be President and would let supporters say anything without challenging their statements or correcting the record. When asked if they believed Obama was born in the United States or was a Muslim, they would say "I don't know" or "I would like to know".
They would make comments most call dog whistles like "Obama is unamerican" or "Obama favors Muslims over christians".
Now, the strategy to push Obama as illegitimate is coming back to take down the Republican Party.
Almost half of the Republican party, and probably a vast majority that will participate in caucuses and primaries believe Obama is a Muslim and was not born in the United States.
This group of people is big enough to give Donald Trump the nomination but is not big enough to win the Presidency. Donald Trump and the Republicans have a problem.
If Trump back tracks on previous statements, he will lose the support of this group of people that think of Obama as illegitimate.
If he sticks by previous statements, and is "yelling" instead of the "dog whistle" others have done, he won't win the Presidency and will bring down both House and Senate members of the Republican Party running for reelection.
And if the Republican party forces Trump out of the race, his supporters will revolt and stay home, feeling betrayed by a party that has been cultivating their hate of Obama and Muslims all this time.
No matter how you look at it, they are starting to doom themselves.
The story might die down some by next week, but any time Trump goes to take questions, one or two reporters are going to want to ask him if he is still a "birther" or believes Obama is a Muslim, and they will ask other candidates also.
Sure Trump can stop answering questions, but then the media will get even hungrier to keep on with the question. Sure Trump can go to friendly media that will not ask the question, but it will be a sign to Republicans that they are free to say over and over again that they can say "Obama is a Muslim" and "Obama was born in Kenya".
So, then you have the media showing Republican after Republican making these statements, and other candidates in the Republican Primary will be asked about Trump, these supporters and if they agree and how they would handle it.
It will be the story that will never go away and trying to force it to go away creates a civil war, so to speak.
We must take advantage of this and be sure that people are shown for what they are.