That is the Republican talking point recently for Republicans when they defend Trump not correcting the record when a supporter stated that Obama was Muslim and was not even an American.
"What about Obama and Rev. Wright" was brought up. And "The first amendment gives anybody the right to say anything they believe." is the other talking point, Along with "not responsible for defending Obama."
It is all fine and well except for those pesky facts. And the worst part is those facts seem to be ignored by most.
Now, before I continue, I should let you know, this might be a long diary because I plan on addressing many things that I feel Democratic candidates need to do along with Democratic office holders.
I doubt any of either will read this diary, and I also doubt many people whatsoever will read this diary, but it is here for those that wish to share what I am about to say.
First most news "commentators" need a talking to, when it comes to their failures. Whenever it comes back that no Republican, let along Trump, "is not responsible for defending Obama." or any other talking point that is said by the guest, the following needs stated.
If news organizations allow for talking points to go without stating the facts will turn off segments of society that see such news organizations as biased, and while such models can survive for awhile, in the long run, such organizations will lose the audiences they seek as eventually everybody dies.
"Trump and others were going around saying it was questionable if Obama was born in Hawaii and that one of the reasons was because it might say on his birth certificate that he was a Muslim. To have a candidate running for President that questioned whether the current President was a natural citizen as our constitution calls for as a requirement is a stain on all candidates and all Presidents both past, present and future."
Yes, that is a mouthful, but that is what needs to be said, because it is fact and saying "I don't know if the birth certificate is real" or anything of the sort is a racist dog whistle. It does not matter whether Obama is Muslim or not, let along anybody else and any religion brought up should not be allowed.
Anybody supporting Trump or supporting any candidate that has not denounced Trump should be considered racist. True, the person supporting Trump might not be racist, but Trump's comments, questioning Obama's origin of birth and his religious belief is racist. Therefore, unless Trump corrects the record and says he was wrong, he is racist. And since people vote for or support people they identify with, supporting Trump means you identify with his racist comments and racist views.
That being said, there is a way to combat the Republican talking points on voter fraud and other issues.
First, voter fraud. Requiring government issued identification does not prevent voter fraud because there are ways to get fake identification and then when somebody using fake identification commits voter fraud, there is no way to positively identify who actually committed the voter fraud as usually you show your identification and then sign a piece of paper. Therefore, somebody may obtain fake identification with somebody else's name, and the evidence would indicate the name signed was the person that committed voter fraud.
The better way is to have a digital camera and take a picture of everybody wishing to vote, and a rule on how long the data for a voting period has to be saved. Then if anybody is caught committing voter fraud, you have a digital picture of the person as proof that they was the one that committed the voter fraud.
This way you don't disenfranchise voters by requiring them to get an identification from government that usually has a fee associated with obtaining it and you have a way to stop voter fraud if it happens.
On gun laws, it is fine to not have background checks between private parties as long as there is a law that says whether the person knew or not, if they sale or give the gun to somebody who was not allowed at that time to possess a gun, then they can be charged with either providing such a person the gun or for assisting the person in the commission of a crime.
Anybody not supportive of that compromise for background checks is pro criminal activity. I am betting that most would rather have true universal background checks rather then to be jailed as an accessory to a murder or robbery or anything else.
As for healthcare, I would love to see a law that makes companies advertise that they don't provide insurance for employees and therefore it is the taxpayer and others that have to pay for the anybody that does not have insurance and requires healthcare.
It would allow people to see if the business is being subsidized by them as taxpayers because the business is not providing healthcare. I am sure businesses would not want taxpayers to see if they were being subsidized to make profits and would have more in favor of universal healthcare.