The left should avoid hopping on birther bandwagon

When you dance with the devil, the choreography can get awkward.

Ted Cruz last week made his latest appeal to America’s nativist fringe by naming Rep. Steve King of Iowa as a national co-chairman of his presidential campaign. King, called a “courageous conservative” and “incredible leader” by Cruz, is the anti-immigrant hard-liner who spoke of Mexican immigrants having “calves the size of cantaloupes” and who was a prominent birther.

King raised questions about President Obama’s birth certificate, voiced doubts that Obama had been born in America, floated the idea that Obama’s birth announcement in Hawaiian newspapers may have been placed “by telegram from Kenya,” and alleged that Obama “was not raised with an American experience.”

So we’re entitled to savor some schadenfreude now as Cruz himself gets caught in the birther web. Donald Trump’s questioning of Cruz’s status as a natural-born American, and therefore his eligibility to be president, is rough justice. Cruz, like Trump, has stoked the fires of resentment and xenophobia, so it’s entirely fitting that he gets burned.

But however tempting it is, I’m not joining in the Cruz birtherism; it was wrong when done to Obama, and it’s wrong now done to Cruz. Cruz, I am convinced, would make a truly awful president, but he is perfectly eligible to serve.

Rep. Alan Grayson, a Democratic gadfly running for the Senate in Florida, vows to file a lawsuit challenging Cruz’s eligibility if he wins the nomination. Grayson would try to argue that both parents of Cruz, who was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father, had to be American citizens for Cruz to be considered a “natural born” citizen under the Constitution. Grayson also has questions about the U.S. birth of Cruz’s mother. “The Obama birthers are loons,” Grayson told U.S. News this week. But “there’s a very good legal argument that Ted Cruz is not qualified to be president.”

Like Cruz foe John McCain (the 2008 Republican presidential nominee said Cruz’s eligibility is a “legitimate question”), Democratic leaders have been happy to see Cruz twist in the wind. “I do think there is a distinction between John McCain being born to a family serving our country in Panama than someone born in another country,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.

But that’s not really so. My friend Neal Katyal, who was Obama’s acting solicitor general, joined Paul Clement, a George W. Bush solicitor general, in a Harvard Law Review piece last year arguing that it’s not even a close call: The constitutional evidence back to the founding makes clear that “an individual born to a U.S. citizen parent — whether in California or Canada or the Canal Zone — is a U.S. citizen from birth and is fully eligible to serve as president.”

More broadly: Do Democrats and liberals and all those who howled about the injustice and the outrage of Obama’s birtherism really want to join the cause of Cruz birtherism, simply because he’s a Republican, or a conservative? No doubt it would be satisfying to give conservatives a taste of their own medicine, but that would mean embracing the nativism that is turning the Republican Party into a fraternity of old white men from rural areas. The right is uniquely ill-behaved these days. Why join them?

It wasn’t always this way; in the early days of the Obama presidency I argued that the left was more ill-tempered. But now there’s nothing equivalent to the right’s rage — despite attempts to draw some phony parallels.

When I wrote about the overt racism injected into the campaign by Trump, the 2016 front-runner, conservative critics countered by citing the history of race-baiting by the Rev. Al Sharpton, a minor Democratic candidate in the 2004 race. When I wrote last week about Republican officeholders’ support for the armed men who took over a U.S. government facility in Oregon, conservatives argued that this was no different from Obama’s tolerance of Sanctuary Cities — though sanctuary policies have existed for decades without successful legal challenges.

Then there’s the birther movement, led by Trump, which sought to portray the first African-American president as a foreigner. Now Trump is, with his characteristic disregard for truth, attempting to turn the same nativist forces against his nearest competitor in the Republican primary.

There is no equivalent on the left these days to such nasty stuff. Democrats should keep it that way.

Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Opinion

toon
Editorial cartoons for Friday, March 29

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Initiative promoter Tim Eyman takes a selfie photo before the start of a session of Thurston County Superior Court, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, in Olympia, Wash. Eyman, who ran initiative campaigns across Washington for decades, will no longer be allowed to have any financial control over political committees, under a ruling from Superior Court Judge James Dixon Wednesday that blasted Eyman for using donor's contributions to line his own pocket. Eyman was also told to pay more than $2.5 million in penalties. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Editorial: Initiative fee increase protects process, taxpayers

Bumped up to $156 from $5, the increase may discourage attempts to game the initiative process.

Schwab: Who was Langerhans? And when’s the ferry to his islets?

The Herald’s resident retired surgeon slices into the anatomy of the etymology of our anatomy.

Comment: Cervial cancer treatable; if you’re screened for it

A screening for cervical cancer can detect cancerous or precancerous cells and direct treatment.

Comment: Framers gave us Goldilocks Constitution; let’s use it

It was meant to be resilient, not perfect, but it has to be used as designed toward workable solutions.

Comment: GOP in Congress isn’t fighting crime; it’s arming it

Budget cuts to the FBI and ATF and other riders have made it easier for criminals to get firearms.

toon
Editorial cartoons for Thursday, March 28

A sketchy look at the news of the day.… Continue reading

Washington state senators and representatives along with Governor Inslee and FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez break ground at the Swift Orange Line on Tuesday, April 19, 2022 in Lynnwood, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Editorial: Community Transit making most of Link’s arrival

The Lynnwood light rail station will allow the transit agency to improve routes and frequency of buses.

Protecting forests and prevent another landslide like Oso

Thank you for the powerful and heartbreaking article about the Oso landslide… Continue reading

Boeing’s downfall started when engineers demoted

Boeing used to be run by engineers who made money to build… Continue reading

Learn swimming safety to protect kids at beach, pool

Don’t forget to dive into water safety before hitting the pool or… Continue reading

An image of Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin is reflected in a storefront window during the State of the City Address on Thursday, March 21, 2024, at thee Everett Mall in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Editorial: State of city address makes case for Everett’s future

Mayor Franklin outlines challenges and responses as the city approaches significant decisions.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.