The myth of Obama being a divisive President grew from the seed of Trump's racism.

[kentuck]

I was watching a discussion group on Abbie Phillips show on CNN and they were discussing, with a MAGA guest, why she thought Obama was the most "divisive" President? I never thought Obama was divisive. I thought he always tried to bring the country together. Naturally, black Americans were very proud to have a black man sitting in the Oval Office. White Americans, considering all the history of this country, should also have been very proud. That was progress.

But, one man, started a campaign of character assassination by claiming, with no evidence, that Barack Obama was not born in this country. He began his entire political career on that one lie. He planted the seed of racism into our politics and it was adopted by his followers. It was nothing more than racism that began the MAGA movement. It was started and led by Donald J Trump.

Although they would never admit it, MAGA is a racist group from the very beginning. It was born out of racism. There is no denial.

[RockRaven]

1. *America's racism

Last edited Sat Jun 20, 2026, 02:55 PM - Edit history (1)

The Dotard jumped on a train, he didn't create it.

Birtherism started amongst disgruntled Clinton supporters in 2008 before spreading to RWers. The BBC article linked below summarizes the order of events. Californians may recognize the absolute nutter Orly Taitz making an appearance. According to this BBC article, Trump's first birtherism utterances were in 2011. That is fairly late to the game.

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37391652


Wikipedia also says similar about birtherism's origins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories

Origins of the claims
In 1991, Obama's literary agency, Acton & Dystel, printed a promotional booklet which misidentified Obama's birthplace, and stated that Obama was "born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii". This error was later included in a biography that remained posted to their website until April 2007. The booklet's editor said that this incorrect information, which was not widely discovered until 2012, had been her mistake and not based on anything provided to her agency by Obama.[34]

Conspiracy theories about Obama's religion appeared at least as early as his 2004 U.S. Senate campaign in a press release by Illinois political candidate Andy Martin,[35] and, according to a Los Angeles Times editorial, as internet rumors.[36]

According to Politico, rumors Obama was not born in Hawaii began when Obama's popularity proved a threat to Hillary Clinton. Politico wrote: "That theory first emerged in the spring of 2008..."[37] (There is no evidence that Clinton herself or members of her campaign staff were involved in this effort.)[38][39][40] The earliest known appearance of the notion on a conservative blogger website was March 5, 2008, and it was not about his birth, but was about "dual citizenship or split loyalties".[40] In April of that year, some supporters of Hillary Clinton circulated anonymous chain emails repeating the same rumor;[41] among them was an Iowa campaign volunteer, who was fired when the story emerged.[42][43] These and numerous other chain e-mails during the subsequent presidential election circulated false rumors about Obama's origin, religion, and birth certificate.[44][45]

Trump was not a spark which fell amongst tinder. That shit was already burning. He was not uninvolved of course, but more like a bellows, fanning the preexisting flames with ceaseless injections from his gasbag.

But I agree that the notion Obama was a divisive POTUS is utter nonsense, and racist nonsense at that. When bigots shout about a black man for existing, that isn't the black man being divisive, that is bigots being bigoted.

But that is CNN doing their CNN things. If you don't want to reward them for behaving thusly, stop watching them altogether.