Attacks on president are purely racist

To the Editor:

Regarding Scott Brinton’s column, “Note to Birthers: Let it go” (May 5-11):

The Birthers will not, as Brinton suggests, let it go. Yes, they know the president is as American as they are. They knew that on day one. Regardless, they’ll continue with their campaign against President Obama as long as the media writes and speaks about it.

They no longer can call the president soft on National Security, as he has accomplished in two years and three months what Bush could not in seven years and three months –– the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The attacks on Obama by the far-right wing (Birthers, Tea Partiers, whomever) are nothing more than a cover for racism. They simply cannot accept the legitimate election of an African-American man as the nation’s chief executive and commander in chief, just as they can’t square with a woman’s right to privacy or the legitimacy of love between two human beings that happen to be of the same gender. 

  Much of this would pass to the back page if a legitimate Republican candidate declared his or her candidacy for president. We’ve not seen one yet because those who really could be capable of winning do not want to go down as losers, preferring to wait one cycle. Defeating a successful incumbent is next to impossible. A quality Republican does not want to lose, as coming back a winner four years later is even more difficult than defeating a sitting president. After President Grover Cleveland, who won re-election in 1892, after losing in 1888, such a feat occurred only once in the 20th century when Richard Nixon won in a squeaker in ‘68.  

  The racist insults continue to be hurled, but Obama looks the other way, not to be drawn in. Instead of attacking the president on legitimate issues, where he is vulnerable, the right-wing extremists marginalize themselves as they demonstrate their racist dislike of a sitting president, a formula certain to result in defeat for them next year.  

Joshua Weiss

Hewlett Harbor