Where Is Cruz's Birther Movement?

For the longest time, I have thought to myself "How is Ted Cruz running? He's Canadian. How is everyone so much chiller with this than they were with Obama?" Then I get to asking the ever-knowing Internet, and it seems like others are feeling the same way!

There is an article on Buzzfeed that explains the situation quite simply--an it's worse than I thought. Not only was Cruz born in Canada to a Cuban national (read: citizen. I'm only saying "national" to be a sensationalist and start trouble), there are also questions about his mother's citizenship!

My question is, where is the viral fervor behind Ted Cruz's doubted citizenship like there was with Obama? I remember back in the day, then non-presidential-candidate Donald Trump made this into a huge thing with Obama. He was all like:

"Show us your birth certificate!"

Then, after finally getting what he asked for, he was all like:

"Show us your school transcripts!"

Hey. Were you able to read those quotes without Trump's voice in your head? I bet you weren't.

Trump has gone birther on Cruz himself, but it's suspiciously unenthusiastic. You'd think Trump would be even more fire-y because he is actively competing against Cruz for the presidential nomination. This was not the case with Obama. What raises further suspicion is the fact that, unlike the Obama situation, the Cruz controversy is actually based in a minimal level of fact. Now, let's talk personal anecdotes:

My friend works at a major bank, and was making small talk with a coworker about wanting/being able to be president. This coworker says "Well, when you think about it, anybody can be president. I mean, Obama is from who-knows-where and he's president!"

You see?! Obama's birther movement was big enough to permeate popular culture! Whether you harbored doubts about Obama's birth status or not, you were at least aware of the controversy. That includes the somewhat-related controversy about Obama being Muslim, and that 3rd controversy about Obama being socialist. And these claims were literally based on nothing!

So, doing a little extrapolation with memory of that whole thing, one could reasonably presume that the accusations against Cruz, with some aspects of the claim tangibly proven, would be an even bigger thing. But, as you can surely see, it is not. Why? Now I've never been the one to claim racialized double-standard but...


Oh silly me! Would you look at the time!