When President Barack Obama's birth certificate was released, I was looking forward to hearing the birthers say they were sorry for their stupid-ass attack on Obama.
How naïve could I possibly have been? Most big-time birthers, like KHOW radio-host Peter Boyles, didn't flinch when Obama released his birth certificate last month, saying he had no intention of backing away from the story.
Conspiracy theories don't die, and that's one reason they're so effective as propaganda. They worm their way into our minds and create thought structures that support even the heaviest contradictions.
And, like the best of political weapons, conspiracy theories spread quickly and nurture a community of followers, making them even harder for any single individual to shed
So you have to give credit to a conspiracy theorist who gives up the ghost -- in this case, the birther ghost.
And I'm guessing you didn't know that a right-wing radio-show host in Denver did just that. That is, unless you listen to Colorado's Christian Station (KLTT, 670 AM), and you're probably not among the few who listen to KLITT.
But if you did, you'd have heard Bob Enyart, who'd promoted birtherism on the radio, when he said last month that he accepted Obama's birth certificate as valid, and he apologized to his audience for his "erroneous thinking."
He saw evidence, changed course, and apologized. How do you like that?
Then, in an admirable piece of self-reflection, he looked deeper.
He reasoned that the entire birther discussion was a distraction from the real issues.
I can't agree with what he sees as the real issues, but he's entitled to his view, which is, in part:
In the big picture, I regret that I did not stay more focused on the eternal moral issues, which of course include the fundamental issues of government that God will bring up on Judgment Day...
... [S]ince I cannot believe that God is going to care, neither about where Obama was born or any other leader who has advocated the killing of the innocent, therefore I am going to get beyond this distraction and focus more on what matters eternally!
What this means is that Enyart is going to stick to his fundamentalist crusade against abortion.
But you can't help but hope, against your better judgment, that Enyart may one day apologize for his narrow obsession on abortion and turn his attention to other interpretations of "eternal moral issues" and "killing of the innocent."
These might include poverty, war, starvation, disease....
Enyart has a long way to go before he gets there, but for now I give him credit for being a repentant birther.