Republicans seem ceaselessly enamored of litmus tests, but the newest one — Do you believe President Obama loves America? — makes birthers seem witty. The question arose after former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a private audience that he doesn’t think Obama loves America. He noted that Obama wasn’t raised like him or members of the audience (conservative businesspeople and assorted media), which, though probably true, wasn’t really the point.
Translated, Giuliani’s observation was to question whether Obama is really on the home team, specifically when it comes to defeating the Islamic State. Whether Giuliani intended to dredge up the “otherness” of Obama, a remnant of the 2008 presidential election, isn’t clear, yet the effect was to stoke long-simmering doubts about Obama’s legitimacy. To certain people, he is still an alien who doesn’t think the way “we” do and is the son of a Kenyan anti-colonialist. The fact that he also happens to be African-American has many viewing Giuliani’s comment as dog whistling to racists, which probably is not true.
Still, what he said had a certain familiar ring to it. And racists will embrace Giuliani’s comments as speaking to them regardless of what was intended. As a result, Giuliani not only has tarnished his own legacy as America’s mayor but has created problems for the Republican Party, which needed no new reasons for black voters to see them as unwelcoming.
Now, in the litmus test du jour, Republican presidential candidates are being forced to indicate whether they agree with Giuliani and also whether they believe President Obama is a Christian who loves his country. Good grief.
