http://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/pl55.swf

For some reason, Conservatives like to theatrically ponder the question “why doesn’t President Obama release his birth certificate?” Liberals respond to this with incredulity that such a question is being asked, and usually imply that the reason it is asked is the hidden racism of the asker. The above video contains a clip from The View which contains a performance of this ritual.

It would profit the Liberals far more to simply say: “he has released it.” There are people who claim what he released was a forgery, but they have not actually proven this. Therefore, the burden of proof currently lies with them. Furthermore, whatever Donald Trump’s objections, the newspaper announcements of his birth would have required the participation of the hospital at which he was born and the Hawaiian government.

In short, if you think all these things are forgeries–for which there is no evidence–it means there was a massive conspiracy dating back to the 1960s working in his favor. If this is what you believe, then you are in total Deus Ex-style conspiracy territory, and really there’s no way you can believe anything anymore.

Anyway, though, that isn’t what I really want to write about here. The interesting thing is the debate Hannity and Springer get into about what is a “Conservative” versus what is a “Republican”. It’s important to understand that the people who call themselves “Conservatives”, meaning socially conservative, weren’t particularly Republican before 1965. Those Republicans, led by Barry Goldwater, were basically what we would call “Libertarians” today.

(Hat Tip to Little Green Footballs.)