In a nation divided almost evenly between conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats, many Americans were upset by the election of Barack Hussein Obama, a senator from Illinois, to the office of president of the United States. Since he took office in 2009, President Obama has been subjected to many theories as to why he is unfit for office, from the “Birthers,” who claim he was not actually born in the United States, something which is required by the U.S. Constitution of all presidents, to those who say he is secretly a Muslim working for Middle Eastern interests, and even more extreme theories about his association with extraterrestrials.
When Barack Hussein Obama was elected president of the United States in 2008, he was heralded as the nation’s first black president. Even the most idealistic among the nation’s citizens were not surprised that, in spite of having a white mother and being biracial, Obama would not simply be referred to as a senator from Illinois who won the highest office in land through the democratic election process. The United States had not yet reached the level of elevated consciousness where one’s most obvious racial features could be ignored. However, more socially mature Americans could not help but be outraged by the number of prejudicial claims and falsehoods that swirled around the forty-third president of the United States.
Among the conspiracies leveled against President Obama by impassioned theorists are the following:
While Barack Obama’s birth records have been made public for many years, so-called “Birthers” refuse to accept the birth certificate and documentation provided by the Department of Health in Honolulu. Obama released his official birth certificate in 2008 before the election. On April 2011, a certified copy of Obama’s certificate of live birth was released.
His father is recorded as Barack Hussein Obama, African; his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, Caucasian. Obama’s birthdate is officially August 8, 1961; his name: Barack Hussein Obama II. Birthplace: Oahu, Honolulu. Additional evidence of his Hawaii birth is available in birth announcements published in August 1961 in two Hawaiian newspapers.
Conspiracy theorists delight in their ability somehow to track genealogical records that indicate that many of the world leaders have been related for hundreds of years, thus implying that some shadow group such as the Illuminati seeks to control the hearts and minds of those governing the masses. Other theorists are convinced that many of the U.S. presidents are related and have an undisclosed Jewish heritage and membership in a secret occult society.
Right-wing detractors of President Obama have been extremely active in their efforts to portray him as a drug addict, a criminal, and a gay man susceptible to blackmail by former lovers seeking to profit from his position as the president. J. P. Ludwig’s death came after the date that Barack Obama registered for the draft, so there is no way that his grandmother could have given him Ludwig’s social security number.
Actually, a number of individuals have come forward and spoken of their time as Obama’s roommates or fellow students at Columbia and Harvard. And then there is Obama’s term as the first African American editor of the Harvard Law Review in 1990, the highest student position at Harvard Law School.
The theory of extraterrestrial reptilian overlords seeking to conquer Earth is common among a number of UFO conspiracy buffs. Some theorists add British royalty and other leading European political figures as agents of the reptilians—who, in some cases, are actually Reptilians in disguise.
A favorite portrait of a sinister Obama is painted by certain evangelical right-wing Christians who believe in an imminent endtimes–Apocalypse scenario. While such a devilish precursor to Judgment Day as the Antichrist was considered very much a fringe belief held by a minority of conservative Christians 150 years ago, it has now become mainstream with images of a demonic earthly prince Obama, with Bush and Clinton before him, fulfilling the requirements of the image perfectly in the frightened minds of those who believe in the powers of a satanic majesty.