Did the 'birther' lie give Romney a blueprint for all his other blatant lies?
In February 2011, a poll found that 51 percent of Republican primary voters said they believed President Barack Obama had not been born in the United States. (See http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49554.html ). But could that high a proportion of even Republican zealots actually believe such a ridiculous claim? IMO, no way.
IMO, most people who said they believed Barack Obama was born abroad simply were expressing their hatred for the man. The birther poll was just a convenient vehicle for expressing their disdain.
This insight helps me understand why Romney and Ryan continue to assert many other lies about the President, despite media fact-checking that verifies these assertions are four-Pinocchio, pants-on-fire lies.
On this view, resentful white people don't really believe the President "raided Medicare" and "gutted welfare work requirements" to transfer "their" money to lazy brown poor people. But Romney-Ryan ads, stump speeches, and even convention acceptance speeches featuring these outright lies are simply vehicles for ginning up and reinforcing hatred for the "Kenyan carpetbagger" in the White House.
WHAT'S YOUR OPINION?
If this view is correct, will detailed debunking of Romney-Ryan lies have as little effect on public opinion as did wide distribution of the President's birth certificate? Would ridiculing people who actually believe Romney-Ryan lies prove more effective? IMO, making Donald Trump the face of birtherism and turning him into late-night comedy fodder is what has diminished birtherism, not details and documentation of the President's birth in Hawaii.