When President Obama told the media why he had released his long-form Hawaiian birth certificate, all I could think of was Pakistan.

Yes, Pakistan, where no conspiracy theory is too bizarre and you’ll hear that 9/11 was a Zionist plot ― and Osama bin Laden a U.S. agent. Ordinary Pakistanis turn to conspiracy theories to explain the overwhelming problems that face them. But those unhinged theories distract them and their leaders from dealing with real problems that could do them in.

So I felt a painful twinge of recognition when Obama said he’d decided on the release because the birther flap was eclipsing the debate over the budget. “We do not have time for this kind of silliness,” Obama told the press. He is right.

Yet I fear the culture of conspiracy is getting a grip on a nervous American nation in a manner all too reminiscent of Pakistan, with the same poisonous effect on our politics. And just as in Pakistan, these theories are cynically fueled by politicians who think they will garner votes.

It’s much easier to understand why conspiracy theories run wild in Islamabad ― or the Middle East for that matter ― than it is in America. In Pakistan and the Arab world, governments and militaries operate in secret, with few institutional checks and balances.

So people with little control over their lives turn to conspiracy theories to give their world some shape. In the Arab countries, these theories are promoted by media that are mostly state-controlled. In Pakistan, where the media are nominally free, it is often ready to print outrageous stories without checking facts.

America’s checkered history in Pakistan provides some grist for these theories, which are then wildly embroidered. Officials often plant tales about nefarious American behavior in order to deflect pressure on themselves.

Thus we get stories that the United States is planning to seize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, or has 9,000 Blackwater security men roaming Pakistan and setting off bombs that are blamed on the Taliban. Then there’s the theory that bin Laden was Jewish; or that the London transport bombings were orchestrated by the CIA to drum up support for America’s war on terrorism; or that India’s intelligence agency carried out the 2008 attacks in Mumbai so it could blame Pakistan.

You get the drift.

So it’s easy to see how the gullible in Pakistan are manipulated in a fashion that makes it impossible for that country to deal with its most pressing issues. But why is this happening here?

The birther business is a sad symbol of the irrational thinking that has seeped into our public discourse. We can blame it on the times, or the bad economy, or on the power of talk radio and the irresponsible side of the Internet. But the fact is that a conspiracy culture is distorting our political debate.

In America, we have a free press and dogged reporters, so we had plenty of proof that Obama was born in Hawaii. Senior public officials there said repeatedly that the long-form birth certificate is no longer used, and that the computer-generated form is their official birth certificate.

Dr. Chyome Fukino, a former state health director in Hawaii and lifelong Republican, told CNN that Obama “was absolutely born here in Hawaii.” She had seen Obama’s long-form document.

So there should have been no need for the president of the United States to produce a document no longer considered official in order to satisfy birthers.

But who cares about facts?

Not Donald Trump, the birther-booster extraordinaire, who informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Monday: “I’ve been told very recently that the birth certificate is missing ... or doesn’t exist.” When Cooper pressed for Trump’s source, this would-be president said he couldn’t reveal it.

Has he revealed it now that the issue is moot? Of course not. He knows that many birthers will claim the document the White House obtained is a fake, and he wants to profit from their blindness.

Indeed, the Conservative Action Alerts website has already put out this message: “We still need to ask the same questions we have been ― where’s the birth certificate?” And Trump had the chutzpah to say he’s “proud” of his role in this farce.

So the birther issue will roll on, promoted by the crazies and political cynics. Fringe groups once on America’s margin have taken center stage in Republican politics. Last week Public Policy Polling found that 51 percent of Republicans who plan to vote in the 2012 primaries believe Obama wasn’t born in the U.S.A.

I hope Obama’s gesture will jolt them. I hope NBC will dump Trump, and we won’t become the land of the fearful, where Americans forsake facts for the more comfortable pap provided by political manipulators.

If that kind of mind-set takes hold of large segments of the population, in a country where information IS available, we are heading for deep trouble. That is the mind-set that embraces the worst kind of demagogues. I’ve seen it abroad.

When politicians like Trump _ the new Elmer Gantry _ feed the conspiracy culture they not only damage their country, they reveal themselves as cynical hucksters.

I can’t believe the Republican Party would choose Trump as its nominee, and I still doubt a majority would elect him or another such con man. Such folly would prove the United States had joined the sad community of nations where the wildest theories are cherished as truth.

By Trudy Rubin

Trudy Rubin is a columnist and editorial-board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer. ― Ed.

(The Philadelphia Inquirer)

(McClatchy-Tribune Information Services)