why you do me like this, nebraska?
Mar. 11th, 2011 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intertribalMark Christensen doesn't want me to run for president in Nebraska. He's sponsoring a "birther" bill in the state legislature that would require presidential candidates to provide long-form birth certificates to accompany the following sworn affidavit: "On the day I was born, both my birth father and my birth mother were citizens of the United States of America." Oh Mark Christensen! Isn't my US citizenship good enough for you anymore?
The Journal Star points out: "Six other U.S. presidents besides Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, had foreign-born parents: Thomas Jefferson, whose mother was born in England; Andrew Jackson, whose parents were born in Ireland; James Buchanan, whose father was born in Ireland; Chester Arthur, whose father was born in Ireland; Woodrow Wilson, whose mother was born in England; and Herbert Hoover, whose mother was born in Canada." Well, we could have lived without Andrew Jackson, I suppose, he seemed like kind of an ass. Maybe William Jennings Bryan would have won and made us a quasi-socialist country if Woodrow Wilson was ineligible? Probably not.
Christensen says that it "is not clear what the nation's founders meant by the phrase 'natural born citizen.'" Um, except no. And of course the comments defending the senator are like, "we just want to know if the guy is eligible!" Birth certificate is all that's needed, people. Look it up. Parents' citizenship is irrelevant if you were born in the United States.
But this does provide support (if any was necessary) that nativist hysteria is what's behind the "birther" movement. It's not about eligibility - it's about keeping the national "gene pool" pure. I suspect that if that list of ineligible former presidents was given to Christensen, his natural response would be: "Oh well - exceptions made if your parents were citizens of European countries." I don't think he'd say it out loud, even though this reads like a very clear attempt to keep the children of immigrants (read: DIRTY MEXICANS THAT ARE TAKING OVER OUR COUNTRY) out of the presidency. The fact is that doing this would make a huge number of people I know - who are currently eligible to run for the presidency, except they're not old enough yet - ineligible for the job. Many of them are some of the smartest people I've known, but who cares about that? In bringing up the possibility of foreign allegiance the bill is also, essentially, punishing children for the "sins" of their fathers (the sin: being a foreign national, or even just being born in a foreign country - LB654 isn't exactly clear, but I don't think law is Christensen's strong suit). Ironically, these are the same people who don't want to feel guilty about being from slave-owning, Jim Crow-enforcing stock, because that's punishing them for the sins of their fathers. But well, that's ethnic nationalism in action.
When I read this article to my mother this morning she said, "Right, and why stop there? Why not prove that your grandparents were citizens? Or, or - how about you have to be Native American?"
Meanwhile a reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy is reaching his full-grown adult form. I can't wait for internment camps too!
The Journal Star points out: "Six other U.S. presidents besides Obama, whose father was born in Kenya, had foreign-born parents: Thomas Jefferson, whose mother was born in England; Andrew Jackson, whose parents were born in Ireland; James Buchanan, whose father was born in Ireland; Chester Arthur, whose father was born in Ireland; Woodrow Wilson, whose mother was born in England; and Herbert Hoover, whose mother was born in Canada." Well, we could have lived without Andrew Jackson, I suppose, he seemed like kind of an ass. Maybe William Jennings Bryan would have won and made us a quasi-socialist country if Woodrow Wilson was ineligible? Probably not.
Christensen says that it "is not clear what the nation's founders meant by the phrase 'natural born citizen.'" Um, except no. And of course the comments defending the senator are like, "we just want to know if the guy is eligible!" Birth certificate is all that's needed, people. Look it up. Parents' citizenship is irrelevant if you were born in the United States.
But this does provide support (if any was necessary) that nativist hysteria is what's behind the "birther" movement. It's not about eligibility - it's about keeping the national "gene pool" pure. I suspect that if that list of ineligible former presidents was given to Christensen, his natural response would be: "Oh well - exceptions made if your parents were citizens of European countries." I don't think he'd say it out loud, even though this reads like a very clear attempt to keep the children of immigrants (read: DIRTY MEXICANS THAT ARE TAKING OVER OUR COUNTRY) out of the presidency. The fact is that doing this would make a huge number of people I know - who are currently eligible to run for the presidency, except they're not old enough yet - ineligible for the job. Many of them are some of the smartest people I've known, but who cares about that? In bringing up the possibility of foreign allegiance the bill is also, essentially, punishing children for the "sins" of their fathers (the sin: being a foreign national, or even just being born in a foreign country - LB654 isn't exactly clear, but I don't think law is Christensen's strong suit). Ironically, these are the same people who don't want to feel guilty about being from slave-owning, Jim Crow-enforcing stock, because that's punishing them for the sins of their fathers. But well, that's ethnic nationalism in action.
When I read this article to my mother this morning she said, "Right, and why stop there? Why not prove that your grandparents were citizens? Or, or - how about you have to be Native American?"
Meanwhile a reincarnation of Joseph McCarthy is reaching his full-grown adult form. I can't wait for internment camps too!
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-11 07:41 pm (UTC)Don't you love how people's analogical thinking only works in one direction and not the other?
None of my children could be president if that bill got passed, seeing as their father isn't an American citizen.
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Date: 2011-03-11 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-03-11 09:44 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-03-12 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-03-12 04:57 am (UTC)