GOP Attacks 14th Amendment, And My Citizenship
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Thanks to the 14th amendment, I am an American. My parents were both legal residents, but not citizens of America, when I was born (they’re both still Jamaican citizens). It didn’t matter. I was born in Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, MD and that makes me as American as Apple pie. The Republicans want to take that away from me.
Well, sort of. See, the thing is the Republican party knows it can’t repeal the 14th amendment. There are no circumstances under which that would actually happen. BUT, they do need a shiny object to dangle in front of their base voters who are low on information and high on outrage. From time to time the shiny object changes. One year its banning abortion, the other its a constitutional amendment against gay marriage. The GOP has no actual intention of doing these things which are largely impossible, but as long as the rubes think there’s the possibility (the thinking goes) they’ll show up at the polls and vote Republican.
Now, the problem is the GOP is so power-hungry it doesn’t care about the societal damage of its initiatives. That is, creating an atmosphere where the citizenship of natural-born Americans like myself is somehow looked upon as less than those born to citizens. It’s pretty sad, and morally bankrupt to be precise. But the power lust of the right is such that they’ve shown us time and time again if they have to step on the backs of one group of Americans or another, by God they’ll do it no matter what.
25 Responses to “GOP Attacks 14th Amendment, And My Citizenship”
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© 2000-2011 Oliver Willis
*applause* No commentary needed. This is a great post on the contemptible behavior of the republican party and its so-called leadership. Thanks for saying so.
Only a Republican could argue the 14th Amendment protects the rights of British Petroleum, but not a baby, and then talk about a “right to life” that apparently ends at birth.
Go back to foreign land you creepy Pineapple man!
The GOP hates America and Americans, and is truly a treasonous and criminal group.
The 14th Amendment was written to vacate the Dred Scott decision, by creating a simple and uncontestable standard for citizenship. “Dred Scott” held that citizenship could be granted or withheld by local fiat, which gave the power to grant citizenship to, among others, the local sheriff.
At the time the fear by the opposition was that the country would be overrun by the children of the heathen Chinese and suspiciously Catholic Irish who had been imported to do the railroad building that “real” Americans were too good for. (Disclaimer: I am descended from Irish immigrants.)
Substitute “lettuce picking” for railroad building and the meaning becomes clear.
Someone will have to explain to me how pandering to an aging, reactionary white conservative base while alienating single women, gays, latinos, african americans, the unemployed, non-Christians, young people and moderate voters from their party is a winning long- or even mid-term electoral strategy for the GOP. I guess they probably won’t wake up their own base until they lose Texas. And Nevada. And Arizona. And Virginia. And North Carolina. And Florida.
As we might say in our house, “You’re as American as Mom, apple pie, and enchiladas.”
I love how the GOP manage to ignore the fact that modern America is nothing more than 200 years of immigration.
So much for the right’s strict adherence to the constitution. When it comes to brown people or gays, it’s no longer a sacred document that cannot be touched.
Assholes.
Marco, that’s what I thought last night listening to Jeff Sessions explain how the Founding Fathers couldn’t have anticipated today’s immigration problems.
I wonder how MIchelle Malkin is feeling about this new movement from her buddies?
Spot on. (insert claps here)
I see that the usual fanboys have nothing to say here.
“white skin makes you an American”-GOP
I was born at Christ the King Hospital in Camden, Maryland shortly after my Mother moved to New Jersey from Scotland… My sister was born in Scotland. My Mom is from Scotland (Edinburgh.)
We then moved to Hagerstown, Maryland where we stayed until I was 10, then on to Milwaukee.
I’ve been to Scotland, but I was born here, raised here and I live here. I am an American.
Fuck the GOP.
Um, that’s Camden, New Jersey. Sorry about that.
The GOP is apparently too stupid to see that demonizing Hispanics (which is what this amounts to) is a policy for political suicide. California went blue when that fool Pete Wilson started touting that incredibly mean-spirited initiative to kick “illegals” out of schools, and it’s been that way ever since.
Sure, appealing to racist idiots can help you win a primary. But God help you in the general election.
Um, that’s Camden, New Jersey. Sorry about that.
It’s okay, everyone aspires to be a Marylander. I know.
You’d think by now they’d have accomplished, y’know, something!
How quickly we forget how someone tried to spend their political capital:
According to Democrats, for 50+ years the Republicans have been trying to steal Social Security.
Well, Social Security WOULD be bankrupt today if John McCain has his way in 2006
You’d think by now they’d have accomplished, y’know, something!
That’s because too many people LIKE social security.
According to Democrats, the only person in America who benefits from a tax cut is Paris Hilton, and a person who earns more than $250K per year is rich.
If you honestly believe a 6 figure salary isn’t “rich”, I don’t know how to help you.
According to Democrats, all the negative events of the past 4 years of Democratic control of Congress, and the past 2 years of Democratic control of the White House, are the fault of George W. Bush. Before that, before he died, it was Ronald Reagan.
And according to Republicans, the universe resets every 2 years.
Nice strawman post.
We only want to deny citizenship to children born from illegal immigrants.
Woot.
The GOP is apparently too stupid to see that demonizing Hispanics (which is what this amounts to) is a policy for political suicide.
They just don’t care anymore, but they used to. Karl Rove dreamed of wooing the fastest growing segment of the population because they were socially conservative on many issues. He thought they’d all be natural Republicans, and they very well might have been too.
But that was 2002. Today, 99% of Hispanics in the country, aside from the die hard Republican Castro haters in Miami, will NEVER EVER vote Republican as long as they live. That demographic will be the group that sways all future national elections, especially out here in the West.
Today’s GOP has exactly zero in the way of long term strategy…it’s all about what makes them feel good right now. Sounds like children doesn’t it?
They will be completely irrelevant in a few decades, like some old fossil to be studied. Sure, there will still be conservatives and Republicans, but they won’t be like the insane repubs of today.
Yeah, that’s what they all say, I’ll believe it when I see the birth certificate (long form only, in triplicate, with full annotations and amendments, plus a copy of your originally issued social security card, plus your original social security card, 3 forms of independent government issue ID, and a picture of you holding the June 22, 1983 Washington Post in front of the Lincoln Memorial while dressed as Uncle Sam). Until then, I’m doubtful..
We only want to deny citizenship to children born from illegal immigrants.
“FUCKING BABIES!
I mean what?”
America remains a great nation in spite of the GOP/Teabaggers/Wingnuts.
But we have to keep fighting them. They literally want to send the country back to the 19th century.