The Truth About the Birthright Citizenship Nonsense

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."-U. S. Constitution, Amendment 14

Before getting to my argument, I would like to remind you of a little history.  The absolute nature of this provision, which allows for no exceptions, exists for one reason:  by the time of its passage, in 1868, it was already clear that Southern dead enders were engaged in serious attempts to strip former slaves of their citizenship.  The law was passed to prevent this.  Its absolute character is  a result of the racist inclinations of many white Americans, and it is that racism, therefore, which bears the blame for the consequences of the fourteenth amendment.  Had these white people done the decent thing and truly reconciled with the victims of slavery, this amendment would have never been necessary; if they don't like it, it is their own fault that it exists.

Well, leaving that aside, I now want to talk about the true purpose of Trump's attempt to destroy this passage of the Constitution through royal decree.  And in stating what I am about to say, I feel called upon to state openly that I first realized in the 1980's that it was the intent of the Republican party to destroy any semblance of popular government in the United States, to replace it with an oligarchic dictatorship responsive only to the couple thousand sociopaths whom they would deliberately enrich until they had the money necessary to finance its takeover.  I have suffered endless derision over the years by my absolute defense of that notion; these days, I don't think it seems far-fetched to many.

This issue needs to be tied to another issue, to make the Republicans' attempts clear for what they really are, and that is the imprisoning of thousands of immigrant children in what are, not to dodge the issue, concentration camps.  This has been taken by the left as a racist attack, and it is certainly that, but it is also something far more malignant.  By selecting just about the weakest and most defenseless group they can find, and throwing them in these camps, the Republicans have begun the process of establishing that it is perfectly legal for the President of the United States to imprison people who have committed no crime, merely on his own whim.

Now, birthright citizenship, which is basically the same vicious story.  Trump and the Republicans have selected a large group of Americans who they have decided have essentially no support at all among his xenophobic base, and they are now claiming the right for the President of the United States, by fiat, and in a clearly unconstitutional act, to strip millions of their citizenship and eject them from the country (or perhaps place them in concentration camps, where history tells us what is likely to happen to them.)  If this happens, Republicans will have established the right of the President to revoke any passage of the Constitution.  There is a name for that sort of leader, as there is for those that claim the right to imprison citizens without any legal process whatsoever.

There is no doubt about this any more.  We are facing a highly developed and financed open attempt by the Republican party to reduce this country to a fascist dictatorship, and at this point the attempt is succeeding.  The dodging of the obvious necessary in order to deny this today is overwhelming, yet there are many millions of propagandized zombie voters out there who refuse to see the truth, and are thrilled to contribute to the open destruction of everything that ever made this country different from Nazi Germany, or fascist Italy, or Saudi Arabia  or Putin's Russia.  That is what these people yearn for, and any supposedly liberal person who refuses to acknowledge that is hastening the end of the American dream.

Comments

Jerry Critter said…
I think that Trump knows he can eliminate the birthright citizenship by executive order. He is saying that he can and will just to energize his base which is too stupid to know any difference and racist enough to think it should be done.
Green Eagle said…
He knows that he can do it, not because it is legal for a President to abrogate the Constitution, but because he knows that he now has five massively corrupt Supreme Court Justices that will do anything to benefit the monsters that pay for the Republican party. The first step was to put forth in public the intention of misusing a law that allows cases, in a true national emergency, to go past the lower courts, and put decisions in the hands of criminals on the Supreme Court. The second step was using a blizzard of lies and belligerence to force on the Supreme Court a totally morally bankrupt man who will willingly author a decision stating anything, regardless of how abominable it is. Trump has prepared the ground to take the entire system of laws and the entire decision making process into his own hateful hands. Even if Democrats win the House back next week, and can stop the malignant legislation of the Republican party from passing, he will just do it by "executive order." i.e. dictatorial decree. That he is going to try to do this, and immediately, in the period when Republicans are still in control of everything, is absolutely certain. Can we stop him...who knows?
Unknown said…
I have been saying since the day Trump was elected that there would be no 2020 elections and, literally, people would not listen to me. My assessment, 2 years on, is that the assertion is on-track, and muchMUCH less unlikely that it was in 2016.

We shall see, as Herr Hateface himself would say.
Isaac said…
Adolph Twitler has never understood that the Constitution and doesn't understand that the Constitution sets up all sorts of restrictions on government and the presidency. He also does not care because he believes it is his inherent right to do anything he damn well pleases.

He doesn't see how the Constitution is laid out in a way that doesn't allow for a king or a dictator. He doesn't care.

First they came for Donald Trump and I did not speak out because screw that guy.
Green Eagle said…
Richard, well, I think it is far more likely that the Republican vote suppression juggernaut, which, in my sad opinion, is going to cause the Democrats to lose many races next Tuesday, will be so perfected by 2020 that they will be able to run a near perfect simulation of an election in which they will steal countless races all around the country. And the five corrupt Conservative justices on the Supreme Court will rubber stamp every bit of it, so we will have elections with exactly as much legitimacy as they have in Russia or Zimbabwe.
Jerry said…
What is constitutional, is what the Supreme Court says is constitutional. The 14th amendment changed what the Supreme Court previously found constitutional, that blacks were not citizens. The Supreme Court can reverse their previous decision, just as they can reverse Roe/Wade, or any other law. For those who fear a fascist like takeover of our government, it starts with getting the ruling court of the country to overturn accepted laws.
Horsebrain said…
"and are thrilled to contribute to the open destruction of everything that ever made this country different from Nazi Germany, or fascist Italy, or Saudi Arabia or Putin's Russia."

Baloney! I can come up with three differences they want to keep.

1) They want English to be the dominant language of the United States. This is not the case in the other countries mentioned.

2) They want soccer to be marginalized, if not outright banned. Soccer is/was the most popular sport of Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, modern Saudi Arabia, and Putin's Russia.

3) Let’s see. I can’t. The third one, I can’t. Sorry. Oops.

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