This morning at brunch, the topic of discussion was California politics. Someone joked that the Republican's next big push would probably be a bill that defined marriage as between a man and a woman, and made naturalized citizens from Austria eligible for Presidency. I will no longer joke about politics like that again, because it has a way of becoming frighteningly real -- their push is for foreign-born naturalized citizens to seek presidency.
If this isn't the lie of the year, I don't know what is:
Schwarzenegger said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he has been too busy with California's problems to contemplate a future run for the White House. "I have no idea, I haven't thought about that at all," he said. |
No word on the definition of marriage thing yet.
Not that I think Schwarzeneggar would exactly be a smart choice for the U.S presidency, but what's wrong with the idea of the possibility of a naturalized citizen becoming president of the United States if he or she has lived in America for most of his or her life and even more so than in the country of their birth? Or someone who has lived in America since they were children or who was born in another country, but immigrated to the country when they were infants and basically grew up in America?
I don't have any problems with a naturalized citizen becoming President of the United States. Our joking was about them adding a special exception for "citizens of Austria". The thing I have a problem with is with the Republicans making this push only because they want Schwartzeneggar to be Bush's successor. They are starting this now, because it will take time for this provision to be added into the Constitution. As far as I know, there are not many naturalized citizens with Presidential aspirations who are financially and politically connected enough to conduct a successful presidential campaign. I do not question that a naturalized citizen could become a good President -- naturalized citizens in my experience sometimes have more appreciation for the U.S. than U.S. born citizen who takes their citizenship and their rights for granted. It is the timing and the motive that I question, and knowing full well that if this were to become law, it would only be for the benefit of one man, not many people.