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shirtlifterbearThe Republican Party hates Americans.
Truefact.
But the GOP reserves a special hatred for both New Americans and Gay Americans.
"The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people "born or naturalized in the United States" for a reason. They wished to directly repudiate the Dred Scott decision, which said that citizenship could be granted or denied by political caprice.
They purposely chose an objective standard of citizenship -- birth -- that was not subject to politics. Reconstruction leaders established a firm, sound principle: To be an American citizen, you don't have to please a majority, you just have to be born here."
So the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides for citizenship by birth on US soil, and the GOP wants to try and repeal the Amendment to stop the "flood" of anchor babies, as they're called. Anchor babies would be a totally cute thing if at the core it weren't so racist an ideology. (Can't you just see little babies in Navy uniforms and fake little anchor tattoos on their adorable chubby arms? *squee*)
Of course it's merely a coincidence that the 14th Amendment also HAPPENS coincidentally to enforce the Due Process and Equal Protection provisions onto the states, by shocking coincidence, but I'm SURE that's not what the GOP is after, surely not!
I noticed this little threat to our liberty because I just happened to have been born in one of the few countries in the world that did not allow birth location citizenship, El Salvador. The country was founded by Sephardic Jews that had been thrown out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and they wanted to be sure that no one could ever take their country away from them ever again. (Naming your country The Savior was a brilliant stroke, btw, talk about hiding in plain sight! Crypto-Judaism at its finest!) You have to be a THIRD generation Salvadoran to try to get citizenship!
Some other countries?
Kenya, which removed the right in desperation in the late 20th Century because it was literally drowning in refugees who snuck over the border to have babies and stay, Japan, that bastion of xenophobia, the UK (oh dear!) and Germany.
That's right, Germany.
Germany didn't want all of those Turkish immigrants they had imported as laborers to be able to remain and VOTE! Gott im Himmel, nein! (There were third- and fourth-generation Turkish families in Germany, but no citizens!) The European Union ordered them to change the law to conform with every other nation on earth (except El Salvador and Kenya). n.b.: there is a grand total of one Turkish-German elected legislator in Germany. ONE. And he's in a leadership position in his party because, like Barney Frank, he represents an entire demographic by default.
Pat Buchanan, in a virulently racist and homophobic speech to the Republican National Convention in 1998, used the language "We are America, THEY are not."
Molly Ivins quipped that "the speech probably sounded better in the original German."
The GOP hates the Fourteenth Amendment because it lets immigrants become US citizens, and oh, did I mention that those naughty Due Process and Equal Protection clauses are also going to be the Constitutional basis for allowing Gay marriage?
SHOCKING COINCIDENCE!
EDIT: Thank you to those who strengthened my case about racism and birth citizenship!
I'm making a t-shirt that sums up my sentiments about the GOP perfectly, a three-word phrase that makes me laugh and totally makes my point:
"Suck it, Scalia."
Truefact.
But the GOP reserves a special hatred for both New Americans and Gay Americans.
"The authors of the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed citizenship to all people "born or naturalized in the United States" for a reason. They wished to directly repudiate the Dred Scott decision, which said that citizenship could be granted or denied by political caprice.
They purposely chose an objective standard of citizenship -- birth -- that was not subject to politics. Reconstruction leaders established a firm, sound principle: To be an American citizen, you don't have to please a majority, you just have to be born here."
So the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution provides for citizenship by birth on US soil, and the GOP wants to try and repeal the Amendment to stop the "flood" of anchor babies, as they're called. Anchor babies would be a totally cute thing if at the core it weren't so racist an ideology. (Can't you just see little babies in Navy uniforms and fake little anchor tattoos on their adorable chubby arms? *squee*)
Of course it's merely a coincidence that the 14th Amendment also HAPPENS coincidentally to enforce the Due Process and Equal Protection provisions onto the states, by shocking coincidence, but I'm SURE that's not what the GOP is after, surely not!
I noticed this little threat to our liberty because I just happened to have been born in one of the few countries in the world that did not allow birth location citizenship, El Salvador. The country was founded by Sephardic Jews that had been thrown out of Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and they wanted to be sure that no one could ever take their country away from them ever again. (Naming your country The Savior was a brilliant stroke, btw, talk about hiding in plain sight! Crypto-Judaism at its finest!) You have to be a THIRD generation Salvadoran to try to get citizenship!
Some other countries?
Kenya, which removed the right in desperation in the late 20th Century because it was literally drowning in refugees who snuck over the border to have babies and stay, Japan, that bastion of xenophobia, the UK (oh dear!) and Germany.
That's right, Germany.
Germany didn't want all of those Turkish immigrants they had imported as laborers to be able to remain and VOTE! Gott im Himmel, nein! (There were third- and fourth-generation Turkish families in Germany, but no citizens!) The European Union ordered them to change the law to conform with every other nation on earth (except El Salvador and Kenya). n.b.: there is a grand total of one Turkish-German elected legislator in Germany. ONE. And he's in a leadership position in his party because, like Barney Frank, he represents an entire demographic by default.
Pat Buchanan, in a virulently racist and homophobic speech to the Republican National Convention in 1998, used the language "We are America, THEY are not."
Molly Ivins quipped that "the speech probably sounded better in the original German."
The GOP hates the Fourteenth Amendment because it lets immigrants become US citizens, and oh, did I mention that those naughty Due Process and Equal Protection clauses are also going to be the Constitutional basis for allowing Gay marriage?
SHOCKING COINCIDENCE!
EDIT: Thank you to those who strengthened my case about racism and birth citizenship!
I'm making a t-shirt that sums up my sentiments about the GOP perfectly, a three-word phrase that makes me laugh and totally makes my point:
"Suck it, Scalia."
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:16 pm (UTC)But that is going to happn anyway...The Demographics say that once the above 50 crowd (I am one) drops dead...the youth of our country, who dont really give a shit about denying gays their rights or denying minorities the right to live here...is going to make some major changes to our politics
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:38 pm (UTC)I hear them Rethuglicans eat a lot of red meat and drink a lot of bourbon, so the end must be near!
*giggle*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 07:20 pm (UTC)But, yeah, once Latinos flip Texas, which could be as early as 2016, the GOP is done.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:27 pm (UTC)But it's DISGUSTING.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:21 pm (UTC)The law in Germany since 2000 has been that German citizenship is conferred if at least one of the parents is a legal permanent resident and has lived there for at least 8 years.
It looks like El Salvador has changed its law to birthright citizenship. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli
Nevertheless, Scalia can still suck it. We want pics of you in the t-shirt.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:32 pm (UTC)Poor El Salvador.
They had to dollarize because remittances from the US formed such a huge part of their economy, and then the US economy crashed.
And now they have to worry that they'll be taken over again.
PS I'm still not eligible for citizenship in El Salvador, sadly.
not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 06:22 pm (UTC)Since 1 January 1983, children born in the United Kingdom only become British Citizens if their parents are British Citizens, or are legally resident in the UK. Visiting people from, say, Australia or Argentina, who have a child have not given birth to a newborn British citizen. Likewise, visitors from an EU country only get a British baby if they are residents of the UK at the time. This isn't a problem usually, because the child will have citizenship in whatever EU country, and thereby entitled to stay in the UK indefinitely (as is equally true for the parents), but parental popping over from Paris for a couple of weeks doesn't count when it comes to citizenship for the baby.
Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 06:28 pm (UTC)Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 06:38 pm (UTC)There was/is concern before that any child born here was a UK citizen so did become a way to gain citizenship, but now the idea families get shipped out automatically and jailed for months is evil. Then again the British invented the Concentration Camp so...
Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 06:43 pm (UTC)Sadly, that's what I meant. The BNP has a lot more power in the UK than the equivalent here in the US.
Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 08:17 pm (UTC)And BNP hardly has any support now, only got the Euro seats cos of PR. BNP support went down this election.
Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 08:25 pm (UTC)SCARY!
Re: not just three countries
Date: 2010-08-06 08:41 pm (UTC)Look up how many fascist/far right MPs there are across Europe. In France they have quite a few - LePen's party polls something like 15% of the vote. Here it's 5%.
Then again a lot of their and BNP's policies are similar to the Teabaggers and the Republicans...major parties here are moderate compared to the Republicans - even the Tories.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:28 pm (UTC)I don't actually give them that leeway, but if they aren't deluded and are in fact stirring shit in the most evil way possible, more power to them.
P.S. having visited Spain, inc Granada the whole lie that Christianity throwing out the Moors was a golden age was obviously a complete lie. They burned through millions or billions ripped from South America and were bankrupt in less than a century. Witch hunts and mariscon (sp?) were like the US sign of a far deeper fuck up.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 06:39 pm (UTC)"I know he hates me, and I know he hits me, but I love him!"
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 07:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 02:43 am (UTC)That is my cry!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 02:44 am (UTC)Great link!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 10:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-06 10:37 pm (UTC)In practice the Swiss immigration dept/courts in the last 10-20 years have generally granted citizenship to kids who were born here to legally resident parents after they reach their 16th birthday or so if the kids attended school (were indoctrinated) here and apply for the citizenship. But this isn't protected by law and could change at any time thanks to conservatives using the immigration issue as a wedge issue.
The conservative party leading the way on "immigration reform" sent out a flyer last week which said in part Switzerland is MORE lenient than America on immigration and asking "DO WE REALLY WANT TO BE MORE IMMIGRANT FRIENDLY THAN AMERICANS?!?!" I kid not!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 02:42 am (UTC)If I were seeking a better life and I wasn't already an American citizen, I would do anything I could to stay here.
So it's hard for me to come down on illegal immigrants because I might well do the same if I were in their shoes!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 04:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 08:13 am (UTC)This is not a bad thing.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-07 11:29 am (UTC)When the American Dream starting to become more and more elusive and "Americans" started finding it tougher and tougher to live the life of conspicous consumption they had been used to, xenophobia started to creep in for real.