That’s stupid, but at least it’s logical. Problem is, the Constitution doesn’t speak to the issue, so bad luck for them.
I would argue it's not even logical! Your loyalty is not dependent upon another person's statements or loyalties! Essentially what those folks pressing the point would be saying that a man has no control over his loyalty; it is set for him before he is even born, by the acts of the parents.
In which case if I could get Sarah Palin's parents to state that she was to be a citizen of Canada on birth, she is disqualified. Her actual desires are immaterial, it is what her parents desired before she was actually born!
It's not logical or intelligent. But I guess it keeps many up late at night working on websites...
“Your loyalty is not dependent upon another person’s statements or loyalties!”
Actually, it does, and not just in the sense that parents have a big impact on their kids. Under U.S. law and the law of most countries children born not on soil under their jurisdiction yet still born to citizens themselves have the right to be citizens. And the further you go back in time, the more importance is given to the child/parent relationship in determining the child’s legal status. This is one of those principles that’s slowly fading away but still possesses some import. It’s not all about the freely-chosen actions of self-contained individuals. If it were, naturalized citizens would be eligible.
“Essentially what those folks pressing the point would be saying that a man has no control over his loyalty; it is set for him before he is even born, by the acts of the parents.”
There is no way around the acts of your parents impacting your citizenship status at birth. That will never change. For everything you’re saying, the exact same thing could be said of naturalized citizens, I hope you realize. Blood is not destiny, but the law cannot sift through all candidates, reading their minds as to whether they’re loyal or not. So we set standards, just like we do with the drinking age.
As it is, the threshold is set at people who are citizens from birth. Birthers think it is (and should be) set at people who have two citizen parents. If you think there ought to be no threshold at all, that’s fine. Let the electorate sort it out. But so long as we’re going to make sweeping judgements as to who should be president based on how they were born, it is inevitable that the parents’ status will affect the child’s.