Yes, i've noted this myself. It befuddles me that people are motivated to keep pushing a nonsensical interpretation with all of it's ridiculous consequences such as "anchor babies" and "birth tourism" etc. Mr. Rogers I understand. He has personal and emotional reasons for wanting to believe such a thing, and I highly suspect this is likewise the case of many who come here and argue this issue.
For many of them, the issue is personal because it affects how they view themselves or people they care about.
I didn’t know about the ‘personal & emotional reasons’ you mentioned. It makes perfect sense, however.
My take is that in the other cases it rests on the primary liberal fallacy of the day. I.e.: that the only sin/evil in the world is ‘discrimination’. Thus, since the Framers were not evil people, they would never have discriminated against citizens of foreign parents. From that point irrationally takes over and all hope of a logical, common sense conversation is lost.
It’s a case of projecting modern-liberal PC attitudes onto the Framers. Problem is, the Framers weren’t PC. They DID elevate preserving and protecting the Republic above hurting the feelings of foreigners & their offspring. They saw exactly what would happen when and if a person w foreign allegiance made it into the WH, and they sought to head that disaster off at the pass.
Well modern liberalism defeated their effort, and the entirely predictable results ensued. Obama is having the time of his life actively and purposefully destroying the country he hates. Magic dirters look at Obama’s swath of irreversible destruction and say, ‘This is what the Framers intended’. Sane people look at it and say, ‘If only we had listened....’