Posted on 04/27/2016 10:27:56 PM PDT by Neil E. Wright
I have a message for all the Trumpsters. Your behavior and antics in the past couple of months, and the antics of your "savior", The Donald, have made my decision about who to vote for, and who NOT to vote for in November easy.
If your guy is the nominee for the Republican Party, he WILL lose in November, and YOU WILL OWN IT. Because I will NEVER vote for that statist socialist, parasitic, steaming pile of obama.
Now, I've been told that JimRob is banning anyone who states publicly that they will not vote for trump. So be it. I have enjoyed Jim's friendship for many years, and I'll be sorry to lose it, but I WILL NOT surrender my principles that easily. Herewith is an article by Herschel Smith, that encapsulates my thoughts.
I have said for a very long time to my family and others that the experience of parents having and raising children isn’t really about the children. God will handle the children as He sees fit. It’s about the parents, and there are two experiences that test your mettle more than any other: marriage and children. It’s one of God’s way of sanctifying His own, but it has the opposite affect on others.
One reason I care about the election cycle isn’t because I think we can make a difference. Oh, we can in some ways, we can’t in others. We can make a difference in the medical care situation in the country, but we can’t in the global financial system. This discussion is saved for another time. But one thing the individual vote does at one and the same time is affect the soul and show the content of the soul of the voter. It’s a deeply moral act that has eternal consequences for the one who is given stewardship of the vote.
Now let me turn for a moment to a recent commentary by Jonah Goldberg. Sometimes I disagree vehemently with him, but other times he hits on all cylinders. This day the engine was running to perfection on the dynamometer.
This week there have been some cracks in the façade. Trump’s attacks on Heidi Cruz unsettled even Ann Coulter. And his abortion remarks are still sending tremors through the granite foundations of Trump can-do-no-wrong-ism. Joe Scarborough and Breitbart’s John Nolte are talking about what a bad week he’s having and gravely warning Trump to get his act together. As Jim Geraghty has been writing, the problem with such second thoughts is the assumption that something is amiss with Trump or his campaign. This is Trump. This is his campaign. The Trump we see before us is the same Trump. It’s a bit like when Barack Obama said that the Jeremiah Wright he saw denouncing America wasn’t the man he knew. That was nonsense. Obama knew exactly who Wright was, having attended his church for 20 years. It was only when Wright’s act moved to a larger national stage that all of a sudden he became inconvenient to Obama.
The analogy isn’t perfect, of course. But the basic point is the same. The Donald Trump of the last week is the exact same Donald Trump many of us saw a year ago or five years ago. He’s always been full of sh*t. He’s always been a total ignoramus when it comes to public policy, lacking the simple sense of patriotic duty to do his homework on the issues. He’s always been a nasty and boorish cad. He’s always pretended to be a conservative while working on liberal assumptions of what conservatives want to hear.
His “punish the women” comments were of a piece with his refusal to condemn the Klan on CNN. It’s not that he wants to punish women who have abortions — I’d bet he’s paid more abortion bills than he will ever sign — it’s that he thinks that’s what pro-lifers want to hear. It’s not that he’s a Klansman or that the pillowcases at Mara Lago come with eyeholes cut out in advance. It’s that Trump thinks lots of his fans like the Klan and he wants to pander to them. I have heard first-hand stories from people who’ve worked with Trump about how he disparages women’s appearance routinely. That’s who he is. If you’re attacking him because he retweeted a bad picture of Heidi, that’s not you being principled, it’s you getting cold feet. Indeed, I am sure that the same opportunism that has caused so many supposedly principled conservatives to hitch their wagons to Trump is now causing some of them to question their choices, not because Trump has changed but because the climate might be changing around them. By all means, if Trump continues to unravel (a huge if), please abandon Trump. But don’t think for a moment that the rest of us will automatically take your word for it when you say this or that statement changed your mind about the man. He hasn’t changed, your calculations have.
[ … ]
Like all demagogues, he’s using his lies as a loyalty test for his followers. He’s exploiting his popularity and abusing the devotion of his fans to force them into going along with his fictions, until they are in so deep psychologically, they have no choice but to carry on. It’s an ancient psychological tactic of authoritarians, Mafia dons, and the like: Force your followers into sharing the blame for your misdeeds so that they can’t break ranks.
Jonah is right. He thinks we want to see women who have gotten abortions in the town center in stocks and chains. He’s pandering to the social right, but he missed on this, and he missed badly. His other positions – support for the second amendment, advocacy for closed borders – can only be assumed to be pandering as well.
Not to worry, though. Just about as soon as he said it, he triangulated his position again, to something like abortion laws are already set and we have to leave it that way. Trumps views on abortion aren’t the topic here. Trump is the topic. He is a mirror in which everyone sees what he or she wants to see, its just that the mirror has to be adjusted based on the onlooker and Trump isn’t really as good a triangulator as he is made out to be.
And that brings me to the conservative voters who have already cast their votes for Trump in the primaries heretofore. Do you remember when socialized medicine was the most important thing about the Obama administration, the holy grail of the progressives? It still is.
And yet, you have jettisoned that most important piece of your world view to support a man who sees things far differently than you, who supports socialized medicine, and who has said that the only thing he would change about the current system is to allow it to cross state lines.
Trump has woven you into his deception, his lies, his evil. And when socialized medicine is codified and solidified for you, your children, and your children’s children to the tenth generation of your progeny, when you see that your seed will hate you and this generation for what has been done to the country, it will be far too late.
Open wide, and suck it down. This is what you voted for, whether in the end it’s Hillary or Trump, or some replacement for Hillary. Own it. It’s yours. The Mafia don asked you to pull the trigger and do the deed. It’s no longer about him. Now it’s about you.
Hey, Neil, how do you like Carly? Bwahaaha. Your Cuban Canack will have Carly’s VP selection to reflect back on in his twilight years as his greatest political achievement.
Go back to Texas Ted, defeated and ashamed. At least Heidi can back to Goldman Sachs. Ted The Slimy Lawyer can slink back to the Senate, where he does nothing except pick up his check. Adios MF’er.
Jonah Goldberg is a cheerleader for Bushworld.
Perfect response!
If all Trump does is secure the border and repatriate illegals he will be the greatest president of the modern era.
onyx should be able to help you.
We need to get a hold of ourselves and “stop the madness.” Cruz and Trump are both inherently better than McCain or Romney—by huge margins. We were resigned to be okay with either of them to not have Hillary or 0bama. We are far better off with these two than we can possibly realize.
bkmk
pfl
Cruz running mate choice Fiorina said there was no way Cruz could beat Hillary and Ted was just another politician who would say anything to get elected.
Looks like defea-Ted and his people really vetted her...
Jim, send me a private reply re: the amount this guy is cancelling, if I can, I will cover all of it.
Wonder why young senator Cruz puts his whole carrier in jeopardy with nonsense? He is a relatively young and inexperienced man with a young family in Texas.
Cruz has been portrayed as having such great legal skills but he seems to have had limited life experiences. Ted is not well seasoned. The constant message that he is a complete conservative, the man best versed in the constitution is way over rated. There is so much more our country needs right here, right now to survive.
Ted’s whole persona is poorly conceived. His freaky evangelical anointed show el Cubano is so non-mainstream and unappealing. A man with his education hooking up with Glenn Beck is very strange and has been just creepy. No way can he garner more than 30% of the vote =unelectable and ineligible.
Heidi Cruz’s career was never exposed in relation to Ted’s career and how they were living as a family, yet separate. For the past ten years their unusual domestic life has been inconsistent for a guy who keeps looking up to heaven and saying “I am a Christian and a strong conservative.”
“Bible high, put it down and lie,” that’s our Ted.
Trump is not interested in being politically pure, he is not a politician by nature. What he is is straightforward and consistent over the decades about his love for America, the lousy situation she is in and his concern for the American people.
There are videos from the 1980’s of Trump where he has the same message that is loud & clear on the campaign trail. His position on abortion evolved in 1999-2000 from the fashionable pro choice to a heartfelt pro-life as he faced the reality of abortion and needed to publicly state that he was & is against abortion. He had made a statement on Tim Russell’s show after which he reexamined his heart and decided he had been wrong.
When you actually take the time to look at the man, his family, his life you can understand his character, abilities and tenacity. I applaud his life, his accomplishments, his private acts of charity, his love of the people he meets in all walks of life and above all his call to serve his country at great personal cost of time, money and while taking incoming from all sides. What the hell have you done that you should be part of the army of critics?
If we are going to worry about cooties because he ran in circles that included Clinton, worked with the Unions to get things done we are going to find reasons to dislike every individual on this earth. Washington is a stable and the politicians are hogs. Ted is rooting in there just like the rest of them. Trump is the only possibility for a rebirth of America, a pulling back from the precipice. We are going down the slippery slope and purists are commenting on the minutia.
I guess the way a Cruz idealist does things is to stamp his prissy foot and stop donations so he can let others pay his way - how .... "principled".
Show Ted what he needs to do - take your ball and go home - the game will go on without you - kind of like taking a teaspoon of water out of the Pacific Ocean......
Funny how you try to slur Trump supporters and do such a fine job setting a really poor example in general - is that what Cruz supporters are made of? If so, it is clear why he has fallen so far - the genius did it to himself. Losers do what losers do.
Trumpsters. Right off the bat you are incendiary. Shove it!
That is so true, so very true and it amazes that some FReepers would rather the hildebeast get elected than anyone but their sainted choice.
A guy who's been here since '97 uses "I" too much for you in a vanity. And is then compared to obammy.
Brilliant.
But unlike YOU, id I did leave, I would be greatly missed by many.
Delusions of grandeur.
Actually I would miss her.
So many of the ‘oldest FReepers’, and I’m talking of the 1998 to early 2000 members, seem to have been taken over by ‘body snatchers’.
I’ve seen more usernames this cycle posting away that I don’t recognize because they have been non posters for a long time. And now they are coming out of the woodwork? It smacks of... conspiracy theory. But still they are there posting away like machines.
It makes a person like me think and analyze what I am seeing. So as of now I was a Cruz supporter and am now a Trump supporter.
Questions on post #99.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3425387/posts?page=99#99
Was this concise info on natural born citizen posted here & sent to Arpaio and company seven and a half years ago in 2008?
Was it posted & sent three and a half years ago in 2012?
I can see from this link in it:
http://www.gunlaws.com/Should%20We%20Elect%20An%20American%20President.htm
that you & two others wrote the white paper quoted in #99.
Question on Post #1
Post #1
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3425387/posts?page=1#1
says this:
“...have made my decision about who to vote for, and who NOT to vote for in November easy. “
But in the following post #99:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3425387/posts?page=99#99
says this:
“...So, there is NO ONE I can support in this election...”
And
“...This White Paper is not about liking one candidate over another—I do not endorse or oppose candidates, as people who know me are well aware. ...”
OK, which is it, are you voting or not, and if so, for whom?
Another point
One of the links in the white paper write-up in #99 goes to the gunlaws.com site, where CDs of the supreme Court gun laws are for sale...
Why tack on an ad for CDs at the end of an Natural born Citizen article?
—— the natural born citizen post for reference:
vanity} For all the Trumpsters
Thu Apr 28 01:12:35 2016 · 99 of 288
Neil E. Wright to All
Since Cruz is not eligible, IMO, I am not a Cruz supporter.
I say that for the following reasons:
This is from a researcher I respect.
Can just anyone be elected President of the United States? No, of course not. Foreigners for example are not eligible. The Constitution spells out the eligibility standards:
Article II, Section 1: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
As you can see, Article II distinguishes between Citizens and natural born Citizens. Although we know the Founding Fathers used language with extreme care, this is now raising a ruckus. I’m a researcher, I’ve done the legwork, so let me set the record straight. The answers we need are right there in the historical record. This is not a judiciable matter for courts as has been recently suggested, along with other modern-day distractions and red herrings. Here’s the short version.
At the time of our nation’s founding Benjamin Franklin obtained three copies of Law of Nations by Emer de Vattel. There is a record of the acquisition from Franklin backing this up that still exists today. I’ll quote that in a moment. It was the preeminent guide on the subject. Franklin put one in a library, sent one to the College of Massachusetts, and brought one to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia for the delegates to use, which they did.
This book they used defines “natural born citizen” clearly as a person born in a country, both of whose parents are citizens of the country at the time of birth. It’s a plain, clear definition of the term they used in the Constitution.
It’s a three-part requirement. It allows for no foreign birth or parentage in a person who is a natural born citizen. It is distinct from ordinary citizenship. Article II in the Constitution recognizes the distinction.
John Jay, who became our first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, sent a letter to George Washington, which also still exists, which I’ll also quote in a moment, confirming that the only way to ensure the U.S. presidency remains free of what today we would call “foreign entanglements” was to require that eligibility be limited to natural born citizens only. Washington replied, thanking him for the advice. In editing the final version of the Constitution, the Framers changed Article II from citizen to natural born Citizen, capitalized that way. Records of all this exist.
There, in a nutshell, is the entire situation.
No court decision is needed. The idea that a court must weigh in because the Founders didn’t define the term in the Constitution is nonsense. It is the same type of nonsense modern people have created to undermine other fundamental elements of our Constitution. The Founders knew exactly what the term meant, just like they knew what “weights and measures” meant when they used that (without defining it) and they used it with precision, for deliberate reason.
The presidency is the only office in our entire legal structure that has this requirement. Citizen appears throughout the law. Natural born citizen appears in one place and one place only—as a requirement for the highest office in the land. You can stop here and you have the truth of the matter, or read further if this interests you and you want the details.
This White Paper is not about liking one candidate over another—I do not endorse or oppose candidates, as people who know me are well aware. This is about liking the Constitution over any candidate. It would be wrong to let the fact that we have allowed a person into office who somehow avoided proper review and does not meet the eligibility requirements stated in our Constitution, to justify offering up additional candidates who similarly do not meet the fundamental test set out in our nation’s charter.
A Way Out of Our Dilemma
Those running who fit this category of ineligible to hold the office of President would do the nation an immense service, cement their place in history forever, and find the love of their countrymen, by stepping down gracefully and with honor. They can state publicly they have seen the light and have come to understand the facts as they should properly be understood. The Constitution comes first.
“Sometimes wisdom comes late,” as Justice Antonin Scalia presciently said. Since they cannot all rise to the top, it would be a far more elegant, courageous and honorable departure than simply conceding the race to someone else based on poll numbers. Such a tactful move would leave them, admired and respected, available for virtually any other office in the land.
[Editor: Short version, 796 words to here]
•••
The documentation
From Ben Franklin’s letter to Charles William Frederic Dumas:
Philadelphia, 9 December, 1775.
“...I am much obliged by the kind present you have made us of your edition of Vattel. It came to us in good season, when the circumstances of a rising state make it necessary frequently to consult the law of nations. Accordingly that copy, which I kept, (after depositing one in our own public library here, and sending the other to the College of Massachusetts Bay, as you directed,) has been continually in the hands of the members of our Congress, now sitting, who are much pleased with your notes and preface, and have entertained a high and just esteem for their author. Your manuscript “Idee sur le Gouvernement et la Royaute” is also well relished, and may, in time, have its effect. I thank you, likewise, for the other smaller pieces, which accompanied Vattel...”
The letter addresses other matters concerning employment of colleagues, and translations of the proceedings of the Congress.
Vattel’s definition of a natural born citizen:
Law of Nations, Book I, Ch. XIX, at § 212:
§ 212: The citizens are the members of the civil society: bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens.
There is more, concerning ordinary citizens, inhabitants, naturalization, duties and responsibilities of citizenship, renouncing citizenship once you become of age, children born of foreigners, or at sea, it is a complex subject and a big book. Read it all here if you wish:http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2246#lfVattel_label_1642
John Jay Wrote to George Washington:
July 25, 1787
“Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise & seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expresly that the Command in chief of the american army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.”
In Sep., 1787, the “Committee of Eleven,” chosen at the Constitutional Convention to work out details on numerous occasions, changed the presidential requirement from citizen to natural born citizen, after receiving Jay’s letter. The Convention accepted the changes, hence the wording we have today.
Additional valuable resources
Attorney Mario Appuzo has made this situation a core of his life’s work and has assembled, in one place, the references, if you care to delve more deeply, with links to the complete edition of Vattel and more. He has been attacked by everyone who wants to hide all this from public view. His lawsuit on this issue on behalf of Navy Cmdr. Charles Kerchner (Ret’d.) and others reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where it was declined. http://puzo1.blogspot.com/
The Publius Huldah blog has serious flaws but makes interesting reference to the vast array of wild conjecture that has effloresced lately as to what a natural born citizen is, based upon nothing but idle speculation and blather, giving these examples:
Bret Baier (Fox News) asserts that Congress may define (and presumably redefine, from time to time) terms in the Constitution by means of law.
Chet Arthur in American Thinker quips that “the original meaning of ‘natural born citizen’” is determined by reference to “The Heritage Guide to the Constitution” (available on Amazon) and to the definition of “citizen” at Sec. 1 of the 14th Amendment, ratified 1868. (For the record, the 14th Amendment did not amend or even address Article II.)
Human Events claimed in 2012 that anyone born within The United States is a “natural born citizen” eligible to be President, and based on a “common-sense logical approach” that includes any foreigner naturalized or otherwise obtaining citizenship as eligible. No support is included (because there isn’t any).
Jake Walker at Red State confuses natural born subjects (a function of the British Crown) and natural born citizens (in this Republic which we fought a war to achieve).
I’ve seen worse examples on TV but didn’t take notes. Rush Limbaugh suggested on radio the issue is not an issue. Bill O’Reilly said on his FOX-TV show The Factor definitively he will not mention the matter again. The collection of official sounding commentary, from Harvard to hashtags, is mind boggling. One learned fellow tells me Article II was added to keep foreign-born Alexander Hamilton out of office, which makes little sense since all Founders were British subjects when the nation began, and Article II accounts for that. CNN has aired a bewildering array of self-contradictory pontification on who is eligible with barely any reference to history, much of it from talking heads whose ignorance of the subject is self evident.
Here — I’ve heard so many reasons why nbC (the common abbreviation for “natural born Citizen”) doesn’t matter that I’ve gathered a batch, which really shows how ludicrous this all is. If it didn’t matter there would be one sound reason, not dozens all in conflict or simply absurd. Look — nbC doesn’t matter?.
Tokaji and the Tribe Approach
The Donald Tokaji paper for the Michigan Law Review (Vol. 107, 2008), often cited and excellent as far as it goes, puts forth credible arguments for why virtually no one will make it through federal or state courts with challenges to aspirants on natural-born-citizen grounds. Fascinating, well reasoned arguments. It seems he misses only one, addressed at the end of this paper.
Lawrence Tribe, a preeminent scholar of today wisely suggested the matter may never be satisfactorily resolved, saying, “there is no single, settled answer.” He also dubiously said, “There is no defense now for retaining the clause in the Constitution. It really needs to be removed,” according to the venerable New York Times (which went on to suggest removing it, “with a bit of constitutional copy editing,” seriously.)
The National Constitution Center makes reference (as do many) to the 1790 Naturalization Act, to support a broad interpretation, for people born abroad, but that definition includes, “children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States...”, not “children of a citizen,” singular. A colorable argument can be formulated here, but — replete with imperfections and replaced five years later, an act doesn’t amend the Constitution. Tribe believes concepts at the time of adoption would appeal best to originalists — as if this is a flaw. Katyal and Clement, in the Harvard Law Review, also frequently cited, argue that one candidate was a citizen from birth, and so is a natural-born citizen, conflating the two terms. Many people do this, though the terms are eminently different, even in Article II itself. And so it goes, expert after expert, none the same, ad infinitum.
A person can become a citizen in many ways, and hold any office, except the presidency, unless the person is a “natural born Citizen” as cited in the Constitution, and for good reason. Natural born citizenship can only be acquired at birth. It has only one function in our law. Let me explain, first by example.
Examples Help Clarify
If both of Marco Rubio’s parents, for example, were Syrian refugees instead of Cuban, we would likely not be having this conversation. Few people would entertain any notion of his eligibility, as if they were the Framers themselves. Likewise, if Ted Cruz had been born in communist North Korea instead of friendly Canada, to an American mom and an Iranian dad, instead of a communist Cuban refugee dad, it would boggle the American psyche—as it would our Founding Fathers, and for the same reasons—possibly divided loyalties and questionable allegiance. Does this help shake your thinking free? Instead of continuing the permutations—
This interesting conundrum riddle teases out the logical errors:
If your parents’ nationality is the requirement—
How can Marco Rubio be eligible?
If your place of birth is the requirement—
Then how can Ted Cruz be eligible?
If both blood and soil are required—
Then how can either be eligible?
If neither is required—
Then who is not eligible?
And if only one out of three is required—
What combination of enemies can be excluded?
So what protection for the office did the Founders provide?
Surely the Founders intended some protective wall around the office in Article II. The deceptive answer being thrown about today is that the Framers believed any toe in the water was sufficient to qualify a person to be Commander In Chief and (to mix time frames) gain access to the nuclear launch codes. North Korean parents? A dad from the Khmer Rouge? Seriously?
How foreign is too foreign?
The Founders wisely decided that, to avoid any split allegiance, any possibly divided loyalty or conflict of interest, the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces, the Chief Executive and President of the United States had to be 100% American. How foreign is too foreign? Any amount of foreign is too foreign—that was their plan, right there in Article II. It can only be changed by amending that specific section of the Constitution itself. That has not happened.
Only pure American by parentage (in Latin it’s called jus sanguinis, “by blood”) and by place of birth (jus soli, “by soil”), would do. Vattel defined the constitutional term “natural born Citizen,” and the Founders put it, capitalized that way, in Article II. People are arguing about nbC today, for good reason, and that gets pretty ugly, but they didn’t back then. Let’s proceed, step by step.
When the Constitution was drafted, the presidential requirement distinguished between the Founding Era (“a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution”), because no one was a citizen yet, because the nation had just begun. Talk about being precise! This was not a haphazard draft. After the starting period ended, the nbC rule applied. And there you have it.
The sense of things
People have a natural attachment to the land they were born upon, it’s only natural, plus the ancestry of their parents. Proud Americans say they’ve got Greek roots, or are of Irish extraction, or they’re of French descent or Italian stallions and have the T-shirt to prove it. There are lots of T-shirts, worn with fervor and dedication, and for good reason. God bless ’em all.
The news media in 2016 refers to two presidential candidates as Cuban Americans (or a Canadian American). Good for them, but maybe not for the office they seek, if our Founders have anything to say about it. Bobby Jindal (both parents from nuclear-armed India), and Rick Santorum (dad from Italy but perhaps a citizen by the time of birth), dropped out of the race and the public eye early. Nikki Haley (both parents from India) is being mentioned as a possible VP (the 12th Amendment requires an “eligible” person for the slot).
Having a native-land attraction is healthy and good. Culturally. But would our Founders believe one parent from an enemy (or any other) foreign nation—and birth on some other country’s land—make a person eligible for the presidency? Now you know—they would not.
A few months ago communist Cuba was a mortal enemy, a human-rights atrocity (still is), willing to deploy nuclear bombs aimed at us. Now they just want to sell us cigars, which unlike cigarettes with fine Virginia leaf tobacco, are highly prized. How do these loyalties switch so fast? (Please skip the tobacco hypocrisy for now.) A bunch of old dead white tobacco growers who got the U.S. started would counsel caution.
The Old Days
All manner of intrigue was the politics of the Founding era, not all that different from today really. The Founders were deeply concerned that the Chief Executive—as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces—should have absolutely undivided loyalty to the nation. The Commander’s allegiance could have no foreign claims or foreign fealty whatsoever. How do you do that?
Back then, your legience (allegiance in modern terms) sprang by the very nature of things, from two natural forces—blood and land. These were natural laws you hear so much about, brought up in the Declaration of Independence. The standards among nations differed, with some recognizing duties and privileges of citizenship based on soil (the place you were born), and others seeing it as a function of blood (parenthood). Some nations considered both relevant. They applied these to subjects. We championed the idea of citizens.
You cannot escape your natural native heritage, even if you hate it, it’s yours. You’re German, Nigerian, Cuban? It is what it is, you are what you are, our Founders understood this. You do too, unless you’re in denial.
Where parenthood was concerned, the mother’s (matrilineal) or father’s (patrilineal) blood was a key, though obviously, the father’s lineage (which Britain favored) could be questionable. No one asks a pregnant woman, “Are you sure it’s yours?”
Blood and soil combined guarantee the greatest likelihood of love and devotion to a nation, so two citizen parents—at the time of birth on native American soil was—many would say wisely—seen as the best natural pedigree to hold the highest office in this land. It is perfectly reasonable. A British officer’s son born to an American woman in Spain who lived there for ten years might have divided loyalties, yes?
The Modern Day
Chris Matthews of MSNBC told Ted Cruz on air about the two-parent requirement (Cruz has only one, his dad’s Cuban). Matthews then referred to the so-called “Boss” requirement (“Born in the U.S.A.,” from the Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen song). Cruz, proud of his foreign birth (he was born in Canada, and held Canadian citizenship until 2014), replied by denigrating Donald Trump on unrelated subjects.
Matthews seized this golden opportunity by not following up, for reasons that remain unclear at press time. All four “questionably” eligible 2016 candidates have argued they are just good enough to go. One drop of American contact, it seems, is enough to satisfy the Constitution in the days of a pen and a phone. And there, my friends, is the root of the real problem.
McCain Grilled by the Senate on C-SPAN
As luck would have it, I flipped on C-SPAN back in April, 2008, and got to watch the entire Senate hearing over John McCain’s eligibility to run for president. It was fascinating, at least to me. With a little tortured logic the committee decided, in a nonbinding resolution, the Panama Canal Zone was indeed U.S. soil, and since both of McCain’s parents were U.S. citizens, he qualified and was good to go.
What was stunning to me however was that the subsequent hearing, for the candidate where there was a real deep eligibility question, the candidate with the Arabic name, was never held. I could never get an answer as to why or how the Senate evaded that hearing. Lots of conjecture and speculation, all of it nasty, and just no examination. And it wasn’t really about the long-stalled birth certificate, though that might have mattered. It was about the acknowledged Kenyan father (and lots of “sealed” records, conveniently ignored). The Kenyan American got a pass.
And now we’re at the real reason, the ugly reason, why Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio and the rest will not be found ineligible to become President under Article II, the one item Tokaji omitted, even though you can see they are ineligible. Because: If current candidates are officially determined to be ineligible to be President under Article II, it would mean the person currently in the office of President is ineligible for the same reason. This would lead to a constitutional crisis and charges of misprision of treason beyond anything America could withstand.
A blogger writing as bob68 framed it perfectly, let him speak here:
The reason the meaning of natural born citizen has been tortured into meaning virtually anyone is one is because this discussion is taking place after the commission of a crime “too big to prosecute,” by a lot of rich, powerful and influential people.
Once Congress allowed and assisted the ineligible, identity fraud con artist Barack Hussein Obama to usurp the presidency there was no one complicit in Obama’s successful takeover of America’s highest office, and her military, who was not going to fight, with everything in them, to insure he remains officially a legitimate president. Anything else subjects the complicit, many at the highest possible level, to charges of treason for literally giving America’s government and her military to the enemy.
No amount of history, common sense or anything else will ever get an admission from the media, Congress or the others involved that they were complicit in, as a minimum, misprision of a felony [18 USC §4] or misprision of treason [18 USC §2382] for their part in the biggest hoax in history. Obama must be protected from the truth about him being fully revealed and acted upon. When a regime owns the courts, Congress and the media, that job becomes doable, no matter how compelling or plentiful evidence to the contrary may be.
Supporting and defending as many ineligible presidential candidates as possible is a way of protecting Obama’s false eligibility, as ineligible candidates are molded into natural born citizens by those who want the Obama fraud and their paid assistants to just fade away. Every ineligible candidate accepted as “eligible,” no matter what it takes for that to happen, helps them reach their goal. Those complicit believe their personal freedom could depend on continuing the charade of legitimacy they have surrounded Obama with, both by their actions and inaction.
In Conclusion
So there you have it. The Founders wanted and specified a totally American president: two citizen parents and born here. It is documented beyond reproach in the historical record. Modern wishes that this weren’t so count for nothing. The Founding Fathers’ fears have been realized—all sorts of pretenders have been and are aspiring to the seat of power. Arguments and hyperbole running rampant today confirm the wisdom of the original requirement: Only a natural born Citizen as the Founders understood the term may legitimately hold the office.
If the U.S. Supreme Court gets hold of the issue, which now seems likely, it may find itself compelled to water down the answer to “How foreign is too foreign?” to satisfy the mess we find ourselves in. And as we perhaps officially abandon our Founders’ sage instructions, that dilemma and its unsavory result will afflict this nation for as long as it may continue to exist. May God bless and keep us all.
____________
Postscript
This White Paper is not about liking one candidate over another—I do not endorse or oppose candidates, as people who know me are well aware. This is about liking the Constitution over any candidate. It would be wrong to let the fact that we have allowed a person into office who somehow avoided proper review and does not meet the eligibility requirements stated in our Constitution, to justify offering up additional candidates who similarly do not meet the fundamental test set out in our nation’s charter.
A Way Out of Our Dilemma
Those running who fit this category of ineligible to hold the office of President would do the nation an immense service, cement their place in history forever, and find the love of their countrymen, by stepping down gracefully and with honor, stating publicly that they have seen the light and have come to understand the facts as they should properly be seen.
“Sometimes wisdom comes late,” as Justice Antonin Scalia presciently said. Since they cannot all rise to the top, it would be a far more elegant, courageous and honorable departure than simply conceding the race to someone else based on poll numbers. Such a tactful move would leave them, admired and respected, available for virtually any other office in the land.
One preemptive word to critics...
... who are already asking where I come off disagreeing with scholars from Harvard (as if this formerly unassailable school still lives up to its reputation), seasoned attorneys (and I’m not even a lawyer), constitutional geniuses (who have the undebatable truth locked down), journalists (though I’m widely published and a 25-year member of the Society of Professional Journalists) and other know-it-alls who I should not dare to impugn, question or challenge:
I faced similar opprobrium when common wisdom insisted the U.S. Supreme Court had said little about guns and everything was a settled matter of law, until I published, after six years of labor in 2003, Supreme Court Gun Cases, with the 92 gun cases the High Court had decided up to that point in time.
By the time the Heller case was decided, the total had risen to 96, the word firearm (in some form) had been used in decisions more than 2,900 times and virtually all the cases were consistent with an individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment. To this day, “geniuses” like the Associated Press and other ivory-tower scholars insist that the Second Amendment doesn’t mean what it always used to mean, and doesn’t support the idea that we have gun stores all across this nation for the public to use. My work on natural born citizens and Article II stands despite the interest of some to deny it and concoct realities that do not exist.
You can find it here. So, there is NO ONE I can support in this election. So I will continue to prepare for the future, and pray for the best. Have a nice life. It’s been a fun ride.
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{vanity} For all the Trumpsters
Thu Apr 28 00:30:03 2016 · 2 of 288
Neil E. Wright to Jim Robinson
I’m sorry, but I WILL not vote for trump. And I’m REALLY sorry if I lose your friendship because of it.
I am canceling my monthly, effective immediately.
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{vanity} For all the Trumpsters
Thu Apr 28 00:27:56 2016 · 1 of 288
Neil E. Wright
Here’s the money line for me.
Trump has woven you into his deception, his lies, his evil. And when socialized medicine is codified and solidified for you, your children, and your children’s children to the tenth generation of your progeny, when you see that your seed will hate you and this generation for what has been done to the country, it will be far too late.
Open wide, and suck it down. This is what you voted for, whether in the end it’s Hillary or Trump, or some replacement for Hillary. Own it. It’s yours. The Mafia don asked you to pull the trigger and do the deed. It’s no longer about him. Now it’s about you.
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