Republicans trying to burn the Constitution and disgusted by immigrants

Guess they found their wedge issue for the midterms

LETS SCARE WHITE PEOPLE!!!

I love Reid's reaction today

"They've [Republicans] either taken leave of their senses or their principles."

I say both!

 

random idiot.

 

I think birthright citizenship should be debated, discussed and brought out into the open. Name-calling people who want a legit debate is nothing more than a veiled attempt to stifle any discussion. Then again, right-wing kooks who use this as an excuse to demagogue against immigrants so they can mine votes in November deserve to be blasted.

The way this is debated will say a lot about our country. I hope this somehow comes up for a vote in the House and Senate to force our elected windbags to go on the record.

 

Thank you Republicans, for bringing repeal of the 14th Amendment to the national discussion in an election year.

 

Republican Party... Where "We must defend the constitution!*" happens!

*: Except the amendments we don't like.

 

You were born on American soil, you're an American. Yes, even birth tourism.

What is there to debate A_3PO?

 

Further proof that the republicans have really lost their senses.

Glenn Greenwald recently tweeted that even Bush was saner than this batch.

 

Why thank you sir!

 

I can imagine how it would be:
White, born in america. Citizen. Yes.
Black born in America? Citizen only if you parents were
Asian, born in America? Citizen if your grandparents were.
Arab or Latino? No citizenship no matter what. Dubbed illegal and hereby deported.

 

How many "births" each year are affected? How much impact would repealing the amendment have on the "illegal" problem? Are the numbers substantive enough to compel making a constitutional change? What was the intent of the amendment? Amending the Constitution is a very scary thing, do we really want to go there with this?

My guess is only a few people in both Houses would vote in favor of repeal if it got that far. That could be a very good thing for the country because we could put the issue behind us.

I like it when viewpoints are aired and debated and I've wanted this discussed for many years. It's troubling to me that it is exploding on the scene under the present circumstances. Oh well.

 

But that's just it: they don't want a legit debate. They want a big, splashy three-ring-circus to fire up the xenophobic WASPs who make up the majority of their base, just in time for the November elections. It's so transparent, it's a bit nauseating.

Bingo. Thus, the name-calling.

 

I hadn't given it much thought before but I don't have much of a problem with McConnell's angle on the issue.

 

Bingo.

 

I posted this in another thread but I think the sentiment fits here --

In some sense, birthright citizenship is birtherism writ large--Obama is the son of a non-American born on American soil. It draws attention to Obama's alleged "foreign" origins. It isn't a mere stalking horse--in other countries, including, until recently Germany, the child of a male citizen and a female non-citizen was a citizen but the child of a female citizen and a male non-citizen was not a citizen. Although equal protection would likely prohibit such an interpretation here, attitudes like this are installed deep in some human psyches.

But more important it brings up the question upon which all of this madness, birtherism and the like turns. Will America forever be a white country? For any demographer, this question has answered itself for many years. But the very existence of Barack Obama has startled a significant part of the population into realizing what the rest of the world has known for some time--that the day fast approaches when America will no longer be majority white--not just in population, but in governance and culture. It is only through this prism that the the new political hysterics can be understood.

 

Don't fall for that smoke-screen. Cracking down on businesses facilitating/smuggling illegal immigrants? Fine. It's illegal, it should be curtailed or even eliminated. If that was really the focus, they'd stop there. But to go after the kids, to try to reverse the definition of what makes an American citizen in this way smacks of two things:

1. Pre-election political grandstanding
and
2. Getting rid of all the brown people

Neither of these is okay.

 

I don't necessarily disagree with you, especially the bolded points. Maybe it's just a pipe dream for me to even think this issue can be seriously discussed at this time (or ever).

Let the demagoguery begin!

 

I'm not opposed to altering the 14th amendment. Much like the 2nd amendment it was useful for a different time period.

 

I agree with you that there's nothing wrong with discussing the issue. I just find it odd that the GOP complains that Obama needs to be focusing on jobs and the economy and the deficit, and then they bring up this as one of the things to focus on, conveniently during the summer right before a big election. It doesn't strike me that they are actually concerned one way or another about the issue.

 

I too think this is an interesting issue to discuss. I'm a birthright citizen in every sense (both of my parents immigrated here). That said, I'm curious to hear the pros and cons on this. It is interesting that the US is one of the few nations (and might be the only developed country) that offers birthright citizenships.