Schwarzenegger for President.

[Panzerkamfwagen]

And he's not a natural born US Citizen.

 

[Texas Lynn]

As a Democrat I am not enamored of Schwarzenegger, though Running Man is one of my favorite intrepid-outsider-versus-the-system movies and his portrayal of Ben Richards is great. But as a Governor he has been overall good.

At any rate, we should amend the constitution to take out the native born clause. It served a purpose to develop national identity in the pre-civil war era but serves no useful purpose today.

 

[Texas Lynn]

Makes sense now that Obama has paved the way for being the first President not born in the United States of America.

The conspiracy theory that Obama was really born in Kenya has been debunked umpteen times but the tinfoil hat brigade hangs onto it for dear life. Joe Farrah of World Net Daily made big money urging his minions to "fedex" the electoral college members to warn them about that from which I'm sure he got a substantial cut of the transit fees

 

[nolongerhome]

Why don't you guys allow citizens who are not born in your country to run for the highest office in the land? What justification is there for creating a form of "second-class citizen" on this issue?

In Australia there is definitely nothing to stop migrants to reach the highest levels of political service. We are a country built on migrants from all around the world (as it the USA), so it makes no sense to exclude people in such a way.

It should surely be the right for every citizen of a state to run for any position in the administration of that state, right?

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Why don't you guys allow citizens who are not born in your country to run for the highest office in the land? What justification is there for creating a form of "second-class citizen" on this issue?

It should surely be the right for every citizen of a state to run for any position in the administration of that state, right?

I agree. There are thousands of immigrants in the US military, ready to die for this nation or fight for it. Hundreds of officers are immigrants, who gave up their native country's citizenship in order to serve as a leader in the United States military. Hell, President Bush made it easier for servicemembers to become citizens if they were not so already.

That portion of the requirement for President is antiquated for sure; I believe that someone who's deidcated their life to serving our nation in various ways, shown loyalty should be entitled to being the President. As been mentioned before, people forget that the President is helpless because he answers to Congress. That was the intention of the Founding Fathers in creating the 3 prong government.

 

[Morcova]

Makes sense now that Obama has paved the way for being the first President not born in the United States of America. I imagine the country will throw out the constitution in the next four years anyway with Obama and his total disreguard for it.

As opposed to the bush administration pretending it didn't exist for the past 8 years?

And you may not realize this but Hawaii has been a part of the union for a while now.

However McCain was definately not born in the USA.

 

[Sketcher]

Why don't you guys allow citizens who are not born in your country to run for the highest office in the land? What justification is there for creating a form of "second-class citizen" on this issue?

In Australia there is definitely nothing to stop migrants to reach the highest levels of political service. We are a country built on migrants from all around the world (as it the USA), so it makes no sense to exclude people in such a way.

It should surely be the right for every citizen of a state to run for any position in the administration of that state, right?

I disagree. We have certain requirements for how long you have to be a naturalized citizen for other government positions - does that mean that recent immigrants are second-class citizens? I don't think so. Besides, we have a fairly open policy towards political refugees. That's fine, but say there's a spy from China or someplace who says all the right things and runs for President and gets elected. That would be terrible. More costly I think, than a state governor or a Congressman since we're talking about the Commander-in-Chief of our military. It's just another layer of security that we have for our highest national office.

 

[comana]

I disagree. We have certain requirements for how long you have to be a naturalized citizen for other government positions - does that mean that recent immigrants are second-class citizens? I don't think so. Besides, we have a fairly open policy towards political refugees. That's fine, but say there's a spy from China or someplace who says all the right things and runs for President and gets elected. That would be terrible. More costly I think, than a state governor or a Congressman since we're talking about the Commander-in-Chief of our military. It's just another layer of security that we have for our highest national office.

A natural born citizen could be a spy too. A possible conspiracy argument is pretty weak. Got any better reasons why our constitution should automatically disqualify natualized citizens from election to the highest office?

 

[Sketcher]

A natural born citizen could be a spy too. A possible conspiracy argument is pretty weak. Got any better reasons why our constitution should automatically disqualify natualized citizens from election to the highest office?

It's possible, but it is easier for foreign countries to send us spies posing as immigrants than it is to brainwash a natural born citizen.

 

[nolongerhome]

As I expected, the only argument is paranoia about immigrants.

Do you think a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant has any chance of getting elected president? No. The political system requires years, decades, of foundational work to get into the position to even contemplate running a successful attempt for election. It makes much more sense for foreign countries to try to convince people already in the system for information than it is to try to infilitrate it from the bottom - it would take decades to get anything out of it and you wouldn't be guaranteed anything.

The point is that even if a person moves to America as a child, are educated in America, work in America, live in America for 40, 50 years, that person is unable to run for the highest office. That clearly means that their citizenship is not the same as that of a natural born citizen. They are, in this context, a second class citizen. I'm not sure how that can be denied. I'm not sure how that can be allowed to continue in the "land of opportunity".

 

[TheNewWorldMan]

My reasons for opposing a Schwarzenegger candidacy have less to do with his heritage and more to do with his failure to rein in the overfed, lumbering butt-rape racket that is the state government of California.

 

[comana]

As I expected, the only argument is paranoia about immigrants.

Do you think a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant has any chance of getting elected president? No. The political system requires years, decades, of foundational work to get into the position to even contemplate running a successful attempt for election. It makes much more sense for foreign countries to try to convince people already in the system for information than it is to try to infilitrate it from the bottom - it would take decades to get anything out of it and you wouldn't be guaranteed anything.

The point is that even if a person moves to America as a child, are educated in America, work in America, live in America for 40, 50 years, that person is unable to run for the highest office. That clearly means that their citizenship is not the same as that of a natural born citizen. They are, in this context, a second class citizen. I'm not sure how that can be denied. I'm not sure how that can be allowed to continue in the "land of opportunity".

True and I find it troubling that we still have the natural born requirement in the constitution. I would think ammending this would be a slam dunk.

 

[nolongerhome]

My reasons for opposing a Schwarzenegger candidacy have less to do with his heritage and more to do with his failure to rein in the overfed, lumbering butt-rape racket that is the state government of California.

I don't want Schwarzenegger to become president either, but he should be allowed to attempt to become president, as should every other citizen of your country.

 

[HollandScotts]

Why don't you guys allow citizens who are not born in your country to run for the highest office in the land? What justification is there for creating a form of "second-class citizen" on this issue?

In Australia there is definitely nothing to stop migrants to reach the highest levels of political service. We are a country built on migrants from all around the world (as it the USA), so it makes no sense to exclude people in such a way.

It should surely be the right for every citizen of a state to run for any position in the administration of that state, right?

It's a safegaurd from being infiltrated by a foreign agent. Plus, a president born elsewhere might have stronger loyalties to his homeland than to the US.

A natural born citizen could be a spy too. A possible conspiracy argument is pretty weak. Got any better reasons why our constitution should automatically disqualify natualized citizens from election to the highest office?

Yea, but someone has to be able to run.

The point is that even if a person moves to America as a child, are educated in America, work in America, live in America for 40, 50 years, that person is unable to run for the highest office. That clearly means that their citizenship is not the same as that of a natural born citizen. They are, in this context, a second class citizen. I'm not sure how that can be denied. I'm not sure how that can be allowed to continue in the "land of opportunity".

In this aspect, they are second class citizens. But I don't see anything wrong with that. We are the most powerful country in the world, we have many enemies. We simply can't take the chance of a foreign born operative taking over.

 

[nolongerhome]

Do you not think that the stringent vetting process, and I would hazard a guess that there is no harder job application process, is a better, fairer way of ensuring the quality and loyalty of a candidate, would ensure that the "foreign infiltration" doesn't occur? Do you think just anyone can get themselves to a position of even having a remote chance of getting the job?

Do you think that the voting public would vote for a candidate that would get attacked for the fact he wasn't born in the USA repeatedly (as either side would do, I assure you) if there wasn't a particularly good reason to vote for them based on what they could offer the country if elected?

You guys obviously don't have that much faith in democracy... though I guess that isn't surprising when you are happy to create second class citizens in your country and see nothing wrong with doing so.

For a country that's prosperity was built on immigrants, it is a sad state of affairs to show them that kind of distrust.

 

[SpaceProg]

But Schwarzenegger's from Austria! That's where (GODWINED) was born!

 

[Fantine]

Makes sense now that Obama has paved the way for being the first President not born in the United States of America. I imagine the country will throw out the constitution in the next four years anyway with Obama and his total disreguard for it.

Need we remind you that Obama was a professor of Constitutional Law?

It was that other guy....you know the one who illegally expanded executive powers and wiretapped and tortured prisoners who disregarded the Constitution.

Schwarzenegger would need to run as a Democrat or an Independent to be nominated, because the Reverend Dobson and the Catholic bishops would raise Cain if a Republican pro-choice candidate were running.

East and West Coast Republicans are generally more liberal than southern Democrats--and that means that the Republicans in flyover country don't trust 'em and won't vote for 'em.

 

[comana]

It's a safegaurd from being infiltrated by a foreign agent. Plus, a president born elsewhere might have stronger loyalties to his homeland than to the US.

Couldn't this be easily avoided by establishing a minimum number of years as citizen along with a minimum number of years residency prior to running? Say 15-20 yrs?

Yea, but someone has to be able to run.

Right, because those who have luck of birth on their side are automatically better candidates.

In this aspect, they are second class citizens. But I don't see anything wrong with that. We are the most powerful country in the world, we have many enemies. We simply can't take the chance of a foreign born operative taking over.

Why allow any immigrant the option of citizenship then? They may have greater loyalties to their birth country, how can we ever be sure?
What about a child who was born in another country but has lived in the US as a citizen since the age of 2? Do you really think this person's loyalties lie with their birth country?