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sappatoti -> RE: Only in America (8/25/2009 7:54:11 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Arpig
OK sappatoti, nobody is disputing that those are the rules, they are asking if they should be let to stand. Where do you stand, should naturalized citizens be eligible for the Presidency or not?
You ask a fair and sensible question. To be honest, I never questioned the need to justify the reason for the natural born requirement to exist. In my mind, if the Framers thought it was important enough to limit the eligibility for the President to one who is a naturally born citizen, then it was a good enough reason for me. Your question opened up the possibility in my mind that, maybe, the time has come where the natural born requirement needs to go. However, in order to answer your question, I needed to go back and find out why the Framers thought it was a necessary requirement. What follows is a summary of my own explorations.
My first stop was to see if there was anything written in the collection of essays now known as The Federalist Papers. As it happens, Federalist No. 68, "The Mode of Electing the President," seems to offer a reason for the natural born requisite:
quote:
Nothing was more to be desired than that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue, and corruption. These most deadly adversaries of republican government might naturally have been expected to make their approaches from more than one querter, but chiefly from the desire in foreign powers to gain an improper ascendant in our councils. How could they better gratify this, than by raising a creature of their own to the chief magistracy of the Union?
That's pretty self-explanatory; the Framers wanted to exclude the possibility that a foreign-born person would attain the Presidency then subvert the government of the United States to a foreign power. From what I remember of history at that time, that kind of subversion was the norm for a good portion of the world.
OK, that was one side of the argument. To be fair I looked up any opposing viewpoints and found Antifederalist No. 68, "On the Mode of Electing the President:"
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We know that there scarcely ever was an election of such an officer without the interposition of foreign powers. Two causes prevail to make them intermeddle in such cases:-one is, to preserve the balance of power; the other, to preserve their trade. These causes have produced interferences of foreign powers in the election of the king of Poland. All the great powers of Europe have interfered in an election which took place not very long ago, and would not let the people choose for themselves. We know how much the powers of Europe have interfered with Sweden. Since the death of Charles XII, that country has been a republican government. Some powers were willing it should be so; some were willing her imbecility should continue; others wished the contrary; and at length the court of France brought about a revolution, which converted it into an absolute government. Can America be free from these interferences? France, after losing Holland, will wish to make America entirely her own. Great Britain will wish to increase her influence by a still closer connection. It is the interest of Spain, from the contiguity of her possessions in the western hemisphere to the United States, to be in an intimate connection with them, and influence their deliberations, if possible. I think we have every thing, to apprehend from such interferences.
Well, it seems even the opposition agrees with desire to limit foreign influences in the Presidency of the United States. While I could not find a reference in each set of papers expressly stating that the requirement for a natural born citizen be included in the Constitution (though, to be accurate, I did not read each and every one of them to find such a reference), I am going to draw the conclusion that the Framers agreed that one of the ways to keep foreign influence down would be to make the President of the United States the only position in the government to have that requirement.
Interestingly, only the President has the natural born requirement. Senators don't have it. Representatives don't have it. Justices don't have it. In fact, the Constitution does not explicitly state any requirements to be a justice; only that the President makes a nomination and the Senate body confirms or denies the selection. But I digress...
Back to the question of whether I think the natural born requirement is outdated. Do I? Given what I have researched this evening; given what I have learned from studying world political history from the American Revolution to World War II; given that I have witnessed our own government interfering in other government's electoral affairs (which I find deplorable and an embarrassment to the United States); I absolutely agree with the Framers of the Constitution that the office of the President necessarily have a natural born citizen requirement.
In all of recorded human history, those in power have done everything they can to hold onto and expand their power base. It was true back in the 1780s and it is obviously true today. As enlightened as some believe we have become, humanity is still corruptible. As long as people can dream the effects and methods of cabal, intrigue, and corruption, there will be other people who will spare no expense in turning those dreams into reality. While being a natural born citizen does not exclude the possibility of a corruptible individual from reaching the Presidency, at least the requirement completely removes the possibility of such from one not born in this country.
I am a realist. While I would sing and dance with every one else should some miraculous event take place that erases all corruption, and the inhabitants of this world live in total trust, peace, and harmony with each other while drinking Cokes and basking in the warm sunshine in a meadow on top of a hill (sorry, the old Coca Cola commercial from the '70s popped into my mind just now), thereby eliminating the need for exclusions of any kind placed upon humanity, I'm not holding my breath for such an event. Humanity is, by nature, a corruptible lot.
I will not apologize to those not born of this country for not being allowed to become President of the United States. It is a unique position, one in which the Framers found to be so unique that it needed that extra requirement. While the Presidency is out of reach, those not born of the United States can become Senators, Representatives, and Justices; any position of which has the capability of influencing the creation and interpretation of laws within the United States.
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