I just read an interesting article which stated that some people are supporting the idea of amending the Constitution in order to allow foreign-born folks, like Austrian-born Arnold, to run for president. Personally, I think the idea is a good one provided that the person has lived in the USA for more than half of his/her lifetime, and they don’t have a criminal record or in any way pose a threat to the USA.
Although I would never vote for Arnold for any office, I think that there is no reason he should not have a chance to run for the highest office in the land, especially given the fact that he is running one of the largest states in the country.
Anybody else have any their thoughts on this subject?
Sure, why not, if they can donate funds to Bill Clinton’s campaign, and if Bill Clinton can sell out America to China in return, and if they can campaign for sKerry, why not let them run for office as well.
Kashalpynya, 35, of the Korubo Indian tribe of the Javari Valley in the Amazons dances in front of a poster in favor of American presidential candidate John Kerry in downtown Brasilia on Friday, Oct. 10, 2004. He said, ‘Kerry is love, is understanding, is peace. Bush is bad.’’ Kashalpynya has been Brasilia for three months fighting for the legalization of his tribe’s lands. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)
Clinton has been out of office for approximately 4 years now and you still can’t get the guy out of your head. That’s what made Clinton such a wonderful politician. He scared the shit of you Republicans because despite all the baggage he carried he was a Republican ass-kicking machine! :bravo:
BTW, all the wrong that Clinton may or may not have done will never begin to match the horrible mistakes that have marked Bush’s term in office. (Perhaps Bush can get some of that money bin Lauden is suppose to have. After all, bin Lauden owes Bush big time for allowing him to escape punishment for 9/11).
Ok, everyone, we can all sleep well tonight because even though bin Lauden is free to wander around we have the world’s most dangerous man, Saddam Hussein, in custody.
I say no. The US Constitution has lasted far longer than most countries’. I think, in the long run, it does not help a country at all for its citizens to think that the constitution can be changed at whim, that it is not a serious document to be taken seriously.
The US constitution cannot be changed on a whim. I believe a two thirds majority in the Senate is required. Furthermore, it could be argued that the reason that the constitution has survived so long is precisiely because of the ability to amend it. The framers had some good ideas but they were by no-means perfect, a fact they acknowleged by including a mechanism for changing the constitution.
Very interesting story there: she was working as an au-pair in London where she met Rajiv Gandhi - youngest son of Indira Gandhi.
After her mother-in-law was assasinated by her own bodyguards, her husband killed by a suicide bomber and her brother-in-law killed in a plane crash, she entered politics and rose to become the prime minister of India.
She speaks broken Hindi, and has no Indian blood in her whatsoever. She was re-elected again this year!
In my opinion, anybody who is a citizen should be allowed to run for any office in the country. I don’t even believe in any laws that would require somebody to have been a citizen for X number of years before running for an office. Some will say that a foreign-born citizen may not be as loyal as a native born citizen. That may very well be true, but I don’t see why voters can’t be trusted to judge a canidate’s loyalty.
In my opinion, we should not have different classes or levels of citizenship. If we have a problem with some citizens being more loyal than others, then we should make it more difficult to acquire US citizenship in the first place, not impose restrictions on those who acquired it through means other than birth.
I think that the reason to that they stated in the constitution that no foreign born people could be elected president was that they were nervous that some Britich guy should be elected in… After all, as a recently independent colony, they had good reasons to be vary of them Brits back then.
That need has passed some time ago.
Therefore, currently, it would make sense for them to amend the constitution giving all citizens the same right to be elected to the highest office. After all, the US electorate is hardly dumb, and should be able to weed out a candidate with divided loyalties.
[quote=“rooftop”]Sonia Gandhi is doing it right now in India.
She’s an Italian by birth.
Very interesting story there: she was working as an au-pair in London where she met Rajiv Gandhi - youngest son of Indira Gandhi.
After her mother-in-law was assasinated by her own bodyguards, her husband killed by a suicide bomber and her brother-in-law killed in a plane crash, she entered politics and rose to become the prime minister of India.
She speaks broken Hindi, and has no Indian blood in her whatsoever. She was re-elected again this year![/quote]
Sonia Gandhi isn’t the Indian PM and never was - she turned the job down because of perceived tensions over the fact that she was not Indian by birth. She is still a powerful political force in India
sorry delayed posting. I think I want to kill an ‘invalid_session’! didn’t mean to rub it in 