I know this is a rather pointless exercise since the gangs on this site have a lot of fury and no humility. Somehow everyone is absolutely right about everything they say!
I am not like that. I confess to being unsure about many things. I’m not sure how I feel about Hillary Clinton as the nominee for the Democratic party. I’m not sure how I feel about Bernie Sanders as the nominee for the Democratic party. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that it’s always the diaries against each candidate that pushes me towards the candidate being attacked. But whatever…
There is something I’m absolutely sure about, even if the repercussions are less than thrilling:
Ted Cruz is a natural born American citizen. There are no “ifs” to it, other than the “ifs” that could be applied to you, assuming you are an American citizen.
If he hasn’t actively pursued and achieved the renouncing of that citizenship then he is, regardless of any other action he may or may not have taken, legally considered to be, by this glorious and embosoming country of ours (at least on this issue) a natural born citizen having no delimiting requirements. Period. He needn’t fill out any form nor even live in the country for a single day yet he is considered by our great nation (and I will be effusive, for on this issue I am quite proud of and impressed by our country) as a natural born citizen. As it should be.
If you might wonder, as I did, how this could be and not lead to a large contingent of people who inherit citizenship who have never even been to America well, there are stipulations: on his children. Ted Cruz’s children (not Ted Cruz) would have to live in the US for 5 years before the age of 14.
But Ted Cruz has no such stipulations. No CRBA (Consular Report of Birth Abroad) or any other such thing is necessary. The CRBA is not a birth certificate. It may function like one but the rights and privileges to citizenship are legally considered to apply at birth. The sins of the mother — being on a foreign voter role, not submitting the proper paperwork — are nothing more than breaches of ceremony, not law. He was considered, by the smart and benevolent nation, to be a natural born citizen at birth.
I know a little something about this as I have children who are in the same situation as Ted Cruz on this issue. And I take great offense at those who insist they are to be treated as 2nd class citizens who must prove something that the people demanding it are not being and would not be asked.
We had a thorough discussion at the consulate, many months after my son was born. The hectic nature of becoming parents was the pressing concern of our weeks, not some paperwork issue. The byzantine laws of the country we lived in were motivating me to procrastinate as well. The country we lived in has no birthright citizenship, so I imagined my new best buddy to be a stateless child. I was filled with anxiety. When he was finally old enough for us to take him on the long trip to the capital and the embassy I was bracing myself for a lot of red tape.
What ensued was the opposite. The embassy employees began to prepare and fill out documents on his behalf — practically in lieu of the parents and their shortcomings — in order to establish his credentials — mind you not his citizenship. One official flatly said (in answer to my question about if he will be “American” when the passport arrives), “he was a natural born citizen at birth. You don’t even need to do this now. He could do it himself when he turns 18, but the longer you wait the more difficult it becomes bureaucratically, but not legally.”
This was actually one of the more joyful moments of my life. Learning that no decision on my part could harm or degrade the beautiful gift I could give my child of 100% American citizenship.
I inquired much further and at every turn was informed that there are no “ifs ands or buts” to this established law and tradition. After a long list of patient answers that shot down all my “what if” scenarios the official stated one caveat: “unless he commits an act of treason against the United States.” To which I said (I was giddy at the time), “like vote Republican?”
They just looked at me with no response since they are professionals (god bless’em) doing important things (no joke). But com’on, that was pretty funny, considering the serious business of that place and the seriousness of the real issue of treason.
I cannot convey how unequivocally and uniformly they — the members of our foreign services department — address this as I described it. A child born to an American overseas is a natural born citizen, with all the rights that contains, including being eligible for president. The failures and foibles of the parent are irrelevant. My son is a natural born American despite me (though yes, also because of my small contribution of DNA).
So anyone disparaging my children as 2nd class citizens, all in a quest to sully Ted Cruz is just wrong on the facts.
I also believe you’re wrong politically because I would love to run against Ted Cruz. I can’t figure out if he or Trump would get less of the vote in the general but I know that neither of them could win. I’d prefer Cruz though because when Trump loses they’ll write it off as an anomaly. If Cruz lost there’d be no denying that they got their “conservative” candidate and it would finally expose to the bright light of day that, contrary to the fantasy fevers of these morans, “conservative” by their definition is just not what this country is about. Let him win the nomination, and lose spectacularly in the general. I know my Republican father doesn’t like him at all (nor Trump). He’d be the real bringer of the rift between the business conservative and the “conservative” stupid in the GOP.
But that’s just my opinion and not the point.
The point is, when Obama was running (and actual up to this very day) there were the accusations about his ineligibility. It was infuriating to me (especially as that was the time my son was born), that even defenders of Obama would slide into the world of defending him on the basis of his status as a Hawaiian. I and a few others knew that it did not matter even if he was born in Kenya. He wasn’t, but I had the same resentment for anyone who either argued that this would make him not a citizen as I did for those who would at least imply that he would somehow be a 2nd class citizen if born in Kenya by arguing he was born in Hawaii. I didn’t and don’t care where he was born because my concern ends with the name Ann Dunham.
We are, on this issue, a reasonable and practical country. We have — for hundreds of years — acknowledged the rights of our citizens to give birth to children abroad and, even in the most reactionary times (my own son was born under Bush II), considered those children, matter-of-fact, to be natural born citizens. If you think about it you can imagine why, since travel has not always been as simple as a plane ride (not that an expensive, nerve wracking plane ride is so simple either) and we have always engaged with the world diplomatically and with business and Americans have and do find themselves having children outside the country. It’s not really very hard to understand why it is dealt with this way and the talk that implies that there is some sense to treating it like a game of “pickle” whereby if you don’t successfully get to a safe “base” (or acquire some document that absolves you) then you’re “out” is just silly. Look at my son. What would he be, if that were the nonsensical law and I had not gotten the proper paperwork? He’d be stateless, and fortunately America is not that stupid.
That’s what the expression natural born means. To be a US citizen by virtue of being born. In contrast to naturalized in which a person was not born a citizen and must petition to become one. In their case they are, on a few “small” issues (like eligibility for president), perhaps unfortunately, 2nd class citizens. That’s not my opinion I’m just observing the reduced status, though it may appear to be only on the issue of presidential eligibility. Natural born citizens born outside the US are NOT naturalized. There are only 2 classes of citizens in the US: natural born and naturalized. Children born to US citizens wherever they may be born are the former, no exceptions.
I know many people just don’t know what’s going on with what, if it doesn’t pertain to you personally, can seem confusing. And since Obama got viciously accosted on this issue it seems juicy revenge to play a game of innuendo, casting aspersions on the Americanness of a Republican. But what you do is at least disrespectful to your fellow, natural born citizens, and potentially harmful in disseminating a notion about people like my children that they are somehow not full Americans who must prove their Americanness, against long established law and tradition.
Some people are very righteously throwing around demands for such and such document and that nonsense is just wrong, and illiberal, and feels no different than any other “papers please,” divisive point of view that I thought Democrats would and should reject and despise. That there are diaries on the rec list espousing these things is demoralizing.
People born to Americans outside the US are natural born citizens, a.k.a. Americans with full rights and privileges, at birth. That is the law and the fact on the ground. They don’t need to show you any papers nor answer for the acts of their parents. End of story.