We have recently heard much about the Fourteenth Amendment with regard to “birthright citizenship.”
The default, dumb U.S. policy for decades has been: A nine-month-pregnant woman can stagger illegally across the border as her water breaks. And her immediately-born baby is somehow magically imbued with U.S. citizenship.
Advocates for this idiocy have cited the Fourteenth Amendment as somehow justifying their idiocy. It does not.
Here’s the pertinent language to which they refer: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
They are, of course, ignoring the language between the commas: “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”
An illegal alien mother is not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the U.S., so her newborn baby isn’t either. So, her newborn baby isn’t a citizen.
Actually, anti-Constitutionalists have repeated Constitution-al comma problems. Ask Penn and Teller (NSFW) about the comma in the Second Amendment.
A key feature of the 14th Amendment is the “Equal Protection Clause,” critical as part of the U.S. sorting out how to assimilate ex-slaves as equal members of society.
There are all sorts of quotes from many people during the amendment’s debate that clearly demonstrate the amendment’s citizenship bestowment was meant for freed slaves — and only freed slaves.
Of course, there is much additional amendment language. Beyond just the cherry-picked, selectively read excerpt the anti-Constitutionalists cite in their bizarre birthright citizenship efforts.
This language actually further limits and restricts what the federal government can do to us in the writing of its laws. This is where the “Equal Protection” really kicks in: “(N)or deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Proper application of the 14th Amendment? Means a whole lot of laws are unconstitutional.
Progressive tax law? Or any tax law other than a true flat tax? Is unconstitutional. To pass one law with multiple tax rates? Or tax law that has crony tax breaks to which only some citizens have access? Is denial of many millions of Americans’ “equal protection of the laws.”
Nigh everything the Feds do is predicated upon punishing enemies and rewarding friends. Laws for thee — but not for me. Or vice versa. None of this is constitutional — per the 14th.
Think of the massive disempowerment of the federal government the correct application of the 14th would provide.
Think of the massive equalization of opportunities the end of anti-14th cronyism would deliver.
No more bogus head starts or handouts for the politically connected, which allows them built-in advantages over their unconnected competitors.
The Big Cronies’ government advantages mean greater success. Which means they can better afford even more cronyism. Which means even greater success. Which means…. Lather, rinse, repeat.…
Big Gov gives The Big Cronies benefits. Which delivers The Big Cronies greater success. Which allows The Big Cronies to pay for even more cronyism. Which further grows Big Gov. Which is then better able to give The Big Cronies benefits. Which…. Lather, rinse, repeat….
Big Gov benefits. The Big Cronies benefit. The only losers? All the rest of us.
It’s All Lawfare: Everyone but the Cronies Get Cheated, Mistreated by Big Government
Cronyism isn’t picking winners and losers. It’s picking losers at the expense of winners.
The losers end up looking like winners because they are being propped up and propelled forward by the cronyism. It’s government force-feeding us bad ideas. Which deprives us of better ideas. Because they are overrun by the lesser, cronyism-fueled bad ideas.
See: Fake energy. Solar and wind are terrible. But they look “viable” because of the hundreds of billions of dollars of Big Gov cronyism shoving them down our throats. And that idiotic cronyism crowds out real energy like oil and coal. Which makes the entire energy sector worse for us all.
See also: The bank sector. Which is as rife with cronyism as any sector in the US.
You know what happened to your disappeared neighborhood bank? That had been in your community for decades? Big Gov cronyism killed it.
The Big Banks dominate. They received tens of trillions of dollars in government money after they helped destroy the global economy in 2008. Not letting that serious crisis go to waste? Big Gov let the Big Banks write the Dodd-Frank law that further institutionalized their cronyism.
Thousands of neighborhood banks have been murdered as a result. Which the Big Banks then buy on the cheap. Which further solidifies their Bigness. Which….
And if your neighborhood bank has somehow continued to survive Dodd-Frank? It still has to deal with the cronied-up credit unions.
Credit unions are banks — that are classified by the government as non-profits. Which allows them all sorts of advantages your for-profit neighborhood bank doesn’t get.
Let’s start with…credit unions do not pay income taxes. I would say that’s a bit of a crony advantage they have over your neighborhood bank.
Add chain migration as #2, that has got to end.
it’s been going on forever at Chula Vista, CA General Hospital
Correction
Only since Pat Brown.
66 years ma seem like forever; but its not!
My 2nd vote for Ronny “If its brown, FLUSH IT!”!