BASKET OF DEPLORABLES

(Facebook will not let me cite this piece for reasons unknown)

Hillary Clinton recently said that half of Donald Trump's supporters are a basket of Deplorables.  This is a Donald Trump kind of statement.  It is of the sort that it is all right to think it and even talk about it in private, but not all right to say it out loud in public.*

Actually Hillary was wrong about half of Trump supporters being Deplorables, it is certainly closer to 100% of his base and even larger.  In January of 2016, a poll quoted by the Huffington Post concluded 53% of Republicans still believe Obama is not a U.S. citizen and ineligible to become president, although he was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii.  At the same time, 70% of Republicans feel that Ted Cruz is eligible to become president although he was born in Calgary, Canada, to an American mother and a Cuban father.**

There is nothing that can be done about the Republicans ineligible belief.  Even if you show them Obama's birth certificate, they shrug it off as a forgery.

And what about the constant efforts by Republicans to disenfranchise African Americans from voting?

I have known a number of these people where you can't say anything so bad about Obama that they won't believe it.  At the same time, if you stay off of politics, they can be very nice and helpful people.  I've played bridge with some and socialized with them.  They are very nice as long as you stayed off of politics.

These people would try to convert me.  There were a group of retired military officers whose e-mails were so bad that I actually prayed on 9/11 that it wasn't some retired military pilots that crashed into the Twin Towers.  I always hoped these retired military officers were just letting off steam.

* I think it would be interesting to see a poll of Democrats on the issue of Deplorables.  It could well come out with results similar to what Republicans believe about Obama.
** Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona Territory 3 yrs before it became a state.  John McCain was born in Panama but on a U.S. military base to American parents.  Mitt Romney was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, to American parents from Utah Territory.  I don't recall any flap about these on where they were born, but I'm told that there was some discussion about eligibility for president.  Note that all these are Republicans and none became president.

WHAT IS A NATURAL BORN U.S. CITIZEN?

I think a way should be found to litigate what "natural born American" means.  You couldn't do it for Papa Romney who was born in Mexico because he didn't get the Republican nomination.  You have to have "standing" i.e. you have to be injured. Because he didn't win the nomination, no one was injured. Democrats decided not to try McCain who was born in the Panama Canal zone, but he was born in a U.S. military hospital on an American military base to two American parents; however he didn't win the presidency either so it was mute.  At any rate, I would accept McCain as a natural born American.  Goldwater was born in Arizona, but before it became a state, his credentials are suspect also, but he didn't win the presidency either so Democrats had no "standing."   If anyone was injured in these three cases it was the candidates Republican opponents in the nomination process but none have tried to take out a lawsuit over it.

Obama was born in the U.S. to an American mother and an immigrant father* (He is a natural born citizen on two counts and many Republicans (including Trump) refuse to recognize him as a legitimate American born.  Snopes has an interesting discussion as to whether Obma is a legitimate president. The minimum qualifications for the presidency of the United States specified in Article II of the Constitution are few and seemingly straightforward: In order to be President, a person must be a natural-born citizen of the United States, must be at least thirty-five years old, and must have been a resident of the United States for fourteen years.**  Mitt Romney may have claimed he was injured by Obama's victory, but he too didn't take out a suit.  At any rate, I doubt he would have won.
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A few facets of this claim [of being a natural born American] immediately jump out as being far-fetched: first, that a sitting U.S. Senator who has already spent a good deal of time and money securing his party's nomination for the presidency would suddenly be discovered as ineligible due to an obscure provision of U.S. law; and second, that U.S. law would essentially penalize someone who would otherwise qualify for natural-born citizenship status simply because his mother was too young. The fact is, the qualifications listed in the example quoted above are moot because they refer to someone who was born outside the United States. Since Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, they do not apply to him.

The Fourteenth Amendment states that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States." Since Hawaii is part of the United States, even if Barack Obama's parents were both non-U.S. citizens who hadn't even set foot in the country until just before he was born, he'd still qualify as a natural-born citizen.

Some have claimed that Barack Obama's Hawaiian birthplace doesn't qualify him as a natural-born citizen because Hawaii was not yet a state when he was born. This claim is wrong: Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state almost two years before Barack Obama's birth there (21 August 1959 for statehood vs. 4 August 1961 for Obama's birthdate).

But Cruz was born in Canada to one American parent (mother) and even carried a Canadian passport and he didn't renounce his Canadian citizenship until he decided to run for president.*  I certainly hope he doesn't win because he scares the H@LL out of me, but his case is questionable.  Constitutional law Prof. Laurence Tribe of Harvard said that as a student, Cruz was an "originalist" who said that the constitution should be interpreted as it was originally intended.***

Here are some other possibilities.  Consider this one, suppose you are born in the U.S. to legal immigrants or even better suppose you are born in the U.S. to illegals.  Technically you are a natural-born American even if your parents are not citizens (see above quote).  Can you imagine Republicans on that one?  Or suppose you are born by C-section.  Is that "natural born?"

I think we ought to get this thing out of the way for good.  It is fine with me if the Supreme Court says born anywhere in the U.S. and/or born to an American citizen.

NOTE ADDED 01-16-2016: Houston attorney Newton Schwartz, who said he isn’t connected to any campaign, filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Texas. The court is being asked to settle whether Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, meets the “natural born citizen” requirement in the Constitution. (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/lawsuit-filed-over-whether-ted-cruz-is-a-natural-born-citizen-2016-01-15)

* Until 1934 if your mother was American but the father wasn't, you were not considered a natural born American citizen and had to be naturalized.  In 1934 a law was passed making you a citizen not needing naturalization if it is you mother is an American citizen and your father isn't. So it is only since 1934 that you are considered an American citizen with either parent being an American citizen.
** http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp
***https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/01/11/professor-laurence-tribe-questions-whether-ted-cruz-is-a-natural-born-citizen/