A foreign-born president?

This is one of those stories that I think is important enough to at least let you know about, but I'm not yet sure what my own position on it is - so excuse me while I think "out loud" a bit.

There are currently two proposals that will be raised in Washinton this fall that would eliminate the Constitutional requirement that the President and Vice President of the US be American-born.

One of the proposals, by Schwarzenegger political friend Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years and has resided in the country for 14 years to be elected president. Hatch denies that he proposed the amendment on July 10 with Schwarzenegger in mind, but it turns out that the 56-year-old actor-businessman was naturalized in 1983.

I just have to note that I find it amuzing that Schwarzenegger would just meet the qualifications for this law.... I still think, though, that Hatch has just watched "Demolition Man" a few too many times....

The other proposal, by a bipartisan group in the House whose ranks include conservative Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista (San Diego County) -- who spent more than $1.5 million to put the recall election on the Oct. 7 ballot -- would allow anyone who has been a naturalized citizen for 35 years to be eligible to become president. The House legislation, whose co-sponsors include liberal Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., was proposed long before the recall movement blossomed in California.

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution, drafted in 1787, says that only natural-born Americans at least 35 years old who have lived in the country for 14 years can serve as president or vice president.

The first thing to be worked out, of course, is what the concern is with having a foreign-born President. Conflict-of-interest is an obvious answer to that. The idea that even after having spent 20 to 35 years being a citizen of the US and having lived here for at least 14 years, someone might still have loyalties to their birth country isn't entirely unreasonable. Sometimes it seems we can't even be entirely sure that the loyalties of a American-born President are entirely with the US (especially when his actions seem to indicate he's trying to protect a foreign government, even though that country may have been instrumental in the commission of a crime against our nation), so questioning the loyalties of a foreign-born President would be natural.

Aside from basic conflicts-of-interest, though, the big question would be if someone would be patient enough - and lucky enough - to be able to move here, become a naturalized citizen, work their way up through the political ranks for however long it takes for their eligibility to kick in, get elected President - and then, somehow, betray our country to our enemies. Is it possible that could happen? Well, technically, at least, yes, it would be (and it would make for a great spy novel concept, too, wouldn't it?). But realistically? I don't know.

It certainly wouldn't be easy - electoral politics are notoriously unpredictable. Here we are, a bit over a year to the next election, and we can't even predict who the Democratic candidate will be, much less who's going to win. To imagine someone would try to engineer an entire career and spend that many years of their life on a plan that probably has a better chance of failing (in that he never gets elected President) than succeeding could only be charitably called far-fetched.

So, of the two, I think the potential for a conflict of interest is the stronger concern, and it one that we should seriously consider. In all honesty, I would have less problem with someone who was born in another country, but moved here before they were out of their childhood and had lived here since then - not so much because of the length of time they'd have been here, but because they wouldn't have had a long time to "bond" with their native land. People who've lived here since they were children and have become naturalized citizens tend - in my experience - to think of themselves as Americans first and have few strong ties to the country of their birth.

Right now, I'd have to say that I'm less than comfortable with the idea of a foreign-born President. Maybe it's just that all of my life I've lived with the notion that the President must be American by birth. Maybe it's some latent xenophobia. Maybe it's just that the idea of Schwarzenegger as president bugs the hell out of me. And it may be that my opinion will change as the pros and cons of the idea are debated more in public forums (at least I hope it'll be debated). As it stands, though, I don't think it's a change we should be making.

Posted by thorswitch at August 13, 2003 12:18 AM | TrackBack