Is it time to get rid of the Natural Born Citizen Clause?

Recently on Quora, I asked: “Is it time to get rid of the “Natural Born Citizen Clause” to be president?  it got some heavily emotional responses.  Some were sane but a few were obviously Nationalists who worship the Founding Fathers and believe them inerrant. 

While I’m not formally lobbying for one position or another, I do have an opinion, which I will share at the end if it isn’t obvious by then.  My intent was that we should take a look at this clause and consider if it is still relevant, as the Founding Fathers believed it was then.  Remember, the forefathers gave us a means to change things if we decided we should.  Amendments babe!  We just have to have enough agreement and the political will to get it done.  Might be easier to put a person on Mars but hey, the option is there.  

Let’s review.  In a nutshell, the Constitution’s Natural Born Citizenship Clause states that:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President. — Source

So what is a Natural Born Citizen?  The U.S. Constitution is very specific when it needs to be and is otherwise very vague when it wants to be.  It uses but does not define the phrase natural born Citizen, and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its precise meaning.  In July 1787, John Jay (secretary of foreign affairs under the Articles of Confederation) wrote to “George Washington that only a ‘natural born’ citizen should be allowed to become president, arguing that this requirement would provide a check on the ability of foreigners to influence the young republic.“

For anyone who missed this in high school history class, there was concern that a wealthy foreigner (specifically European aristocracy) might immigrate and buy his way into power.  This was apparently a common thing back then.  I’m guessing the 3rd or 4th sibling who had no realistic chance of inheriting the throne of a country they really wanted might have tried something like this.  And let’s be clear, it would have to be a guy because women were not even allowed to vote in America back then, let alone own property or run for office.  Again that pesky let’s change the constitution to allow for modern needs and/or undoing errors our inerrant Founders ignored.

As the law stands right now, someone who was born in the U.S. but taken back to their parents’ native country as an infant, and who spends most of their formative years overseas before returning, would be considered eligible to serve as president, while someone who was born outside the U.S., came here as an infant, and grew up not really knowing any other culture but America, would not.

It just strikes me as illogical that someone born here, but spends 25 years in Australia, Europe, Africa, etc is better qualified to be President than someone who is born in say, Iceland, but then comes here as a 2-year-old and spends the next 33 years on American Soil?  This qualification relies on an hazy-defined term that renders some Americans in doubt about their eligibility to serve as president. It also deprives Americans of the potential service that would be given by otherwise able and qualified persons (we can find examples on both sides of the political aisle.)

Citizenship status seems a weak litmus test for loyalty to country, given that some of the greatest traitors in American history have been natural-born citizens (Robert Hanssen, Aldrich Ames, and Alger Hiss come to mind.) Not to mention implying a caste system where Natural Born Citizen is more important than American Citizen.  The Natural Born Citizen requirement was a way of preventing foreign influence and ensuring the candidate has loyalty to the US first, and not another country.  And back in the 18th and 19th centuries, this might have been a problem.  But in today’s modern world, this concept seems a bit antiquated.   We are a much more mobile, global society.   Let’s nix the Natural Born Citizen requirement for being President of the United States.  We can shore up the requirements other ways to prevent any insincere candidates from running for office.

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Do you suffer from Weird Beard?

I have never really been able to grow my facial hair out fully. In my 20s, if I shaved on Monday, I would not get 5 o’clock shadow until about noon on Thursday.  Later in my 30s, the stubble showed up sooner, but it was still like nothing, nothing, nothing, then boom: 5 o’clock shadow that looked like I hadn’t shaved in a week.

I never minded because I’m not a beard, mustache, or goatee person. I know younger guys in leadership roles try to grow their beards to look older (think NFL Quarterbacks) and some guys see facial hair as a symbol of manhood.  I never gave any fucks about that.  The only time it really mattered was one October I wanted to grow some facial hair to augment my Halloween costume: Qui-Gon Jinn.

During this lockdown, shelter in place, self-quarantine, whatever we’re calling it, I decided to see what happens if I let it grow out. I was already putting off shaving in order to keep my blade supply alive. So I decided to see if I could look like Tony Stark.

No luck on the Iron Man alter ego.  Naturally, I consulted the wisdom of my Facebook friends and the results were an even mixture of Yes, No and Do What Makes You Happy.  Some guys look great with facial hair, completely transforming their look.  I’m not really one of those guys.

I think it has taken me two weeks to get to just this point and I’m not really loving it.  It feels funny to have hair on my face and it’s kinda scratchy.  I turn 51 next week and to commemorate, I’m gonna shave it off.

 

Stay tuned.

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Letgo is the Tinder of furniture selling apps

In a pre-move effort, or at least an attempt to light a fire under our butts and look for a new house, We have made the decision to start getting rid of the clutter. This was before I had even heard of Marie Kondo and we aren’t getting rid of things that don’t give us joy so much as things that we just don’t want to take up valuable space in a moving truck.

To that end, I’ve started selling things on Letgo and FaceBook MarketPlace. At first, it was kinda a rush because I’d post something and get some immediate responses and sold things within a few days. Then things started to settle down. Maybe it was the oncoming Winter, or maybe it was the junk I was trying to unload.

People will contact you at the strangest hours

It seems that LetGo is Tinder for boring, old people! We have two small children in this house and as such, tend to go to bed early. So in the morning when I wake up (or at 3 am when the Insomnia Fairy strikes) I am astounded by all the late hour messages from different people  Thrift Saling at 1 am, probably coming down from a wine-and-no-dinner or vodka infused evening.

Especially on the weekends! Do these people have a few adult beverages and then start trolling MarketPlace looking for sweet deals on desks, sofas and that elusive Barrister Bookcase?

You will get ghosted

I’ll respond and sometimes the person writes back. But a lot of times they don’t. Even when they contact me during Normal Hours, we will chat for a bit and then suddenly silence. You can usually see it coming. The graceful ones look for an out: what are the measurements? Oh, that’s too big.

People will try to talk you down on your price no matter how low you go

Pricing is more art than science. No one wants your Pottery Barn sofa that you are discounting by $20 when they can just buy a new one that doesn’t have your ass crack residue on it.  At the same time, no one wants to go across town just to pick up an item for $5 unless it is hard to find, or unique in some other way.

Still, there are some people who will try to talk you down even though you are practically giving something away.

People will not leverage technology

Too often people will reach out to me, ask me about it, and then realize that we are 14568 miles apart. Yet LetGo  and Facebook MarketPlace have built-in mechanisms that will tell you approximately how far someone is from you.  So you don’t have to drive an hour just to pick up some item you could just order off Amazon for $10 more unless you happen to be in that area anyway.

Too often, someone contacts me interested in an item and then they realize we are too far away to make this work.  At the same time, I have sold two large pieces of furniture to people who have driven in from Indiana, so distance isn’t always a factor if you price it right.

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You don’t need permission, but inclusion is a good thing

While I have resided on Planet Coupledom for well over a decade, I still speak Single, though not as fluently as I once did.   I still follow some advice Sachems like Carolyn Hax and Dan Savage in my news feed.  Admittedly, I don’t consume their content like I once did, but it is still good to keep up on things since I’m now responsible for bringing two germy projectile-barfing poopsacks to full adulthood.  They are going to have relationship issues and I cannot pretend to be a dad from 1960 who just brings home the bacon and asks the wife to do the heavy lifting where it comes to raising the chill-ins.  I can’t do that, right?  

Which brings me to a post called You Don’t Need His Permission that kinda “bothered” me. Bothered isn’t the right word but English is a fickle lady and I’m not sure how else to describe it.

“And if you don’t believe me that there are still people who think women should get a man’s permission to leave the house, they do still exist and it might be more people than you realize…You can inform your spouse of your plans, but you don’t need his permission.”

I have never met Ash Pariseau in real life but from reading her blog, Dames That Know, my take is she is a solid writer, a smart lady and what I would call a Subject Matter Expert on relationships. Her Twitter profile says she Plays with Fire.  She is also very woke as the kiddies say.

My wife will ask me “honey, is it okay if I go to this work-related event or happy hour with the girls”. But when she says “is it okay” it’s more Conversation Introduction, with a healthy dose of is my sleep-deprived mother of twins self-forgetting anything than actually asking for permission.

Hat tip to This Page is About Words

I cannot think of a reason I wouldn’t say sure, have fun, unless we did have other plans she forgot about or if I had a conflict that I had already scheduled on our non-existent shared calendar.  And since I’m in my I hate people phase of life, I don’t really get together with anyone much these days so there are very few conflicts.  Spoiler Alert: my heart isn’t all dark and cold, I do occasionally meet up with a friend or two in the real world.

So upon further reflection and without putting words in her mouth, I think that Ms. Pariseau is writing about a specific subset of unhealthy relationships with control freaks and how to identify and mitigate them. Notice she didn’t go all woke and write “partner” or “his/her” permission. No-bullshit advice for women. She is definitely staying in her lane.

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What I learned this week: Social Exclusion is bullying

So apropos of nothing in particular, I got an email the other day. Remember email? It use to be the elephant’s ears for group communication but now it has taken a back seat to texts and FB messages and whatever else the kiddos are using these days.

Anyway…the email was about getting together for lunch and seeing old friends.  Being as busy as we all are, the potential date was the better part of three months from now. Replies filed in, albeit not as quickly as they did back in the heyday of email.

For no particular reason besides wanting to reply from a keyboard instead of my phone, I waited until I was in front of a computer to chime in. The cadence had subsided. Most everyone had already responded with their availability. I replied with my response a good two days later.

Then it happened. The same thing that always seemed to happened back in the day: Someone replied to a previous email thereby burying my response.

 

The saying goes the first time is an accident, the second time is a coincidence and the third time is an act of war.

To be sure, I don’t think that person was doing it intentionally, at least I hope not.  But it did trigger some buried memories of being accidentally dropped from email threads and other minor exclusions.  I use to be part of many, many social groups each with their own clique subsets.  Running groups, Church Groups, book clubs, volleyball leagues, etc.  For some reason, there is always someone who doesn’t want to let everyone play in the reindeer games.

 Then I saw this article.  Sabotaging someone’s birthday is certainly a more vicious angle but it is the same thing: excluding someone for no good reason.

Social exclusion occurs not only with children but adults as well, especially on social media, in the neighborhoods, in schools and workplaces…We have always known that being left out of things on purpose can cause hurt. 

It doesn’t matter what the technology, it has always been a thing.  Dropped from email chains, threadjacking on group forums, etc.  Today it’s the 500-pound gorilla in the room, aka Facebook.  There are times when I’ll comment on a friends post and see another friend comment as well and think “he never comments on my posts”.  I know that some of it is FB algorithms and not showing everyone everything.  But it is also that I have cultivated a “friend circle” of self-centered narcissists who only think of themselves.  I’ve tried to Konmari those acquaintances as best I can.

I’m lucky that my social butterfly days are behind me and I have zero fucks to give about being invited to the team lunch.  However, I have two small children who will someday, sooner than later, go through the same bullshit.  I have to figure out how to raise them to have enough mental toughness to ignore this as best they can, and also develop enough self-confidence to not care when it does happen.

 

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