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Larry Sabato's A More Perfect Consitution

1270 Words6 Pages

In Larry Sabato’s book “A more Perfect Consitution” he raises up 23 possible amendments to the constitution in order to create a more perfect United States of America. Whilst many of Sabato’s suggestions are great and deserve reflection and study, his 12th suggestion; “Allow men and women not born in the U.S. to run for President or Vice President after having been a citizen for 20 years”, is by far the more pressing and important issue. Throughout the course of this paper I will uncover the original intent of the Natural-born Citizen Clause, the opinions of opponents and proponents of the idea, and the history of laws proposed in order to create such an amendment.

The idea of allowing naturalised citizens hold higher office (Presidential/Vice …show more content…

Jennifer Ganholm, Elaine Chao, Mel Martinez, Henry Kissinger, Madeline Albright, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. What do all these people have in common? They have all held positions from Governor to Secretary of State and that are all Naturalised Citizens of the United States of America (Montgomery). All have risen to the task of aiding our country and brought ideas to the table. Who are we to take the thinkers of today and tomorrow who deeply love this country and allocate them to positions that may limit their potential? In every way the clause is discriminatory, it prevents 12.8 million Americans including 700 Congressional Medal of Honor recipients (Herlihy) from having the same opportunities of any naturally born citizen. A citizen who is born in the U.S. moves to another country at 7 years old and comes back at 35 and runs for president at 49 is more qualified than a foreign child adopted by Americans at 2 months old, brought up in U.S. schools, taught U.S. values, and remains a U.S. citizen the rest of their lives. The reality of it, in the eyes of supporters, is that it is unjust and discriminatory in an increasingly divided country of “us and them”. Along that vein of thinking, the world is becoming increasingly more globalized, more people have access to travel and immigration. As more and more immigrants come to the United States this clause excludes more and more legal citizens. We allow these people to become citizens, pay taxes, vote, run for lower office, put on our uniforms to fight and sometimes die for our country; yet we draw a line between us and them. We limit the chase of the American

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