For years now there have been rumblings on the political
wrong about repealing certain amendments to our Constitution. A
decade or so ago, a former governor of Georgia, Democrat turned
Rescumlickan Zell Miller, joined other teabaggers in openly
suggesting that we repeal the 17th amendment which would
take the election of United States Senators from the hands of the
voters and throw the question back to the several state legislatures
to decide. Now comes, from the mouth of Caesar Disgustus a
full-throated appeal to repeal the 14th amendment's
guaranteed 'birthright' citizenship. An act, he insisted, could be
accomplished by executive order.
A hue and cry went out about the land, rightfully
calling such a blatantly racist appeal what it so transparently is,
but there are other considerations here.
First, it is worth repeating, as the current critique so
rightly underscores, that this is a racist appeal. It is so not only
because it is a blatant assault upon a particular minority—in this
case Latino's who have recently arrived and have given birth and
whose children are now citizens of this country; but because the very
act embodied in the 14th amendment was a consequence of
the Civil War. The amendment was one of several which, in this case,
took the definition of citizenship from the states and brought it
under federal jurisdiction. This brings me to my second point: the
14th Amendment was instituted in order to prevent the
several states from stripping the freed men from their newly
established rights. It is a legacy of race in this country. In
America, one cannot discuss any issue worthy of note, without
discussing race.
And so it is.
It is right and proper to call out our Disgusting
'president' for what is nothing less than a naked appeal to racist
nativism on the eve of election. But there are other, equally
troubling, considerations here.
The repeal of the 14th Amendment, or at least
this provision of of it, would once again give the states authority
to define who is and who is not a citizen of this country. In the
wake of the wretched decision by the Supreme Court to gut the
enforcement provisions of the 1964 Voting Rights Act and the swift
actions of several states to immediately raise barriers to those who
are not white to vote, it is not difficult to imagine an orgy of
state laws being swiftly put into place stripping whole groups of
their citizenship.
It is worth remembering that one of the first things the
Nazi's did was strip the Jewish population, among others, of their
citizenship. All else followed, and what followed was—in the
Germany of the 1930's and 40's therefore, entirely legal.
These are dangerous times. What we are witnessing is a
dismantling of the republic and a slow walk toward fascism.
“An Br'er Putin, he jus' laugh and laugh”
Impeach and Imprison
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