That's a function of the constitution. Naturalized citizens can run for any office but president. I'm surprised that not a single congressman in the history of the United States has suggested changing that clause.
Could you imagine a president Ahnold Schwarzenegger?
I'm still trying to gather new sources that are trustworthy. A positive that social media brought us is that everyone with a smartphone can upload live video of what they see. I'm an old timer I do miss the adventure of cold war stations on the shortwave bands.
And how do you distinguish between the type of immigrant who wants to assimilate and those that come to colonize? There are plenty of people born here who are raised in closed off communities away from mainstream culture who don’t assimilate and even have a foreign accent because everyone around them does. And they are not interested in American culture, they are interested in becoming the majority in a region and getting political control. You can’t just pretend that doesn’t happen. Look at the Ukraine war right now for just one example.
I don't think any of these things happen on an individual basis. People don't choose to keep or lose an accent - that's not how accents work. People don't generally upend their lives and move to another country, as individuals, to gain control of somewhere.
I didn’t claim that people choose to keep or lose an accent. I said that people choose not to assimilate and live in closed off communities and raise their children in those closed off communities. People do move for the sake of colonizing, a big up side is better economic opportunity to boot. But people rarely do things for only one reason. The guy who shot up the mosque in New Zealand, I read his manifesto, he was motivated in part because of a video shared to a nearby mosque (but decided it wasn’t a good target) about population growth. I had seen that video too, it was about the difference in fertility rates making big population differences in the future. He was angry because the Muslims knew what they were doing. There’s also something called “La Raza” which means the race is Spanish. They aim to re-take the parts of America that used to be part of Mexico but were lost in the American-Mexico war. While one individual can do accomplish these things by themselves, each individual can know about it and agree with the long-term goals of the inter-generational project. While also enjoying the economic opportunity that the USA offers. It’s a weird concept to us Americans because we aren’t part of a national group, a group of people with a shared ethnic, cultural and religious background. I don’t even have an ethnicity, I’m a mix of so many different people, and our religion is so varied with so many different denominations. But if you watch old movies like “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” you can see the attitude of manifest-destiny. They wanted to get married young and have as many children as possible and keep pressing west into Native American territory and claiming the land as their own and filling it with their people. We have so lost that drive that we aren’t even interested in preserving our population and territorial advantage. But others do and we should at least be aware of it and consider it when discussing immigration policy.
Those (La Raza) are generally people already here many generations in, not people moving here to colonise. They're American citizens. Weird American citizens, but American citizens. We have (and have had over our entire history) a lot of dangerous weirdos of every stripe, from LaRouchers to Klansmen to Promise Keepers to Stalinists to all kinds of ethnonationalists of every ethnicity. Most of them are home-grown, not dangers from the outside. It's rare that people from outside are present in enough numbers to pose a danger.
It’s like you’re making my point for me. Are you saying that because we have this issue we might as well make it worse by letting in large numbers of foreigners who are even more likely to cause more problems?
How do you figure that? That European foreigners were a big problem to the native Americans. The Catholic vs Protestant riots of the 1800s. MS13. 9/11. But even if it was true that foreigners had never caused problems in America, you can’t make the argument that it’s never happened in history anywhere. And it doesn’t follow that they won’t become a problem in the future. It’s just silly to pretend that there’s no down-side to immigration.
I don't see it as mistrust per se to have varying levels of citizenship and eligibility for high public office (even if that eligibility were more limited than it is currently in the US). It's something I'd expect were I to move permanently to another country and get citizenship there - even if I gave up my US citizenship someday - really committed to another nation - I still wouldn't feel it'd be right to became a high-level politician elsewhere (might be different had I left the US before becoming an adult).
A thoughtful article. Have you looked into the differences between the US and Canadian forms of government? The roles of President vs Prime Minister may differ enough to warrant the type of restriction present in US law.
Most of them still have reasons for leaving so I'm not so sure about the loyalty, but also, they don't tend to run for office and if they did and enough people had compelling reasons not to trust them, they could just not vote them in?
there is no point in following what's happening in Ukraine on a daily basis. After trying exactly that for a year, I had realized that the actual war has a life of its own independent of the talking-head/pundit sphere. I'm a native Russian speaker, so I usually go for non-English sources as they are closer to the ground. Of the English sources, the only one that has stuck with me since the whole ordeal started is this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck
Thanks for responding. There was a time when the shortwave bands were populated with international broadcasters.
Listeners in those days had access to many points of view. Today fake news and propaganda is rampant. Katherine B gave me a few suggestionsl too. I'll check out your suggested utube source.
I know that the Soviet Union had a massive program funding many of those broadcasters. Even Voice of America wasn't without a whiff of US government-sponsored propaganda. I think what was really missing in those days because of the high cost of entry are all the truly independent voices. The reason we can easily identify propaganda today is those independent voices who bring in unsanctioned views. But I do agree that meddling through all this mess is tough, but I still prefer it to having just a handful of "official" sources.
Yeah, I try to listen to some of the people on the ground, but even then I don't have real clarity and I'm not entirely sure if they do. Everyone has a partial picture to some extent.
Thank you for the channel recommendation. I checked it out briefly and this guy seems to have some logical sense and seems objective.
Good question. Let me compile some and get back to you. Might be good to share with others overall. MriyaReport.Org is a good one to start with. They have a Twitter space running 24/7. They are pro-Ukraine, so obviously biased, but some of the contributors are incredibly factual and useful in that way. I also follow https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews because she translates Russian TV into English, so you can see primary source material...get a sense of what Russians are telling Russians, which I think it very valuable. I'm fluent in Russian, but I don't spend all my time watch Russian television, so it's very helpful and it's translated accurately.
It's a typical 'merica take - i say this as the only non American born person in my entire family of Americans. Most Americans, in my experience, view themselves as being better than people from anywhere else in the world, even including ally countries such as Canada, UK, NZ, Aus etc and this is reflected in any geopolitical issues.
What i find most most weird about it, is that birthplace or country of origin is sort of at odds with how USA became the USA - the whole founding fathers, escaping British rule etc.
From a really overly simplified view, if being born on land now known as the USA is a non-negotiable requirement to become the "leader of the free world" how is that freedom or any different to the rule of a monarchy?
It's simply replacing one birth attribute (heritage/genes) with another birth attribute (location/place) and seems very "rules for thee, not for me" elitist imo. They are becoming the very thing they purport to be better than - where's the "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
You must possess this one immutable characteristic to be X, but when it comes to having to possess another immutable characteristic to be Y that's not cool?!?
A child born on US soil to a "non documented immigrant" in custody can be president, but myself a child born on foreign soil to an American born n bred citizen can not because soil is the most important thing in the world?!
Katherine pleased to hear that you believe in the rule of law. That's why you are welcomed to America. I do follow you on twitter. You always come up with great points to discuss.
Probably at this point just provide weapons/training. That seems to be all that Ukrainians are asking for at this point too. I don't think troops/NATO at this point and hopefully it won't come to that. Europe is doing their part too, as they should. Do they have a chance? I sincerely don't know. I hear all sorts of points of views and don't know what to believe, but at the end of the day it's up to Ukrainians to decide how long they want to fight and what they want to give up, if anything.
How do you feel about Canada or the US spending billions of dollars on Ukraine that could be otherwise spent helping it's own populations? A sincere question. Is it justified? I think of the dire housing and healthcare situations here in Canada, for instance...
I'm not offended, it's completely fine for us to have this conversation. A lot of people feel the way you do. It just makes me a bit sad, but I do get the perspective and where it comes from.
Green cards are easy to get. And let's no ignore that American citizenship is losing its value as millions of illegals arrive and never leave. Illegals are registering to vote and are being given government jobs without ever having to be a legal citizen. American citizens are second class serfs in their own nation.
If you make a statement like green cards are easy to get without actually going through the process, that statement must be viewed as incorrect. The people that I know who have gotten green cards and are working and studying to take that test. They are just good, honest and hardworking future citizens,
Katherine already explained her disappointing green card experience to me. Katherine like many others would bring much to America but their not accepted. Unfair.
Green cards are extremely difficult to get. Trust me, I had tried to legally get a visa for many years, even finding some employers who had interest in hiring me — which is a LOT harder when you are not a citizen. There are a few occupations that are easier, but overall, it's not so easy if you play by the rules...which I did.
Illegal immigration is a whole different matter. I don't consider those to be in the same category. One is breaking the law, the other is not. I don't believe in being rewarded for breaking the law.
I'm dumbfounded by the number of people from the Russian-speaking immigrant community who have come here as a result of winning the Green Card lottery. The number seems to be completely out of proportion and if I didn't know better, I'd suspect some shenanigans. But I don't know how it'd be possible to game the lottery system, so I'm at a loss to explain it.
On the other hand, I know a few really deserving Russian people who'd make great American citizens (all in my opinion, of course) who have tried for years to win the lottery or come here via other legals means and still can't.
Immigrants will always be loyal to were they came from. They'd favorable to the interests of their birthplace. Ilhan omar is an example of an anti american ingrate. Katherine for example you came to Canada at 12 years old but you still have allegiance to Ukraine even though you are a Canadian citizen.
That's an assumption. My allegiance is to Canada, not to Ukraine. I do support Ukraine, but not because I was born there. My family escaped from there and was not treated well. I have a very complicated relationship with that part of the world. But what's happening today isn't right. Most immigrants left their countries because they were not happy there and their values, etc. Otherwise they'd be living there. There might be exceptions, but they are few. Most immigrants are fiercely loyal to their new homes and are more appreciative than the people born there and take it for granted! Me and my family have tremendous appreciation for the West, both Canada and the US (although I'm not a citizen, I've spent a lot of time there and respect the good bits).
That's a function of the constitution. Naturalized citizens can run for any office but president. I'm surprised that not a single congressman in the history of the United States has suggested changing that clause.
Could you imagine a president Ahnold Schwarzenegger?
I'm still trying to gather new sources that are trustworthy. A positive that social media brought us is that everyone with a smartphone can upload live video of what they see. I'm an old timer I do miss the adventure of cold war stations on the shortwave bands.
And how do you distinguish between the type of immigrant who wants to assimilate and those that come to colonize? There are plenty of people born here who are raised in closed off communities away from mainstream culture who don’t assimilate and even have a foreign accent because everyone around them does. And they are not interested in American culture, they are interested in becoming the majority in a region and getting political control. You can’t just pretend that doesn’t happen. Look at the Ukraine war right now for just one example.
I don't think any of these things happen on an individual basis. People don't choose to keep or lose an accent - that's not how accents work. People don't generally upend their lives and move to another country, as individuals, to gain control of somewhere.
I didn’t claim that people choose to keep or lose an accent. I said that people choose not to assimilate and live in closed off communities and raise their children in those closed off communities. People do move for the sake of colonizing, a big up side is better economic opportunity to boot. But people rarely do things for only one reason. The guy who shot up the mosque in New Zealand, I read his manifesto, he was motivated in part because of a video shared to a nearby mosque (but decided it wasn’t a good target) about population growth. I had seen that video too, it was about the difference in fertility rates making big population differences in the future. He was angry because the Muslims knew what they were doing. There’s also something called “La Raza” which means the race is Spanish. They aim to re-take the parts of America that used to be part of Mexico but were lost in the American-Mexico war. While one individual can do accomplish these things by themselves, each individual can know about it and agree with the long-term goals of the inter-generational project. While also enjoying the economic opportunity that the USA offers. It’s a weird concept to us Americans because we aren’t part of a national group, a group of people with a shared ethnic, cultural and religious background. I don’t even have an ethnicity, I’m a mix of so many different people, and our religion is so varied with so many different denominations. But if you watch old movies like “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” you can see the attitude of manifest-destiny. They wanted to get married young and have as many children as possible and keep pressing west into Native American territory and claiming the land as their own and filling it with their people. We have so lost that drive that we aren’t even interested in preserving our population and territorial advantage. But others do and we should at least be aware of it and consider it when discussing immigration policy.
Those (La Raza) are generally people already here many generations in, not people moving here to colonise. They're American citizens. Weird American citizens, but American citizens. We have (and have had over our entire history) a lot of dangerous weirdos of every stripe, from LaRouchers to Klansmen to Promise Keepers to Stalinists to all kinds of ethnonationalists of every ethnicity. Most of them are home-grown, not dangers from the outside. It's rare that people from outside are present in enough numbers to pose a danger.
It’s like you’re making my point for me. Are you saying that because we have this issue we might as well make it worse by letting in large numbers of foreigners who are even more likely to cause more problems?
The problem is not the foreigners and never has been.
How do you figure that? That European foreigners were a big problem to the native Americans. The Catholic vs Protestant riots of the 1800s. MS13. 9/11. But even if it was true that foreigners had never caused problems in America, you can’t make the argument that it’s never happened in history anywhere. And it doesn’t follow that they won’t become a problem in the future. It’s just silly to pretend that there’s no down-side to immigration.
Beautiful article.
I don't see it as mistrust per se to have varying levels of citizenship and eligibility for high public office (even if that eligibility were more limited than it is currently in the US). It's something I'd expect were I to move permanently to another country and get citizenship there - even if I gave up my US citizenship someday - really committed to another nation - I still wouldn't feel it'd be right to became a high-level politician elsewhere (might be different had I left the US before becoming an adult).
A thoughtful article. Have you looked into the differences between the US and Canadian forms of government? The roles of President vs Prime Minister may differ enough to warrant the type of restriction present in US law.
Fair point. Worth looking into.
That's all true, but if you are an older immigrant it is impossible to separate yourself from your mother country and loyalty to it
Most of them still have reasons for leaving so I'm not so sure about the loyalty, but also, they don't tend to run for office and if they did and enough people had compelling reasons not to trust them, they could just not vote them in?
Katherine thank you.
What would you suggest as a source for me to hear what's happening in Ukraine. I have no trust in most western media outlets
Radio stations
Websites
Tweeters
YouTube channels.
I only speak English.
Any suggestions be 👍.
there is no point in following what's happening in Ukraine on a daily basis. After trying exactly that for a year, I had realized that the actual war has a life of its own independent of the talking-head/pundit sphere. I'm a native Russian speaker, so I usually go for non-English sources as they are closer to the ground. Of the English sources, the only one that has stuck with me since the whole ordeal started is this channel: https://www.youtube.com/@anderspuck
Thanks for responding. There was a time when the shortwave bands were populated with international broadcasters.
Listeners in those days had access to many points of view. Today fake news and propaganda is rampant. Katherine B gave me a few suggestionsl too. I'll check out your suggested utube source.
I know that the Soviet Union had a massive program funding many of those broadcasters. Even Voice of America wasn't without a whiff of US government-sponsored propaganda. I think what was really missing in those days because of the high cost of entry are all the truly independent voices. The reason we can easily identify propaganda today is those independent voices who bring in unsanctioned views. But I do agree that meddling through all this mess is tough, but I still prefer it to having just a handful of "official" sources.
Yeah, I try to listen to some of the people on the ground, but even then I don't have real clarity and I'm not entirely sure if they do. Everyone has a partial picture to some extent.
Thank you for the channel recommendation. I checked it out briefly and this guy seems to have some logical sense and seems objective.
Good question. Let me compile some and get back to you. Might be good to share with others overall. MriyaReport.Org is a good one to start with. They have a Twitter space running 24/7. They are pro-Ukraine, so obviously biased, but some of the contributors are incredibly factual and useful in that way. I also follow https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews because she translates Russian TV into English, so you can see primary source material...get a sense of what Russians are telling Russians, which I think it very valuable. I'm fluent in Russian, but I don't spend all my time watch Russian television, so it's very helpful and it's translated accurately.
Thanks...
It's a typical 'merica take - i say this as the only non American born person in my entire family of Americans. Most Americans, in my experience, view themselves as being better than people from anywhere else in the world, even including ally countries such as Canada, UK, NZ, Aus etc and this is reflected in any geopolitical issues.
What i find most most weird about it, is that birthplace or country of origin is sort of at odds with how USA became the USA - the whole founding fathers, escaping British rule etc.
From a really overly simplified view, if being born on land now known as the USA is a non-negotiable requirement to become the "leader of the free world" how is that freedom or any different to the rule of a monarchy?
It's simply replacing one birth attribute (heritage/genes) with another birth attribute (location/place) and seems very "rules for thee, not for me" elitist imo. They are becoming the very thing they purport to be better than - where's the "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character”
You must possess this one immutable characteristic to be X, but when it comes to having to possess another immutable characteristic to be Y that's not cool?!?
A child born on US soil to a "non documented immigrant" in custody can be president, but myself a child born on foreign soil to an American born n bred citizen can not because soil is the most important thing in the world?!
Make it make sense! :)
Katherine I believe it will be resolved amicably. Add to that plenty of western aid will rebuild Ukraine and get it back on it's feet.
Katherine pleased to hear that you believe in the rule of law. That's why you are welcomed to America. I do follow you on twitter. You always come up with great points to discuss.
Do you identify yourself as a leftist?
What's happening today isn't right! Where?
Let me guess America.
America should suspend immigration indefinitely and isolate.
The kindness of Americans is abused and not appreciated.
Katherine I disagree with you don't take it personally.
In Ukraine.
Agree.
What more do you feel America should do for Ukraine?
Troops.
NATO
Russia don't seem to be backing down.
Probably at this point just provide weapons/training. That seems to be all that Ukrainians are asking for at this point too. I don't think troops/NATO at this point and hopefully it won't come to that. Europe is doing their part too, as they should. Do they have a chance? I sincerely don't know. I hear all sorts of points of views and don't know what to believe, but at the end of the day it's up to Ukrainians to decide how long they want to fight and what they want to give up, if anything.
How do you feel about Canada or the US spending billions of dollars on Ukraine that could be otherwise spent helping it's own populations? A sincere question. Is it justified? I think of the dire housing and healthcare situations here in Canada, for instance...
Katherine your a bright woman. I respect your writings don't be offended by my opinions because I disagree with you.
I'm not offended, it's completely fine for us to have this conversation. A lot of people feel the way you do. It just makes me a bit sad, but I do get the perspective and where it comes from.
Green cards are easy to get. And let's no ignore that American citizenship is losing its value as millions of illegals arrive and never leave. Illegals are registering to vote and are being given government jobs without ever having to be a legal citizen. American citizens are second class serfs in their own nation.
If you make a statement like green cards are easy to get without actually going through the process, that statement must be viewed as incorrect. The people that I know who have gotten green cards and are working and studying to take that test. They are just good, honest and hardworking future citizens,
Katherine already explained her disappointing green card experience to me. Katherine like many others would bring much to America but their not accepted. Unfair.
Green cards are extremely difficult to get. Trust me, I had tried to legally get a visa for many years, even finding some employers who had interest in hiring me — which is a LOT harder when you are not a citizen. There are a few occupations that are easier, but overall, it's not so easy if you play by the rules...which I did.
Illegal immigration is a whole different matter. I don't consider those to be in the same category. One is breaking the law, the other is not. I don't believe in being rewarded for breaking the law.
I'm dumbfounded by the number of people from the Russian-speaking immigrant community who have come here as a result of winning the Green Card lottery. The number seems to be completely out of proportion and if I didn't know better, I'd suspect some shenanigans. But I don't know how it'd be possible to game the lottery system, so I'm at a loss to explain it.
On the other hand, I know a few really deserving Russian people who'd make great American citizens (all in my opinion, of course) who have tried for years to win the lottery or come here via other legals means and still can't.
I've applied for the lottery for over 20 years. No luck.
Immigrants will always be loyal to were they came from. They'd favorable to the interests of their birthplace. Ilhan omar is an example of an anti american ingrate. Katherine for example you came to Canada at 12 years old but you still have allegiance to Ukraine even though you are a Canadian citizen.
That's an assumption. My allegiance is to Canada, not to Ukraine. I do support Ukraine, but not because I was born there. My family escaped from there and was not treated well. I have a very complicated relationship with that part of the world. But what's happening today isn't right. Most immigrants left their countries because they were not happy there and their values, etc. Otherwise they'd be living there. There might be exceptions, but they are few. Most immigrants are fiercely loyal to their new homes and are more appreciative than the people born there and take it for granted! Me and my family have tremendous appreciation for the West, both Canada and the US (although I'm not a citizen, I've spent a lot of time there and respect the good bits).