Donald Trump’s hair and the big orange person it sits on top of were on television again. As many of us know, Trump’s hair has been conducting investigations on President Barack Obama’s past in an effort to prove he was not born in America. The wispy blond strands made news two weeks ago when the person underneath them announced he would write a check for $5 million to a charity of Obama’s choice if the president released his college records and passport paperwork. I imagine the president will choose not to dignify this message with a response. Sometimes the best way to get a child to stop crying is to ignore him.
The “birther” conspiracy theory has been good for a lot of chuckles and, other than distracting us from real issues, has been pretty harmless. Those that choose to can waste their time and money hunting snipes while the rest of us focus on things that are real. However, I think this is an issue that shouldn’t even exist. The birther movement is based on the Natural-Born Citizen Clause of Article Two of the U.S. Constitution which states that no person who is not a natural-born citizen of the United States can be president. I believe this clause should be removed from the Constitution.
By the time my writing is printed, it has been read and quite often censored by about four other people. This is because outside influence can be very beneficial. Without my editors, my work would not be the wonderful and inspiring perfection that it is, and it would certainly be much more offensive. The Natural-Born Citizen Clause of the Constitution is meant to avoid such input on American politics. The founding fathers wanted to avoid foreign influence. This is understandable, as we had just fought a war against it. Today, however, America is strong enough to handle some and would probably be better off for it.
The worst part of the Natural-Born Citizen Clause is that it limits the pool of eligible presidents, and it’s not like we have a surplus of excellent candidates. We can’t afford to be picky. For example, the runner-up for the Republican nomination this election was Rick Santorum. Rick. Santorum. The guy that thinks condoms increase the rates of unwanted pregnancy. The guy that thinks gay couples shouldn’t be allowed to even have sex. The guy that doesn’t want us all to go to college. Rick Santorum, with his big dumb sweater vests and his big dumb face and his big dumb politics. That guy got the silver medal in the sport of being a good Republican candidate. Ugh.
I apologize. I have nothing against sweater vests. My point is, as I said, we’re not exactly eyeball-deep in really good candidates. If the best person for the job happens to have been born in another country, he or she should be able to be president, especially considering how hard it would be for a non-native to be elected. As untrusting and ethnocentric as Americans can be, any foreign-born candidate that could win the presidency would have to be a very good one.
This isn’t really an issue that’s being talked about, so we can definitely expect to see more Rick Santorums in the future and there’s no doubt we haven’t seen the last of Donald Trump’s hair. I also don’t believe this issue is entirely urgent, as it will most likely be a long time before any non-native candidate comes close to the presidency. However, I do think this is an issue that should be addressed in the future as it limits the potential of the presidency and goes against the American values of equality and inclusivity.
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