Xenophobia on Display
A tale from my neck of the woods.
Via AL.com: Alabama officials want to ban naturalized citizens from holding elected office.
Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen and a Republican state senator want to change the state Constitution to require the state’s elected officials to be citizens born in the United States.
The natural born citizen requirement would apply to all of Alabama’s elected posts that are designated by the state Constitution – governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, legislators, judges, sheriffs, and others.
Allen, who is running for lieutenant governor, said the idea is to apply the same standard that requires the president and vice president to be born in the United States.
[…]
“We want to make sure that no potential foreign influence or foreign meddling could impact our state’s highest elected leaders.”
That would exclude naturalized citizens, those born outside the country who complete the process to become citizens.
My first thought is that this is just blatantly xenophobic, if not simply racist. This is part any parcel of kind of white nationalist politics that wants to stoke fears about foreign Others just for the sake of stirring the pot. It is an attempt to say that naturalized citizens aren’t “real” Americans.
Of course, it is based on the broader political moment.
Allen said he came up with the idea because of what he says is a trend of people born outside the United States running for high-profile offices.
He gave two examples. Zohran Mamdani, a state representative in New York running for mayor of New York City, is a democratic socialist who was born in Uganda.
It seems worth noting that there is no evidence to suggest that there is any reason to assume that naturalized citizens would be agents of influence by foreign governments. This is purely a move that is born either of prejudice or the cynical manipulation of prejudice (or, los dos).
It seems worth noting that only the president is currently required to be “natural born” and that had more to do with the politics of the 1780s than anything of relevance today. Quite frankly, I would have no problem removing that requirement from the Constitution.
Here are the current requirements in the Alabama Constitution.
Currently under the Alabama constitution, the governor and lieutenant governor have to be citizens at least 10 years before they are elected.
There is a seven-year citizenship requirement for the attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, treasurer, and commissioner of agriculture and industries.
Members of the Legislature have to be citizens at least three years.
This all seems utterly reasonable to me.
My initial reaction to all of this is that it is a stunt by Allen to get attention for his campaign, but it is a terrible commentary on both him and those who might vote for him that this is something he thinks is worth attention. I will confess that in any other time, I would assume that this would die in the legislature, and that is probably still the most likely outcome, but given the current political climate, I would hardly be shocked if it makes it to the ballot.
This kind of nationalist nonsense is a sign of our times and is a direct result of the Trumpian moment, which makes this intersect, at least in part, with my previous post.
So many real problems in the state that people have to endure, and this slapdick actually thinks about this?
States rights or no? Where’s the line?
And about that “line,” circling back to your discussion of the limits for citizens changing the electoral minefield rigged by the states (in contradiction to VRA), your comments/assessment on the following strategy would be appreciated:
Aside from the obvious “state by state” aspect, blue states could establish a contrast that would be hard to ignore in our national dialogue. If all they leave you is your “ideals,” then you must leverage those ideals to the effect inescapable dissonance.
Same motivation that Ken Paxton has for the lawsuit against the makers of Tylenol – based on RFK Jr.’s science-free obsession with autism. Paxton has no qualms in using his position as state atty general to garner free pub to assist his run for the Senate seat held by John Cornyn. He obviously thinks RFK Jr. holds some sway with Texas voters. He may be right there…Bobby Jr. is making measles great again in Texas.
@Kurtz: It’s easier than proposing and running on solutions to real problems. Especially as any real solution is likely to raise taxes.
“We must infiltrate the highest levels of government in Alabama.” Said no leader of a foreign nation ever! LMAO. But you keep backwoods Bama’in, Wes. Alabama’s state flag should be a facepalm emoji.
Personally I think that all elected officials should have to pass the same test that naturalized citizens are administered.
I confess that I have never seen the exam however I did pass a United States Constitution and Illinois Constitution test to graduate from High School in 1966 and I have read them several times since then.
My test for these potential Government Servants would start with this multiple choice question:
Please select the names of States in our Federal Union from this list:
A) Idaho
B) New Mexico
C) Columbia
D) Commonwealth of Kentucky
E) Argentina
Personally, I’m finding the public racism and xenophobia against Zohran Mamdani as bad as anything in Alabama. We’ve gone from McCain in his own polite, old-fashioned, and decently racist way trying to defuse some nutjob calling Obama a Muslim to Cuomo happily being endorsed by people who call Mamdani a ‘jihadist’.
It’s stupidity and for what purpose except cruelty? There are millions of Muslims in NYC. If they had wanted to set up terrorist cells, they would have done it. But I think that the mindless racism is helping Cuomo and maybe he will sneak a victory as he draws out the outer borough and the UES, none of whom believe in any rational sense that Sharia is coming if Mamdani wins.
Racism seems to be sating of an appetite for dominance without the thought of consequences, even to one’s own self. I.e., it’s basically the glue that holds Americans together. After all, McCain did lose.
@Modulo Myself: Ted Cruz put in one of his Facebook posts that Mamdani was a commie jihadist. Besides the fact that Cruz in commenting on a mayoral race far from Texas, he just engages in a kind of political Tourette’s throwing out scare words randomly.
Hey, when foreign powers want to influence the government in Alabama, they do it via money.
It doesn’t even take that much money.
@Modulo Myself:
I would note that, as reported at the time, McCain did that ONCE. IIRC the term of art is “inoculation”. He could from there on point to that one incident to deflect any charge of exploiting beliefs that Obama wasn’t really American.
And to highlight my comment elsewhere about fundamentals, McCain had basically no chance after the financial system tanked under W.
Preventing any citizen from holding political office makes them second class citizens.
I’ve no doubt that’s the intent.
Why should any foreign power need to elect an agent, when it’s so much easier to buy one?
Whether elected or appointed.
Applying this standard in Virginia would disqualify the current Republican candidate for governor.
It’s just all so eye-rollingly performative and dumb.
Sigh.
The single biggest reason that I moved from the USA to the Dominican Republic is the media’s inability to call racism racism. The outright racism, misogyny, and homophobia by this administration is consistently and effectively ignored.
Right now, it sucks to be a brown person in the USA. It just sucks. I doubt very much I’ll ever move back. I’ll continue to visit for work, but home will be the DR, Europe and South America.
@EddieInCA:
It’s amazing how much the end of this Malcolm X speech applies to both the OP, and your comment.
Of course, constituents have no path to control politics, at least at the national and state levels. The representatives have chosen their voters instead. And the community level likely suffers from the same or similar problems.
The last paragraph. Many of us have been accused of hating America at various times—often as a response to mild, respectful criticism. Mostly in response to criticism of foreign policy, but often for supporting domestic reforms.
The middle paragraph speaks to your comment about being brown in America. The first person that came to mind is Trayvon Martin. This is a kid who was being stalked by an adult stranger. Yet, that adult stranger was considered the victim to far too many Americans. Most of whom probably gave advice to their kids about what to do when being followed by a stranger—run. If you have to, fight. Martin did both those things. And was posthumously vilified by the likes of people who swear the real racists are those who call out discrimination.
Unfortunately, at the same time politicians choose their voters, voters choose who to ‘educate’ them—Limbaugh to Waters to Carlson to Trump. That last one became a viable Presidential candidate in the view just enough of the GOP primary electorate only after years of making frequent appearances on FNC to call Obama a foreigner.
ETA: Imagine if a Dem had used “Make America Great Again” as their campaign slogan.
@Jc: Tommy Tuberville is running for Alabama governor with a promise to stop Sharia Law being imposed upon the state, and I for one deplore liberal attempts to sabotage his efforts!
There is a growing sentiment in the MAGA movement that the only “real” Americans are what Tucker Carlson calls “legacy Americans”. J D Vance calls them “heritage Americans”. Either way, they are the descendants of white European settlers who “created America”. Anybody else who aspires to be considered an American must be assimilated into the legacy culture.
The theme is being promoted explicitly to discredit long-held ideas that America is “an idea” or that diversity is a national strength.
@Kurtz: He is quite the culture warrior–when he was probate judge in Pike County (where Troy U is located) he made a big deal about same sex marriage licenses. His father was a state legislator who was quite concerned about Confederate monuments.
@JohnSF:
Don’t remember where I read or heard this saying- An honest politician is a bought one who stays bought.
@Kurtz:
Exactly so. The freedom to consume. And we know where a lifetime of junk food leads.