No, We're Not. He Isn't, Either.

Behind 45's latest messing with the Constitution is his firm belief that Americans are better than everyone else: That we are somehow specially blessed by heaven in a unique way (bringing back Manifest Destiny, which debuted in the 1840s), and anyone else who wants to come in--and doesn't look like us--has to climb a bunch of major steps, and good luck with that.

If heaven's scratching its head, I wouldn't be surprised. There's nothing superior about anyone living within the borders of the United States of America. Yes, Jefferson was right: We have natural-born rights. But go back and look at our Declaration: He meant that statement for all humankind, everywhere. He just felt he needed to point out to the British, in 1776, that it also applied to their colonists. Without guarantees of those rights being allowed to flourish, it was time to part ways, thank you very much.

What makes America unique? For one thing: Nothing more, and nothing less, than geography. It's allowed us to utilize our enormous natural resources to thrive economically and create a juggernaut without much threat of being invaded. Those two big oceans are still out there, and--Pearl Harbor and 9/11 not withstanding--it's been pretty tough to mount an invasion force that would make much difference--never mind the weaponless group of refugees that he's sending 5200 National Guardspeople to thwart, a baldly political gesture (at the 11th hour of a mid-term campaign) that makes many of us want to vomit.

The other thing that makes it unique is its founding: on an idea, not a plot of land. That idea was, again, liberty in law. Our Constitution, imperfect though it may be, still serves as a beacon to other democracies in the world.

Until now.

Now, the president wants to circumvent the whole thing by claiming that by simply writing his words on a piece of paper, the process of amending the Constitution--a cumbersome, difficult, time-consuming process that just won't do for such a busy man--is inadequate to accomplish what he wants for the country that he imagines it to be.

Which is nothing close to what it really is.

The amendment process is what makes the very concept of a constitution, instead of passing mere legislation (never mind how difficult that now is as well), an exercise in establishing a legal bulwark. Making it difficult to amend gives it a foundation that has lasted us most of the 231 years of its existence.

The process is also unique in that it is purely legislative in nature. The president doesn't need to sign amendments or even to like them, and the Supreme Court can't touch them. They need to be approved by first, a two-thirds majority of each house of Congress, and three-fourths of the state legislatures (within a time frame that Congress may or may not attach; the latest amendment, the 27th, for instance, was initially passed in 1791, but the failed Equal Rights Amendment had a seven-year sunset).

Good luck with that. But that's the idea. If something needs to be attached to our fundamental document of law, it should be very difficult to do and not be a function of quickly-passing political winds. Or, if they do, those winds need to be very strong (as with, for instance, the Civil War Amendments (13, 14, 15); filling a vacancy in the vice-presidency (25); or voting at age 18 (26)). Support for the rest have evolved over time, as the Constitution fills a need for an ever-changing nation.

But it's one of those Civil War Amendments, the Fourteenth, that 45 is planning to subvert. He wants to stop natural-born people of non-citizens from being automatic citizens. We're being sandbagged, he thinks, by people fleeing to the U.S.--somehow getting past border guards, which will happen whether refugees risk and sometimes lose their lives or not, whether actual walls are built or not--and giving birth to children within our borders. Then, he whines, we have to take care of them by giving them (gasp) health care and education. Good golly, they don't even have to know English!

And they aren't white. Our purity is at stake! Are refugees actually having sex within American borders so the women can get pregnant and create an assembly line of citizens that don't look like what is a diminishing majority of the rest of us? What's next--an attempt to reinstitute a ban on cross-racial marriages?

What makes an American? That this must be said, here and elsewhere, is a tragic reflection of our times, but--first of all, it has nothing to do with skin color; it has nothing to do with religion; it has nothing to do with sexual orientation. Nothing. Outside of actually being born on this soil, or born of an already American parent (looking at you, Ted Cruz), it means that people have had to go through a process we call naturalization--also mentioned specifically in the original Constitution. See Article I, Section 8.

But that power is the one to make rules regarding naturalization, which belong to Congress, and specifically stated as such. (Please pay attention, Justice Kavanaugh, oh ye of the Federalist Society, which prides itself on the original intent of the Founders.) That issue has also been limited by the Fourteenth Amendment's automatic granting of citizenship on newborns.

So 45, not that he minds much, is way out of line here. He's not so special that he can make up any rules or processes he wants and literally paper them over with executive orders. And the first sentence of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment (Think that was meant to be put there?) says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."

But 45 says: No, that's not fair to the rest of us real Americans, who somehow materialized here all by ourselves without forebears who couldn't possibly have come from somewhere else or, if they did (Who in the world didn't, including Natives?), it's too long ago to be relevant. They're getting away with something. (A good hospital? A good school? Food stamps? Cubic inches of space? And eventually, jobs nobody else wants?)

I'm guessing that official, state-based institutions will quickly sue him (Because of the phrase "and the state in which they reside") and the Supreme Court will rule. I'm also guessing that he thinks that, with the Court being newly stocked with conservatives, he will hold sway. His lawyers will say, probably, that the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was to guarantee rights for the newly-freed slaves, rights that are now moot. They will argue that the expansion of the Fourteenth Amendment's key phrases: "privileges and immunities," and "equal protection," need not cover those merely born on our soil without the previously established citizenship of one or both parents. So now we can eliminate their citizenship--and send them away if we want. (Instead of keeping them in internment camps, way too messy, right?)

Except: The circumvention of the Constitution by a sitting president has been attempted elsewhere and been thwarted before--as with Obama's attempts to make recess appointments to the federal bench (the politically nasty resistance to which, it must be said, began with Senate Democrats against George W. Bush). That was a process issue (decided unanimously), so 45's attempt to begin a new process that satisfies him can be successfully challenged on that basis, as well.

One more time: Who does he think he is, beyond an ego so massive it defies description? We'll find out.

But he isn't that special. There are rules for him, too. We'll see if this constitutional anarchist can be reined in.

Be well. I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark