But there aren't many of that kind of conservative left. Today's right-wingers are far more often unwilling to compromise or to even listen to anyone with a different point of view. Anyone who disagrees with them is instantly demonized and called un-American or even worse. And far too often these right-wingers ignore the Constitution or the law because it doesn't say what they want it to say.
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) is one of those brain-dead right-wingers. He doesn't care what the Constitution actually says. He's only interested in what he wishes it said. Take for instance his view on citizenship. King is one of those people that are upset because people who are born in the United States automatically have American citizenship. This has been true for many decades, but it upsets King because some of those people have brown skin and parents whose first language is Spanish. This offends his white sensibilities.
And King believes he has found a way to deny those brown-skinned babies their rightful citizenship. He wants Congress to pass a law that says the children of undocumented immigrants are not citizens -- even if they are born in the United States. Now those of you with even a small amount of brain function will know that this is blatantly unconstitutional, but King disagrees -- and his "reasoning" all logic or reality.
King says these brown-skinned babies can be denied their citizenship because their parents are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States and its laws. Now this is true of a small amount of aliens -- diplomats from other countries and their families. These people cannot be convicted of violating American laws without the permission of the government they represent. They can only be declared personae non grata and asked to leave this country. Because they are not subject to American laws, their children are not American citizens -- even if they are born in this country.
But that is not true of undocumented immigrants (or documented immigrants). Both of these groups are subject to all American laws -- regardless of whether they are in this country legally or not. There are thousands of undocumented immigrants in federal and state prisons in the United States. They are there because they broke either state or federal laws. How can this be true if they are not subject to those laws?
King has obviously not thought his ridiculous statement through to its logical conclusion (if he even has the brain capacity to do that). Does he really not want undocumented immigrants to be subject to U.S. laws? That would mean they could commit crimes such as murder, rape, child molestation, armed robbery, aggravated assault, etc. -- and all the government could do was ask them to leave the country. They could not be prosecuted.
It is a good thing that these undocumented immigrants are subject to American jurisdiction and laws, because then they can be held responsible for obeying those laws (and made to pay a price when they don't). In fact, they can even be extradited back into this country to pay for any crimes committed here.
And because these undocumented immigrants are definitely subject to the jurisdiction and laws of the United States, any children they have while in this country are automatically American citizens -- whether King and his teabagger cohorts like it or not. The only way this can be changed is by an amendment to the United States Constitution, and I doubt that most Americans would be in favor of that.
Our citizenship laws have worked well for us for many years. There is no reason to change them now -- especially considering almost all Americans are immigrants or the descendants of immigrants.
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