On Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-South Carolina, introduced a resolution “proposing a constitutional amendment to require Members of Congress, federal judges, and Senate-confirmed officers of the United States to be natural born citizens.”
It’s the latest development in the right’s discarding of America as a creedal nation — the idea that “to be an American is not to be someone, but to believe in something.”
“If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural born American citizen,” said Mace. “This is not complicated. The people writing America’s laws, confirming America’s judges, and representing America on the world stage should have one loyalty: America. Not Somalia. Not any other country. For too long we have allowed foreign born members to hold seats in this government while making clear their loyalty is not here. We see it every day. This amendment puts an end to it.”
Mace’s string of assertions doesn’t actually explain why naturalized citizens — who are often among the most dedicated to the American project — should be barred from higher public service as a general rule. Instead, her argument rests on a bizarrely essentialist assumption: that by being born in another country, an individual carries a permanent, immutable loyalty to their place of birth. Many Cuban and Vietnamese Republican Americans, for instance, would probably beg to differ. As would any naturalized citizen who has taken the Oath of Allegiance.
But since this is an election season, I wanted to see what a couple of the local Republican members of Congress thought about Mace’s proposal. Rep. Ken Calvert’s spokesperson gave a succinct response: “Rep. Calvert does not support changing the constitutional eligibility requirements for these offices.”
Rep. Young Kim, meanwhile, offered a more thorough response, which makes sense considering Mace’s proposal would bar the South Korean-born American from office.
“That American Dream is not something anyone is automatically entitled to. American citizenship is a blessing, a responsibility, and one of the greatest gifts on God’s green earth. Those of us who have abided by the law, upheld the values of this great nation, and are blessed enough to call ourselves Americans understand that this gift does not end with us,” she said. “We have a responsibility to give back and preserve the American Dream for the next generation. That kind of patriotism — whether from someone born in war-torn Korea or Orange County, California — is what defines America, and we need more of it in Congress.”
She also referenced a letter read by President Ronald Reagan in 1989 which said, “You can go to live in France, but you cannot become a Frenchman. You can go to live in Germany or Turkey or Japan, but you cannot become a German, a Turk, or a Japanese. But anyone, from any corner of the Earth, can come to live in America and become an American.”
It is good news that, amid a particularly deplorable run for re-election, Rep. Calvert hasn’t taken the plunge into total anti-immigrant lunacy and Rep. Kim is willing to speak up in defense of herself and millions of foreign-born American citizens. They both got this right, at least, and more so Kim.
More Republicans need to speak up against the xenophobia in their party. The navel-gazing nativists of the far-right like Nancy Mace are as destructive to the American project as any far-left wokester.
Sal Rodriguez can be reached at salrodriguez@scng.com