President-elect Trump will not end birthright citizenship. But Democrats and liberals bring him closer to doing so, the more they repeat the accusation. Trump knows that the question is enshrined in the constitution, and that the only way such a policy could become accessible through a pen and a phone is to first get the entire nation debating the subject, as if it really were legitimate.
Despite the fact that liberals of social media have been railing for weeks not to obey in advance, they are doing exactly that. Donald Trump is playing liberals like fiddles. He wins when he convinces people to give into fear. It’s how he convinces people to vote for him and support his policies. It’s also how he unwittingly convinces his opponents to pave the way for his worst ideas to be accepted into mainstream discourse.
In cases of outrageous legal theories, like ending birthright citizenship, Donald Trump’s adversaries play a key role in empowering his agenda. By debating Trump’s stated objective on its merits, the public is converting the idea of a valid citizenship EO from an outlandish fantasy into just another hot button political opinion.
If there is anything America should have learned after eight years of Donald Trump, it’s that hot button political opinions have a way of breaking Trump’s way in the court system. Outlandishly absurd legal theories get dismissed, as long as they stay outlandishly absurd ideas confined to academia frat house that is the body of American federal judges (granted, some of them drink too much, and some of them are just embarrassing idiots who never should have been admitted). We’ve seen this happen in the legal battles attempting to overthrow the 2020 election. But once the idea is legitimized with widespread public debate that takes place along ideological lines, things change.
Judges, it turns out, tend to remain quite hostile to legal absurdities, but are deathly susceptible to political absurdities. If only our wise Founding Fathers might have anticipated that fact and created a system to marginalize the influence of partisan politics on the federal judiciary by, oh maybe something like lifetime appointments that minimized the ability of a President to pack in as many of his own ideologues as possible.
President-elect Donald Trump has made it clear that he wants to end birthright citizenship, but the President of the United States does not have such power. Full stop. The notion is fully illegitimate. And it should not be treated as anything more than a fully illegitimate fantasy. Even if Trump tries to do it, any such action will be void on its face.
The media, along with those in the public who oppose Trump’s objectives, need to change their tune. Stop granting illegitimate theories existential import. Instead of treating potentially illegitimate acts with a veneer of legitimacy, speak the truth about any actions Trump might take. If Trump issues an Executive Order attempting to declare an end to birthright citizenship, he will be doing nothing more than infringing on the rights of American citizens. If he instructs the DHS to deport American citizens, he is illegally deporting Americans. Under no circumstances should anyone, ever again, claim that Trump has ended birthright citizenship, or that he is going to end birthright citizenship.
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