This is reposted from the RenouceUScitizenship blog. Since Ted Cruz had the “temerity” to have born outside the Homeland, Donald Trump has called his U.S. citizenship into question (those of you who were NOT born in the United States would find this debate to be interesting). This raises the question of how “citizenship” should be related to the political process in general.
If Senator Cruz were declared ineligible to run for President, he might say:
“It’s unjust. It’s inhumane. I didn’t choose where I was born!”
Well Ted, that’s too bad. Get with the program. We aren’t talking about justice. We are talking about America.
To what degree should citizenship matter at all? Many readers of this blog are aware of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. S. 3 of that Charter makes a clear statement of the importance of the right to participate in the political process. It also links citizenship to that right.
Democratic rights of citizens
3. Every citizen of Canada has the right to vote in an election of members of the House of Commons or of a legislative assembly and to be qualified for membership therein.
What about the United States?
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In the finest of American traditions and mythology:
Samuel Adams suggested that "taxation without representation" was a form of slavery." That was then. This is now. https://t.co/E2lWfF6wxh
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) January 11, 2016
The summary statement of the Samuel Adams instructions, written to the representatives of the Massachusetts House, approved May 24, 1764:
“If Taxes are laid upon us in any shape without our having a legal Representation where they are laid, are we not reduced from the Character of free Subjects to the miserable State of tributary Slaves?”
But yet,
Article implies that 13 states will NOT allow #Americansabroad who were born abroad to vote. But, they must file tax https://t.co/vSK2fCR2Ih
— U.S. Citizen Abroad (@USCitizenAbroad) January 11, 2016
Never resided in the U.S.? As of this writing, 37 states* allow U.S. citizens, 18 years or older, who were born abroad, but have never resided in the United States to be eligible to vote absentee. Voting address in the United States will be the last U.S. residence of a U.S. citizen parent. States vary in their voter registration identification requirements, however, most commonly you can use either: 1) the last 4 digits of your Social Security Number (SSN); or 2) a valid state driver’s license.
*Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Colombia, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington (State), West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
Voting may or may not be based on citizenship …
For example:
- The Government of Canada has tried to prevent certain Canadian citizens from voting if they live outside of Canada.
- An issue in certain Municipal Elections (example Toronto) has been whether non-citizens should have the right to vote.
What does citizenship have to do with it anyway?
It appears to be neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for voting.
The question …
Given that there is NO PRESUMPTIVE connection between citizenship and voting rights, perhaps the United States should consider/reconsider what the right to vote should be based on. We know that U.S. citizenship is about and ONLY about taxation. That’s why U.S. citizenship is properly understood to be:
“Taxation Based Citizenship”
Should the right to vote in the United States be based on whether you file and pay U.S. taxes?
Two polls – Two different questions
Poll 1 – Filing U.S. taxes as a NECESSARY condition for voting
Poll 2 – Filing U.S. taxes as a SUFFICIENT condition for voting
“Never resided in the U.S.? As of this writing, 37 states* allow U.S. citizens, 18 years or older, who were born abroad, but have never resided in the United States to be eligible to vote absentee”
If a US citizen over age 18 never resided in the US, they might be able to vote up to four times in a single US election, if they have four links who are/were US citizens who were last domiciled in four different states, each one qualifying by the rules of their states. Two parents, one legal guardian, and one spouse or civil partner.
https://www.fvap.gov/citizen-voter/reside
I found this because a postcard arrived in postal mail from FVAP. The postcard was addressed to my previous address and forwarded by Japan Post. My previous address was printed correctly, so FVAP did not get it from the last voter registration that I had when I was a US citizen. The registrar of voters had addressed absentee ballots to my local address within the city and then the prefecture (province) and postal code, always omitting the city itself, despite being corrected numerous times by letter and telephone. So where did FVAP get my name and old address? Could it come from a tax department of some sort, maybe a tax department that still insists on addressing mail to my old address despite having been corrected numerous times by letter, and which received at least one and possibly both of my 8854’s more than four years ago?
“hippocracy”
Rule by hippopotamuses? Wouldn’t herpocracy be a better word, rule by snakes?
Hippopotamus is Greek for river horse. Snake is still better.
Herpocracy: not snakes, but rule by sexually transmitted disease.
More realistically “Idiocracy”?
“I called the people who made Idiocracy to see how they so accurately predicted the future. “I’m no prophet,” Judge told me. “I was off by 490 years.” He too is shocked at how eerily similar the world has become to the one his movie depicted. He and Idiocracy co-writer Etan Cohen have been working on fake campaign ads for Camacho to be used as anti-Trump web videos, but they’re having a hard time. “Our jokes would be like, ‘I’m going to build a wall around the earth.’ They were only incrementally stupider,” says Cohen. “Writing Idiocracy was just following your id. Now unfortunately our id has become our candidate for President.” The danger here is clear: we will no longer be able to have comedies with hilarious dumb characters.”
http://time.com/4327424/idiocracy/
Hypocritiicracy: rule by hypocrites