I read an editorial last week which gave a novel reason for amending the constitution so you don’t have to be born in the US to eligible for the Presidency.  It’ll remove a headache… the birth certificate conspiracy theorists.  That was the entire crux of the editorial.  We get a quote about how tough it is to be president — rolling on a log while swatting mosquitoes — and the reference to removing one mosquito.

Which seems an insane reason.  I can think of some decent reasons for the Amendment, though the whole citation of a couple political figures a few years back — a governor in California and one in Michigan (the latter tossed in for bipartisan reasons)– doesn’t really hold up over the years… need other politicians to reference, and it’s hard to think of any actually.

Another decent reason may be later in the article… the Kissinger reference.  Kissinger’s power stemmed in part because he could never become President… so to this station in realpolitik he went.  Perhaps things might be different in a birth-Amendment world — worth some speculative fiction, I suppose — one you really have to think through.

Interesting to note — I was recently about Donald Trump’s foray into the Reform Party and him at the end of the day blasting the party as full of conspiracy cranks.  12 years later, of course, Donald Trump’s foray into presidential politics brought him to… Birtherland.  Sheesh indeed.

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