Opinion: The Austrian candidate

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Online Poster

By Chuck Prochaska

Earlier this year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger opened his speech at an international travel-industry show with these words: “I thank you very much for changing the Constitution of the United States of America, and I accept your nomination to run for president.” Pause. “Oh, wrong delegation. Sorry, wrong speech.”

However, if the stars align properly for the Governator, Ah’nold might really be on television in the summer of 2008 accepting the presidential nomination. It would take a constitutional amendment passed by two-thirds of Congress and ratified by 38 out of the 50 states to remove the clause that bans foreign-born citizens from seeking the nation’s highest office. Schwarzenegger was born in Austria and maintains Austrian citizenship despite having U.S. citizen status for more than 20 years.

While Arnold has been an outstanding governor thus far and enjoys great international approval as a political figure, it would be wrong to pass this amendment. Not only is it inappropriate to amend the Constitution to further one man’s political career, but it would also open the door for foreign-born Democrats to run, and we can’t have that.

There currently are two proposed amendments in Congress regarding foreign-born Oval-Office seekers. The House version requires foreign-born individuals to have been citizens for 35 years prior to seeking office, but the more popular Senate version requires only 20 years of citizenship – clearly crafted with an Arnold campaign in mind.

But seriously, why expose our great nation to the vulnerability of a foreign-produced mole, a la Manchurian Candidate? I know The Manchurian Candidate was an American, but the chances that some other nation could groom a charismatic political moderate, plant him in the United States, and get him elected president without the voters knowing of his secret agenda would be much higher if this proposed amendment passes. It sounds like a great conspiracy theory and like I’m paranoid, but I’m not – I’m just concerned. When you’re the best in the world, the target is constantly on your back. It would be a mistake to create a constitutional gap leaving our highest office unprotected from our enemies.

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However, the chances of the proposed amendment passing the ratification process are not very strong. Since the 1870s, similar amendments have been proposed 26 times – and have all been defeated. A recent poll taken by USA Today/CNN/Gallup indicates that only 31 percent supported this amendment and 67 percent opposed it. When Schwarzenegger’s name was added to the question, opposition fell to 58 percent. This means that even if the vote was highly publicized and that all voters knew that the first benefactor of the amendment would be Arnold Schwarzenegger, it still wouldn’t even come close to being passed by 38 states.

That’s not to say that people won’t rally around this proposal by the time it comes to a vote. Two popular and wealthy Arnold for Governor donors, Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones and Mimi Chen, have founded www.amendforarnold.com, a grassroots Web site with the goal of collecting donations and volunteers to publicize the proposed amendment. However, upon visiting the Web site, one can see the banner, “Amend for Arnold and Jen.” The latter is a reference to Jennifer Granholm, the popular Democratic governor from Michigan – unable to run for the presidency because she was born in Canada. Morgenthaler-Jones considers herself a libertarian or RINO (Republican In Name Only) and Chen is a member of the Green Party. Such bipartisan (or tripartisan) enthusiasm for this amendment could be enough to create a popular consensus by the time it is put to a vote.

Still, it’s a bad idea. George Washington warned us against foreign influence in our decision-making. With a foreign-born citizen in control, there’s no telling where his or her allegiance could lay. Arnold could be a great president, but gift-wrapping our most sacred American document and presenting it to a native and dual citizen of another country makes me uncomfortable.

Chuck Prochaska is a sophomore in LAS. His column runs Mondays. He can be reached at [email protected].