Political Discussion and Commentary
A place to discuss politics and offer political commentary. Self posts are preferred, but links to current events and news are allowed. Opinion pieces are welcome on a case by case basis, and discussion of and disagreement about issues is encouraged!
The intent is for this community to be an area for open & respectful discussion on current political issues, news & events, and that means we all have a responsibility to be open, honest, and sincere. We place as much emphasis on good content as good behavior, but the latter is more important if we want to ensure this community remains healthy and vibrant.
Content Rules:
- Self posts preferred.
- Opinion pieces and editorials are allowed on a case by case basis.
- No spam or self promotion.
- Do not post grievances about other communities or their moderators.
Commentary Rules
- Don’t be a jerk or do anything to prevent honest discussion.
- Stay on topic.
- Don’t criticize the person, criticize the argument.
- Provide credible sources whenever possible.
- Report bad behavior, please don’t retaliate. Reciprocal bad behavior will reflect poorly on both parties.
- Seek rule enforcement clarification via private message, not in comment threads.
- Abide by Lemmy's terms of service (attacks on other users, privacy, discrimination, etc).
Please try to up/downvote based on contribution to discussion, not on whether you agree or disagree with the commenter.
Partnered Communities:
• Politics
• Science
view the rest of the comments
Jus soli citizenship is mostly an issue because it allows people who have no ties to the country they're in to have a child who is a citizen of that country on the basis of having been born in that country. 33 countries have jus soli citizenship, and of those, 31 are located in the Americas. Much of the rest of the world employs the alternative to jus soli, jus sanguinis, or birthright by descent.
America has both, actually. If your parents are American citizens, then no matter where in the world you're born, you're an American citizen. This was the original system, with our jus soli system coming into play after our Civil War. Before, we excluded the Africans we brought over as slaves from citizenship. When the government said enough of that, the southeastern part of the current nation (and the entire southern part of the country at that time) fought a war to preserve slavery, and tore the country apart for 4 years. In the end, the Southerners were defeated on the battlefield, but it wasn't clear they would submit completely (and frankly, it is still not clear they will submit to this day!) so the northern victors amended our constitution with a new set of guidelines on what being an American meant and specific instructions on how an American is made: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." This was designed to keep the slave states from dicking over their new free Blacks by trying to declare they weren't citizens. This amendment makes clear that not only are they citizens, everyone is entitled to the same rights. This was a major bone of contention, and Southerners have had long-standing beef with it, but weren't in a position to do anything about it considering they lost a war over it.
If you haven't noticed, America has an awful lot of very awful people, who have managed to get one of their own elected. They want to relitigate the Civil War and have been playing the long game in regards to that war and the relitigation. They want to renounce jus soli citizenship so they can 'deport' the American citizens born from non-citizen parents. While there is some justification in discussing birth tourism, the goal isn't to prevent non-Americans from having American babies. The goal is to oppress and re-enslave 'inferior' races. These are the kind of people who will gladly try to strip citizenship from Blacks, because it has been their goal since 1865, when they lost the Civil War.
Plenty of other countries have it and almost all of them are in the "New World". Jus soli was just another way of motivating people to migrate and integrate to the "New World".
New World?
The Americas. Europe, Africa and Asia are the "Old World".
So, I'm gathering the issue with jus soli is basically racism, correct? And the goal is to reintroduce jus sanguinis then strip the right of those who "weren't supposed to have been citizens in the first place"?
That's my take, at least. Jus Soli was implemented in the USA because Jus Sanguinis was going to be the racists' next tool to shit on Blacks, who were seen as animals to be used up and then discarded. We did a shit job of stopping this with Reconstruction, so here we are. We'll need to take the gloves off for these people, and punch them in the face (figuratively at least) until they get the idea that it's not cool to treat other people like shit.