LETTER: Being a U.S. citizen is a privilege
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part series by Jason Moore. See next Sunday’s Odessa American for the second installment. Moore’s radio show runs Monday through Friday 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. on KWEL-AM 1070.
It has occurred to me recently that as we all begin to reintroduce ourselves to the Founders that the language has changed over the centuries. I believe it is important that when talking about the Founders ideas we define the terms according to their definitions. I believe Americans must work together to change the discussion from “immigration” to “naturalization” because the Founders had a clear understanding of the preservation of our exceptional form of American government.
The reality is that most Americans don’t fear people of different races or ethnicities; they fear losing the American form of a Constitutional Republican government. Those coming here are not leaving behind their affection for these fascist, socialist dictatorships because that is all they have ever known. Our Constitution states that Congress is responsible for establishing a uniform system of naturalization. Simply put, naturalization is the process of coming to America, leaving behind the form of government of their “homeland” and then lastly, processing, learning/understanding and embracing the beauty of the American form of government. It is the literal changing of the mind and heart to a different and better way of life. This then allows for a theoretical unity of purpose of the American people. The basics are that they recognize their rights come from God and are inalienable and secondly the purpose of government is to protect and secure those rights. Immigration is simply the act of moving from one place on the earth to another with no change of loyalty or mindset.
President Benjamin Harrison said this in his inaugural address in 1889:
Our naturalization laws should be so amended as to make the inquiry into the character and good disposition of persons applying for citizenship more careful and searching. Our existing laws have been in their administration an unimpressive and often an unintelligible form. We accept the man as a citizen without any knowledge of his fitness, and he assumes the duties of citizenship without any knowledge as to what they are. The privileges of American citizenship are so great and its duties so grave that we may well insist upon a good knowledge of every person applying for citizenship and a good knowledge by him of our institutions. We should not cease to be hospitable to immigration, but we should cease to be careless as to the character of it. There are men of all races, even the best, whose coming is necessarily a burden upon our public revenues or a threat to social order. These should be identified and excluded.
Wow, so we should make an inquiry into the character of those coming in to our country? “The privileges of American citizenship are so great” is an interesting phrase because it has the connotation that it is a privilege to be an American and with that comes great responsibilities. What is it that we Americans fear from the people who are encouraging a flood of people from foreign nations to pour into our country? I submit to you that it is the encouragement of a radical departure from our Constitutional form of government, which our Founders saw as the literal foundation of PROTECTION of our “self evident God-given rights.” It is the wave of socialist dictatorship philosophies represented by those who use illegal aliens as pawns in their attempt to transform America from a Constitutional Republic to another failed socialist “utopia”. Our borders are the gateway to our American soul. Article. IV. Section. 4 of our Constitution states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion…”
Essentially the theme you will find in the writings of previous Presidents, founders and Constitutional advocates is that the character and stability of a nation depends upon the character and stability of its people. The lack of control of the border is a symptom of the problem not the main problem. We must never forget that American Exceptionalism is real and makes us unique of all the nations of the earth. Make no mistake; there is a large segment of people on this planet that want to see America brought down to the level of other unstable “mobacracies”. They want to see our unique beacon of freedom extinguished so that we no longer entice “their people” to seek freedom in America.
Recently there have new incidences of physical conflict between people who, in the course of advocating their positions, have waved Mexican and American flags at each other.
Remember, flags have always been a symbol of ownership of a territory. Is it any wonder that when we Americans see a group of people who are obviously partaking of the fruits of American freedom waving the flag of a foreign country, which is antithetical to all of the freedoms they enjoy, we become gravely concerned about our future as a Constitution based government? Thomas Jefferson said in the Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 8 (1787):
Civil government being the sole object of forming societies, its administration must be conducted by common consent. Every species of government has its specific principles. Ours perhaps are more peculiar than any other. It is a composition of the freest principles of the English constitution, with others derived from natural right and reason. To these nothing can be more opposed than the maxims of absolute monarchies.
“Yet, from such, we are to expect the greatest number of emigrants. They will bring with them the principles of the governments they leave, imbibed in their early youth; or, if able to throw them off, it will be in exchange for an unbounded licentiousness, passing, as is usual, from one extreme to another. It would be a miracle were they to stop precisely at the point of temperate liberty.”
These principles, with their language, they will transmit to their children … Suppose 20 millions of Republican Americans thrown all of a sudden into France, what would be the condition of that kingdom?
If it would be more turbulent, less happy, less strong, we may believe that the addition of half a million of foreigners to our present numbers would produce a similar effect here.
Jason Moore is an Odessa businessman, radio talk show host and State Republican Executive Committeeman for Senate District 31.
