You Can't Possibly Meme That! (VI)

Trump's immigration plan is to deport 11 million or more people then let "some,...the good ones" come right back in.  Maybe the good ones are the ones working for Trump.  Who knows. 

Ben Carson: Rent-seeking Scam Artist.

Between the obvious rent-seeking, incompetence, lack of actual campaigning, and lack of command of pretty much every political issue while continuing to run for office where exactly is Ben Carson's much touted integrity and character? He has also developed a issue with blaming others for his own incompetence.  After blaming Ted Cruz for passing on a CNN report indicating that Carson had suspended his campaign, Carson is now blaming staff for his "campaign" being nearly out of money.  

For those unaware, Carson's "campaign" has raised tons of money and poured almost all of it back into additional fundraising.  Serious candidates do not do that because they need the money for campaigning.  But for Carson, when it comes time to actually campaign, he needs time away to rest and get fresh clothes.  Basically he isn't running a campaign, he is rent-seeking.  The campaign is nothing more than a massive fundraising scheme.  The peculiar nature of his "campaign's" finances has been noted since the middle of last year (see here, here, and here). In light of that, the current "campaign" shake-up is a terribly hollow and self-serving gesture.  Carson either knew or should have known about that issue for a long time now.  Passing the buck by blaming, now former, staff is a pathetic lack of leadership.  

At this point Ben Carson needs to apologize to his supporters and suspend his "campaign."  He isn't a leader.  His lack of knowledge on pretty much every issue makes Donald Trump look like a policy wonk.  He has no chance of winning a single state or even of finishing any higher than last or next to last. The big-time party donors aren't going to bail him out as they are going to flock to Marco Rubio.  At most, some might toss him a just enough money to keep him going in hope that his continued presence helps the establishment block Ted Cruz by siphoning off enough votes to help Rubio leapfrog Cruz.  Instead of doing the right thing and bowing out, Carson intends to keep fleecing his small-time donors so he can keep his campaign/fundraiser/book tour going.  Such integrity.

"I'm a Hyphenated-Conservative"

I find it irritating when politicians, or people in general, attempt to qualify their conservatism. If you need to qualify your conservatism then you aren't a conservative. You are a moderate. Call yourself that and let labels retain their meaning.

During the Bush years it was "compassionate conservative" and also "big-government conservative." The two terms were related as the former was just an excuse for the latter. Unfortunately it implies that compassion and conservatism are incompatible.  An insulting suggestion.  As for "big-government conservative" the implied incompatibility is far more justified.  However, it would have been more honest, though much less politically viable, to just say, "Sorry, we aren't going to cut spending or reduce the size and scope of government.  Would you like two interminable wars instead?"

Now we have Trump calling himself a "common sense conservative." Setting aside the issue of how recently he might have acquired common sense or conservatism, if at all, one might wonder why he feels the two concepts are at odds.  Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk both declare that the first virtue of the statesman is prudence.  Common sense is simply inherent in conservatism.  Prudence may not be the first virtue that pops into your head when you consider Donald Trump. 

In both examples, the tacked-on qualifiers are really an attempt to justify deviations from conservative principles while continuing to solicit support from conservative folk.  It is as if to say, "I cherish the conservative label, I merely wish to abandon the principles."  Such qualifiers also demonstrate a muddled understanding of conservatism.  While part of the problem has been the neoconservative mutation of conservatism from a particular tradition into a universal ideology the unfortunate practice of hyphenating conservatism has done nothing to return conservatism to its original meaning.  Generally it has been a thin veneer to cover a leftward impulse.  Perhaps we are a few elections away from our first declared Moderate Liberal Conservative. 

You Can't Possibly Meme That! (V)

Ben Carson really needs to drop out, but he won't because his campaign is just a fundraiser.

The Most (Un)Interesting Ben Carson in the World.

You Can't Possibly Meme That! (IV)

Is it a campaign, or a fundraiser, or a book tour.  Does it know?

And no, I don't think Cruz needed to apologize for liberating a few Carson supporters.  If you are dumb enough to believe your guy dropped out without official word from his campaign then you probably shouldn't be voting anyway.  And if you think your guy would drop out without giving official word to his supporters then you clearly picked the wrong guy. 

You Can't Possibly Meme That! (III) ... more Bern

Some more Bern... 

You Can't Possibly Meme That! (II)

Feel the Bern?

Join the 80 to 100 million people who have.

Natural Born Citizen

There has been some minor controversy regarding whether or not Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen.  Objections to his natural born status center around his father being Cuban and Cruz himself being born in Canada.  That Cruz's mother was a U.S. citizen is thought insufficient to overcome these objections.  At first consideration these objections seem to carry significant weight.  First, Cruz was not born on U.S. soil and thus does not meet the traditional common law definition of natural born.  Second, his connection to the U.S. is matrilineal rather than patrilineal which again fails to meet the requirements of traditional common law citizenship.  Lastly, while Cruz did not need to be naturalized, his citizenship was obtained by statutory law rather than common law.

Fortunately for Cruz and his supporters the last part is actually not significant.  The statutory law versus common law distinction is no bar to natural born status.  A simple reading of Blackstone clears this up [see here].  Blackstone mentions a statute that included those born abroad as natural born.

To encourage also foreign commerce, it was enacted by statute 25 Edw. III. st. 2. that all children born abroad, provided both their parents were at the time of the birth in allegiance to the king, and the mother had passed the seas by her husband's consent, might inherit as if born in England.  (William Blackstone, Commentaries 1:354, 357, 358, 361, 362)

 An additional statute later amended that rule from both parents to only the father.  Here one might object:  Well, none of this helps Cruz's case; he only had one citizen parent and it wasn't his father.  This is true; however, it has been established that statutory law can confer the rights of being a natural born citizen.  U.S. statutory law also allows citizenship based on one parent, but does not require it to be patrilineal.

The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: 

 ...  

a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years. 

(8 U.S. Code § 1401 - Nationals and citizens of United States at birth)

 Thus Cruz obtains natural born status by the same means which England expanded the traditional common law requirement for citizenship: statute.