Steve Jackson Games Forums - Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

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Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesir23 (Post 2314020)

Considering he also had an American Mother, it would have been identical to Ted Cruz's case though, right? A Natural Born Citizen no matter where he was born.

Yeah but there the issue if he hand only been a couple years older there would have been argument of but Hawaii wasn't a state at the time.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by Varyon (Post 2313720)

I'm not clear on exactly how this would work for the children of immigrants. Do they become naturalized citizens upon their parents becoming the same, or do they have to wait until they are of legal age to become naturalized?

Children under 18 acquire US citizenship automatically (by law, without needing an application or other process) if and when:

They have legal permanent resident status ("green card")
At least one parent is a US citizen by birth or naturalization
The child is residing in the US in the legal and physical custody of a US citizen parent.

https://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship...hrough-parents

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesir23 (Post 2314020)

Considering he also had an American Mother, it would have been identical to Ted Cruz's case though, right? A Natural Born Citizen no matter where he was born.

I guess, but the issue seemed to be important to birthers at the time. But the advantage of Obama leading the campaign is he has more "authority" on the issue than Cruz, who was only an unsuccessful candidate.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

The legal definition of "natural born citizen" is whatever Congress says it is. They have the power to create or change any law they want in this matter.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanHoward (Post 2314150)

The legal definition of "natural born citizen" is whatever Congress says it is. They have the power to create or change any law they want in this matter.

Not precisely. It's more in the category of "the exact boundaries between legislative and judicial power haven't been explored". There are a fair number of examples of that in US law, because both sides are reluctant to push the issue and have it clearly established against them (the political process will generally favor the stance which makes most sense to the populace).

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by roguebfl (Post 2314037)

Yeah but there the issue if he hand only been a couple years older there would have been argument of but Hawaii wasn't a state at the time.

Obama's mother was a US citizen, born in Kansas. If I'm understanding things correctly, he would be a natural born US citizen whether he was born in a US state, a US territory (as Hawaii was until 1959), a foreign country (like Kenya or Indonesia), or anywhere else.

None of which really helps Schwarzenegger's case at all.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daigoro (Post 2314016)

Barack Obama, after finishing his second term, becomes a Constitutional-reform lobbyist, campaigning for change with various other parts of the Constitution, but in particular campaigning to remove the political weapon that his opponents tried to use against him during his candidacy. "So what if I *had* been born in Kenya - such things shouldn't matter in this day."

I like it.

At the very least, he should have publicly supported the Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment, which would have been passed in Congress during his second term as President.

Now, in the real world, I doubt very much that he would have, but in this one, alt-Schwarzenegger is extremely persuasive on a personal level. Without anything so overt as Mind Control, very high Reaction modifiers caused by Alien Space Bats boosting Schwarzenegger's Charisma and talents for politics* mean that there's a pretty good chance for him to convince anyone who isn't fanatically opposed to the idea that such a constitutional amendment is a worthy cause.

If we imagine that a bipartisan amendment was passed sometime between 2013-2016, who in Congress might have been particularly visible supporters?

I want to imagine John McCain being someone who was willing to cross party lines for something he believed in and I can see him being convinced by idealogical arguments advanced by alt-Schwarzenegger in private on this, using Diplomacy 18+ and Charisma 4+.

Who else?

*I'm assuming that real-world Schwarzenegger has Charisma around 2, as he has made several successful careers out of, essentially, people liking him. He also has Politics skill at a professional level in the real world and in the setting, by 2015 he was approaching master levels and at the end of 2018 has generational Politics and Public Speaking skills.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesir23 (Post 2314158)

Citizenship has always been messily defined pretty much everywhere. There have been people born to US Citizen parents who have been found not to be citizens in actual court cases. Most of those loopholes have been closed since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the 1948 UN treaty that asserts everyone has a right to a nationality - but it wouldn't surprise me if there are some left, and most presidential candidates are still people born before 1948. Exactly what constitutes "natural born" has apparently never actually been seriously tested in court.

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Just a small question, but if Alternate Schwarzenegger is so much of a powerhouse he can make Democrats and Republicans work together, why didn't he win the presidency in 2016?

Re: Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

Quote:

Originally Posted by TGLS (Post 2314179)

Just a small question, but if Alternate Schwarzenegger is so much of a powerhouse he can make Democrats and Republicans work together, why didn't he win the presidency in 2016?

Perhaps because he wasn’t eligible to be elected, and therefore didn’t run for the nomination.