Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

One of the odd features of our politics is that the best way to show that you are “doing something” is to engage in some meaningless gesture that attacks a problem that doesn’t exist.

I remember several years ago when Rep. Jim Kolbe, who at the time had already served more than half a dozen terms in congress, introduced a bill requiring a four-term limit for US House members. Never mind that he didn’t seem to think that he was part of the problem, or that such a bill would never seriously be considered. The local media all dutifully reported Kolbe’s “actions.” I remember watching the morning news on KVOA, and seeing weatherman Jimmy Stewart say, “About time someone does something…”

In 1994, Rep. Jon Kyl, who was then a Senate candidate, declared that he would introduce a bill to make election day the same as tax filing day. He claimed it would be so people would think about their taxes when they vote. He got a good press release out of it, but the bill has still remained unintroduced*. I know, he’s working on it, these things take time.

Our latest example is Rep. J. D. Hayworth’s Hayworth Enforcement First Act (I always make sure to enforce my Hayworths first, especially Rita). Buried in this bill is a provision to punish activities such as voting in a foreign election or serving in a foreign army with a $10,000 fine.

I say buried, but Hayworth seems to be mighty proud of this provision. He’s put out a press release on this topic. The only trouble is, how in the world is this supposed to stop the tide of illegal immigration? If someone is a dual citizen, that means that they are, well, a citizen. That means that they are legally here, J. D.

Like many half baked pieces of “I’m doing something” legislation, this one has all sorts of unintended consequences. The population that I’m assuming it is supposed to go after is Mexican-Americans. I have been unable to find any statistics on the number of dual citizens, only a single right wing editorial that said that there are “millions” of Mexican-American dual citizens. I find this unlikely, since Mexican dual citizenship has only been possible since 1998. There may be immigrants who have arrived since then who have not renounced their citizenship, but this can be a complicated process. Countries have been reluctant to easilly give up their citizens to another country.

So, which dual-citizens are going to be gone after? As I said before, statistics on this are hard to come by, so I have to go anecdotal on you. Among the people I’ve met, the most common “dual citizenships” have been Irish and Israeli. Ireland has some very liberal rules on dual citizenship, and many Irish-Americans go for dual citizenship out of pride and to make travel a bit easier. Israeli dual citizenship is a smiliar matter. Because of the “right of return” in the Israeli constitution, just about anyone of Jewish extraction is a possible “dual citizen.” This became a problem a few years ago in the “Crazy Eddie” case, where a man wanted for tax evasion was able to claim asylum as an Israeli citizen. There are important historical reasons for both of these countries’ policies. Of course, many of the people I know that are Irish or Israeli dual citizens do not vote in those countries’ elections, but is Hayworth willing to go after those who do? Naw, that’s not what he meant. Those people are whiter.

In the last round of Iraqi elections, there were significant numbers of Iraqi-Americans that voted. NPR’s Weekend Edition featured an interview with one Assyrian-American that was born here, and that had never set foot anywhere near Mesopatamia. She gladly voted in the Iraqi election, most likely encouraged and aided by our own State Department. So, Hayworth would be willing to punish people like her?

Our history is full of American adventurers fighting for foreign armies. World War II featured many such as the Flying Tigers, who flew for the Republic of China before we declared war on Japan, volunteers for the Commonwealth forces against Germany, even the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. These guys are now considered to be heroes that fought imperialism and fascism before the rest of the American public, including such “great Americans” such as Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg, thought these things were problems. Hayworth would have slapped fines on them.

This provision would probably be difficult to enforce, and probably not enforced at all. It is exactly this sort of “all for show” legislation that leaves people cynical about the whole political process.

NB - Apparently, some on the right do want to go after Iraqi-Americans that vote in Iraq. Check out this article from the conservative FrontPage Magazine.

There are some problems with Hayworth’s website (I know, tragedy). The above links to his website may not work.

CORRECTION - Who knew that Senator Kyl’s DC staff reads my humble blog? Scot Montrey, who works for the Senator, informed me that the bill has been introduced not once, but four times. Once, when he was a house member, and three times as a senator. The bill never has made it out of committee. R Cubed regrets the error.