Last July, when Arnold Schwarzenegger was considering whether to run for the California governership, Senator Orrin Hatch proposed an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years to run for President. Senator Kerry countered with his own proposed amendment that any Senator whose last name rhymes with 'patch' is a weenie.
Update: I thought of deleting this post, but I figured I'll just let my dumb-ass comments stay up. I assumed Hatch wanted to rewrite the Constitution just so Schwarzenegger 2008 would be a possibility. Even if this is his motivation, I'm starting to think an amendment like this is a good idea.
At first, I had a xenophobic reaction to the concept of a "foreigner" running the U.S.: "That would threaten the security of the country!" But how? If a secret Soviet agent named Alexi Brusnekv, cryogenically frozen for the past 20 years, runs for President and poisons our water with a mind-control substance that causes us to vote for him? We won't even vote for anyone who isn't a white, male, tall, decent-looking Protestant from an upper class family with a friendly first name. What's Al Queda going to do, send over Akbar Al-Hummas with $1,000, a pack of "Honk If You Love Hummas" bumper stickers, and an application for public financing and instruct him to infiltrate us from the inside?
This issue is more symbolic than anything, but if gathers momentum, I would probably support it. We will get few opportunities as painless as this one to nudge this country closer to the ideals many of us value.
Also, my Mom would make a great President.
(The Washington Post has a good editorial on this issue, which influenced my thinking a lot.)
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