The Constitution, The News & You

Jonah Goldberg's article on constitutional amendments and citizenship rights is interesting because his opinion on whether the government should be able to take away the citizenship of anybody who is born in the United States or not seems to change throughout the article. At the beginning he makes it seem like it is ridiculous to think that we have the right to change what has been written in the constitution for so many years and has worked for Americans for so many years and turn it into something else. In the middle of the article he states that it makes sense that "liberal devotees"argue that "The Founding Fathers never envisioned a world with jet planes, split atoms, stem-cell therapies, one-click porn, or MTV’s Jersey Shore." In the end he finalizes his article saying if citizens of the United States were to vote for the right to take away the citizenship of just anyone who is born in this country then maybe that is the way it should be. He mentioned that things have changed a lot since the constitution was written and people are not trying to change the constitution in a negative way that will reflect badly on the founding fathers. He mentioned that he "trusts the American people to change the Constitution when necessary (after lengthy debate) more than he trusts five out of nine unelected justices with lifetime tenure, hiding behind closed doors and away from TV cameras."

This article did not focus on the 14th amendment (citizenship rights) as much as I thought it would, but I thought it brought up some interesting points. He argued both sides of the topic which was whether or not the government should have the right to take away someones citizenship. This article was interesting to me because he seemed to have the same views as me in the beginning of the article, and though he never mentioned that he believed that the government should have the rights to take away my citizenship, he did mansion that he agreed with the decision that America made in the end, which would most likely be to take away my citizenship and get my family kicked out of this country if the economy does not improve over the next couple of years.