Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

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Alyeska
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by Alyeska »

Eternal_Freedom wrote:Ah, because obviously the individual can't be allowed to decide things (sarcasm...or is it?)
Being delberately dense? US citizens can renounce their citizenship. But the US government will not accept coerced renouncements. The US government considers dual citizenship and renouncements to be two different issues. A US citizen will never be forced to give up their US citizenship just because another country requires an oath of renouncement.
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by Mr Bean »

Eternal_Freedom wrote:Ah, because obviously the individual can't be allowed to decide things (sarcasm...or is it?)
Exactly (No sarcasm) I don't see why any individual would want to give up being part of the Greatest and Best Country on the Planet (tm) Shawn Hannity) Besides to be American you need only pass one of two tests, one involving basic history questions you could cram for in an afternoon and living here for over seven years the other by being born here. A test so difficult I remind you that tens of thousands of new born babies fail it every single day.

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Eternal_Freedom
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by Eternal_Freedom »

Alyeska wrote:
Eternal_Freedom wrote:Ah, because obviously the individual can't be allowed to decide things (sarcasm...or is it?)
Being delberately dense? US citizens can renounce their citizenship. But the US government will not accept coerced renouncements. The US government considers dual citizenship and renouncements to be two different issues. A US citizen will never be forced to give up their US citizenship just because another country requires an oath of renouncement.
Ah, I see. I thought that this meant taking any other citizenship oath wouldn't be seen as binding, rather than only those that require you to renounce other nationalities. My mistake.
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Dalton wrote:Apparently she's not going through with it now.
After getting skewered for it:
Bachmann blasted by right blogs
By: Tim Mak
May 11, 2012 12:10 PM EDT

Rep. Michele Bachmann insisted Thursday she’s withdrawing her Swiss citizenship to “make it perfectly clear” that she’s a “proud American citizen,” but intense criticism from the right may have forced her decision.

The news that the Minnesota Republican became a Swiss citizen on March 19 was greeted poorly by conservative blogs — which normally argue in her favor — as writers called her dual citizenship “treason,” “career-ending” and an “insult."

A former Bachmann congressional staffer told POLITICO that the congresswoman sometimes acts “impulsively” and suggests that she must have registered for citizenship without considering all consequences.

“She didn’t think there was anything wrong with holding or applying for Swiss citizenship while serving as a member of the U.S. Congress. She didn’t think it might be perceived as a conflict of interest as a candidate for president or for reelection to her House seat,” said the staffer. “But one might think she’d be better served to focus first on her constituents in Minnesota and then on her fellow citizens in Switzerland.”

Mark Krikorian, an influential anti-immigration writer who contributes to the National Review and heads the Center for Immigration Studies, led the charge in the blogosphere with three articles in two days about how Bachmann’s dual citizenship was wrong.

“This is outrageous and she needs to hear about it… Dual citizenship isn’t simply a matter of convenience, a way to make travel easier or a sentimental tie to the Auld Sod,” argued Krikorian. “It’s an insult to both countries.”

Elsewhere, the criticism was even fiercer.

“Dual Citizenship Is Treason,” blared a headline at the Daily Paul, a website “inspired by” Ron Paul.

“I am against dual citizenship of any kind. When you benefit from the blood spilled by patriots in the past, the least which can be requested of you is undivided allegiance. The United States is not like any other country… For most of the country’s history, dual citizenship was considered the equivalent of political bigamy,” wrote a blogger there.

“Just when you think it’s safe to vote for a Republican, along comes Michele Bachmann… with what should be a career-ending piece of news, at least on the national level,” remarked Michael Walsh at National Review’s The Corner. “Good grief.”

“How she thinks that she can sit in the US Congress of the United States after swearing allegiance to the country of Switzerland is beyond my comprehension,” wrote conservative blogger Lori Stacy on Examiner.com. “Michele Bachmann needs to step down immediately and apologize profusely to all of our citizens and especially the residents of her district in Minnesota for carrying on this egregious offense of representing them since March 19th after becoming a citizen of a different country.”

Indeed, the entire “Swiss miss” flap — lasting all of two and a half days — appears to illustrate the emerging influence of blogs.

“This would seem easily fixable by writing to the Swiss foreign ministry politely asking that they not consider her a Swiss citizen,” wrote Kirkorian in another post on Thursday morning, detailing a phone conversation he had had with Bachmann.

That day, that’s exactly what she did.
It's all very amusing, the breathless denouncement and screeching of treason (I wonder if conservatives who might be dual citizens of Israel would be subject to the same vitriol). Why this woman ever thought for a moment that this was a smart move...
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by Questor »

Eternal_Freedom wrote:
Alyeska wrote:
Eternal_Freedom wrote:Ah, because obviously the individual can't be allowed to decide things (sarcasm...or is it?)
Being delberately dense? US citizens can renounce their citizenship. But the US government will not accept coerced renouncements. The US government considers dual citizenship and renouncements to be two different issues. A US citizen will never be forced to give up their US citizenship just because another country requires an oath of renouncement.
Ah, I see. I thought that this meant taking any other citizenship oath wouldn't be seen as binding, rather than only those that require you to renounce other nationalities. My mistake.
My understanding is that it doesn't even go that far. The US will consider you a citizen of that other country (as far as it cares, which is an amount measured between zero and none). It just doesn't consider the renunciation binding.

When you think about it, that makes a lot of sense. If a third party renunciation were binding, then anyone could walk up to an american embassy and say "such and such renounced his citizenship". This would result in lots of hilarity when said person tries to enter the US on an invalid passport. I would think that renouncing citizenship (of any nation) should be VERY hard to do, simply because to the issues associated with statelessness.
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Re: Michele Bachmann is now a Swiss citizen

Post by Phantasee »

I think this is just her being a mother, and helping her kids out. If they want to embrace their heritage, why not? If my folks came from a country I would like to be a dual-citizen of, I'd go for it too. Unfortunately I'd rather walk around with a Canadian passport and tell the local government and police to bite me, but you know, if I could be Swiss, I'd probably do it too.

I wouldn't expect anyone to give my mom shit for helping me to that.
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