Red and Dead: An Originalist Approach to the Twenty-Third Amendment

Now that  the Democrats have revived the originalist, "dead constitution" understanding of the electoral college, I think it is time to animate the "dead constitution" understanding of the Twenty-third Amendment.

That amendment, you will recall, is what gives DC electors -- three, as it happens.  But note the first few words of section 1:  "The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct..."  As with the other electors, nothing in the amendment requires that those electors be selected on the basis of popular vote.  To quote Bush v. Gore, "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States."

By Article I, Section 8, clause 17, Congress is "to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever" over the District.   Just as state legislatures have the power to enact or abolish the popular vote for the electors, Congress is perfectly within its rights to abolish the popular vote for electors in DC.  Congress could choose some other method for the District to select its electors, or could choose the electors by name and order the District to appoint them.

A sufficient Republican majority in both houses of Congress, and those three votes go red.  Drain that swamp!

{Alexander Hamilton wanted John Jay to do something similar with regard to the New York electoral college for 1800, so the DC 3 chosen by Congress would have a better right than anybody to call themselves "Hamilton Electors."}

Most Great to Them that Know

In my latest at American Greatness, I use a celebrated English hymn, "I Vow to Thee My Country," to examine the questions surrounding the "dual citizenship" of Christians (between the City of God and the City of Man), from my peculiar situation as a Jew who has triple citizenship—in Canada, America, and Israel.

Life imitating Art, or at least Tom Clancy.

One guide to understanding the Trump Presidency, Tom Clancy's novel of a non-politician president, Executive Orders (1996).
What happens if we actually have a president who rejects the shibboleths of the Beltway in favor of median-voter positions on abortion, Taiwan, etc.?
And see how he copes with an Iran empowered by Iraq's destruction after the death of Saddam Hussein.
In the sequel, The Bear and the Dragon (2000), the non-Politician President, newly returned to office, has to deal with a China that resorts to war to cope with a rapid decline in exports.

Ten things Jews don't get about Gentiles

10.   Kabbalah Center:  you want to stay a goy, great.  You want to convert to Judaism, well…  But the Kabbalah Center?  Really?  Mormonism at least has magic underwear.

9.  Bacon, ok.  But Canadian bacon?

8.  What do you do with all the time you don’t use for reading?

7.  What is that thing with your car?  What, are they going to bury you in it?

6.  People who retire, have money, and still stay in the Midwest.

5.  Why would a non-Palestinian gentile be passionate about Israel, for or against?  I haven’t met a Jew who is passionate about Tonga.

4.  Our sons have their first alcoholic beverage at age 8 days.  And you expect yours to wait until he is 21?

3.  Hunting:  you wander around in the cold and wet from morning to night, and if, you are very skilled and lucky, you wind up with an animal that you have to butcher that is full of metal.  Easier to stand in line at Zabar’s.

2.  If you have something to say, interrupt, dammit!

1.  You actually want to convert to Judaism?

The Great "Racism" Circle Dance

You told us Ronald Reagan was a racist, because he appointed racists like Jeff Sessions (who sent a Klansman to death row and desegregated the schools in Alabama).

Then you told us that George H. W. Bush was a racist.
Then you told us that Bob Dole was a racist.
Then you told us that George W. Bush was a racist.
Then you told us that John McCain was a racist.
Then you told us that Mitt Romney was a racist.

Then you told us that Donald Trump was REALLY a racist, that this time you really meant it, unlike all those other times when you were just crying wolf.  And this time you could prove it, because he appointed racists like Jeff Sessions (re-elected in 2014 with 97% of the vote, in a state that is 27% African American).

Then you wonder why we have tuned you out.

Making Josephus Great Again!

I make the Jewish historian, priest, rebel, and traitor Josephus great again, in this interview with Nehemiah Gordon.

Civil Rights Amendment XXVIII (proposed)

Civil Rights Amendment XXVIII (proposed)

Section 1.  The first section of the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.

Section 2.  All persons born in the United States, and having at least one parent who is a citizen of the United States or a lawful permanent resident, as well as all persons naturalized in the United States, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Section 3.  No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.  

Section 4.  Each State shall have the power to examine the qualification to citizenship of any person, provided it does so in conformity with the laws of the United States and this Constitution.

Section 5.  Only a citizen of the United States shall have the right to vote in any election or vote on legally binding measures held under the authority of the United States or any State, territory, or federal District.

Section 6. Congress shall have the power to determine by law a form of identification to be required of each voter in any election or vote on legally binding measures held under the authority of the United States or any State, territory, or federal District. Section 7. The United States shall guarantee to each state, on the petition of the executive thereof, the exclusion of such persons as are not lawfully present in the United States.
Section 8. A naturalized citizen, who has been resident in the United States or held civil or military office under the United States for a total of seventeen years, shall have all the rights of a natural born citizen including the right to be elected and to serve as President or Vice President.

Section 9.  Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

{Thoughts, critiques, and drafting suggestions welcomed in the comments below. --MSK}