Article II of the Constitution reads, “No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”  For more than two hundred years, this has been the defining criteria for a president.  In November, however, a Californian organization began their movement to change this clause, an organization that seeks to put current Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, an Austrian by birth, into the White House.

The ads themselves are clever, observing, “You cannot choose the land of your birth.  You can choose the land you love.”  This is certainly a true statement, but before we can amend the Constitution, we must consider the ramifications that such an amendment would have on our country.  The intent of the Founding Fathers in writing the qualifications for president as they did was a justified fear of a well-financed aristocrat from Europe descending into their new country, buying his way into the presidency, and effectively destroying the fledgling democracy in America.  These days, their fear of foreign influences on the government have essentially become a reality, and therefore a moot point – remember European billionaire George Soros’ multi-million dollar effort to influence the presidential elections against President Bush or the Chinese donations to Clinton and Gore’s run for office?  The aristocrats and wealthy foreigners are here, so apparently the Founders’ intentions were valid.  In our current culture, though, the influence of outsiders is not generally appreciated nor accepted by real Americans.

In principle, I agree with the amendment’s concept.  A person is not able to choose where they are born, and if the bulk of their lives – especially their formative years – are lived in the United States as citizens, then they should be granted the same rights and privileges that any other person in this country has access to.  It amounts to a degree of discrimination to suggest that some Americans can be president and others cannot – even if there has yet to be anything but white men as the occupiers of the Oval Office.  The opportunity still exists for a President Condoleezza Rice or President Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Constitution could certainly be amended to allow non-natural born citizens the opportunity and eligibility to run for president, but the amendment must be written in such a way so as to not be unfair to the natural born citizens.  Most of the current amendment proposals do not do that.  The most popular and widely known amendment proposal requires a twenty year period of citizenship, but that is inherently unfair to the citizens who were born here who must nonetheless wait thirty-five years before being able to run.

If the proposed amendment were to be equitably applied, then a student fresh out of high school should be nearly of age to run for the presidency.  You can’t say that some people have to be thirty-five years a citizen and others have to be twenty years a citizen.  That’s unfair and not what the Founders intended.

My proposal is far simpler.  Rewrite Article II so that it instead reads, “To be eligible to the Office of President, one must have been a Citizen of the United States for a period of not less than thirty-five years, and been twenty years a Resident within the United States.”

Now, whether that citizenship clock begins as you exit your mother’s womb or when you take the oath of citizenship before a judge makes no difference towards your eligibility.  Everyone has a chance to be president if they have the drive, ambition, and means.  By adopting an amendment such as this, everyone is granted the opportunity to achieve the promise America offers, without showing favoritism or preference to any one group.  It is an unfortunate reality of life that some people fare better as a result of their birth, but they should not be held to a greater or lesser standard because of it.

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