It's simple. I was taught in elementary school that unless you were born on a military base, or when parents were abroad on, say, vacation, if you weren't born on US soil, you're not a naturalized citizen. It's how I was led to understand it through all 18 years of formal education I've been through, including pursuing a history degree.
And honest to God, until a few weeks ago, I never even realized that was a topic up for debate.
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See, this post is evidence enough that you've just been disregarding what I've been saying and assuming I'm saying something else.
"Natural born citizen" is undefined in the constitution. There is no definition what you leaned in school was subject to whatever interpretation was bestowed upon you. But there's nothing that details whether or not being born in the United States is a requisite for being a naturally born citizen. The only thing the constitution says is basically "if you're naturally born after we make this constitution, or if you were made a citizen upon the establishment of this constitution." Zero definition. Break that down mathematically, or logically... it's a system of infinite linear combinations. Without understanding the initial conditions, you won't know the real equation. It's up to us to define "naturally born" citizen, not to simply determine what was meant by it. If you determine what was meant by it, you are effectively guessing.
So, to date, the only people that have otherwise thought someone wasn't naturally born a citizen if they weren't born on the mainland have only been doing so as per an agenda. Two notable examples: Obama and Cruz.
So yes, if a democrat accuses Cruz of not being eligible, they're taking the same stance that birthers took. It's not defined, at all. And under the assumption that someone *could've* been president (say, if Obama was actually born in Kenya, or if Cruz were to be elected) sort of leaves the status quo of inclusiveness of "citizen at birth" to be included within "naturally born."
It's like, again, the idea of gay marriage. Nothing at the moment says two gay people *can* get married. There's just nothing saying they *cant* anymore. So, it's not directly protected, but indirectly by civil rights. It needs to be directly protected in order to chalk it down as affirmative. That fight, unfortunately, is not over yet.
Nothing says Ted Cruz *cant* run right now. It's undefined. There needs to be an actual definition of naturally born citizen that discludes those born aboard before you can declare him ineligible.