There is a story, often told, that upon exiting the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was approached by a group of citizens asking what sort of government the delegates had created. His answer was: “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Other than some territorial possessions and the very first colonies, the United States mainland has never been attacked by a foreign country. However, it was said that Rome was not conquered from the outside but rotted from within. Eight detrimental blows contributed to the fall of Rome with three of them self-inflicted: Government corruption, overspending and uncontrolled immigration. If we couple these with the lack of self-discipline, greed, break down of the family structure, loss of morality and the United States will do to its self what no foreign invader is capable of.
Currently the U.S. House of Representatives has 24 members that were not born in this country, (21 Democrats and three Republicans
The U.S Senate has five members that were born in countries other than the United States, (4 Democrat and 1 Republican).
A total of 37,536 Islamic immigrants were brought into the United States at the very end of the Obama Administration, (Oct. 2016). This represented 50% of that entire year’s immigrants.
Congressional Reps.s Rashida Tlaib, and Ilhan Omar both used Qurans during their ceremonial swearings-in on Jan. 3, 2019. Afterall, our Constitution guarantees “Freedom of Religion.”
Both the president and the vice president are required, by law, to be native born Americans. However, no further requirements to be native born are placed on any other member of Congress. The Constitution requires that members of the House be at least 25 years old, have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and live in the state they represent (though not necessarily the same district).
Article II: “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.”
And, as our Constitution states: The Presidential Succession Act sets the order by which government officials would ascend to the presidency. If the vice president is unable or ineligible to serve, then the speaker of the House would become president. If both the speaker and vice president were unable to do so, then the president of the Senate pro tempore would take the top job.
If all three were unable to do so, then the succession would move down the following list: Secretary of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of defense, attorney general, secretary of the interior, secretary of agriculture, secretary of commerce, secretary of labor, secretary of health and human services, secretary of housing and urban development, secretary of transportation, secretary of energy, secretary of education, secretary of veterans affairs, secretary of homeland security.
So, all of these cabinet positions are in the presidential line of succession, and some of the office holders have been, in fact, ineligible to serve as president. President George W. Bush’s secretary of labor, Elaine Chao, was born in Asia. Madeleine Albright, who served as secretary of state under President Bill Clinton, was born in Czechoslovakia. Both women could not have ascended to the presidency had they been called upon to do so.
My question is, how were these two people even elected when they were not able to fulfill the job’s basic requirements? And why are some voters demanding term limits for elected officials when they don’t know anything about the candidate except their name and if they’re good looking or not?
Quite frankly, most voters spend more time researching a new flat-screen TV than they do those that run their country. Corruption will destroy a business, an organization or even a country — but what apathy builds is ignorance.
Mark Schenck is a member and former chairman of the Scotland County Republican Party.
