How Trumpism Betrays the Declaration of Independence

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/how-trumpism-betrays-the-declaration-of-independence

THIS WEEK’S SUPREME COURT RULING in the birthright citizenship case served a major blow to the Trump administration’s most overtly unconstitutional nativist effort. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, made his case using expansive, high-minded language affirming the Declaration of Independence and its promise—just days before we celebrate the 250th anniversary of that founding document.

“Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights—to freely participate in our political community,” Roberts wrote. “The Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land.’ . . . We keep that promise today.”

But for those of us fearing for America’s soul, Tuesday’s decision offers small consolation. The notion that birthright citizenship might be disputed in American law was a decidedly fringe position as recently as a decade ago. The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to formerly enslaved black Americans and all born on American soil, overriding the Supreme Court’s 1857 holding in Dred Scott. Relitigating birthright citizenship meant dredging up this sordid history—and although the high court ultimately ruled against the Trump administration, it is appalling that the matter got as far as it did.

Trump’s opposition to birthright citizenship is just one part of a much larger campaign. He and other MAGA leaders have explicitly defended nativism, rejecting the understanding of Americans as people bound together by the shared beliefs about freedom and human equality spelled out in the Declaration. Nativism unites the MAGA coalition and fuels the Trump administration’s immigration policy, foreign policy, social policy, and economic policy. And it has powerful intellectual supporters who are wedded to a vision of America that turns its back on its highest ideals and principles.

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