Forum Post: What makes a person a U.S. citizen?
Posted 9 years ago on Sept. 4, 2015, 9:06 p.m. EST by grapes
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Is a native-born Puerto Rican a U.S. citizen or just a U.S. national without voting rights because Puerto Rico is not a U.S. state?
If one pays taxes to the U.S. government, does that make one a U.S. citizen?
If one swears to uphold the U.S. Constitution, does that suffice to make one a U.S. citizen?
Are there "alien races?" Are there native races? What makes them so?
A Puerto Rican, an American Samoan, or one born on Guam are all U.S. subjects, quasi-citizens of the U.S. with abridged citizenship rights.
Paying taxes to the U.S. government does not make one a U.S. citizen. Non-U.S. citizens pay U.S. taxes just the same when they are subject to U.S. laws. An exception is if they are favored by the foreign tax credit provision for taxes paid to foreign governments, especially the Saudi Arabian government (which got money funneled through to it by imposing an income tax on U.S. oil companies operating in Saudi Arabia), as instituted and intended to make U.S. oil companies whole by our government. Tax form 1116 was where the credit could be claimed. It was simplified to handle the increasing number of U.S. citizens who had global investment interests and dividends, even in countries under U.S. sanctions.
Swearing to uphold the U.S. Constitution does not suffice to make one a U.S. citizen but it is a necessary requirement.
There are "alien races." There are also native races. Alien races cut into lines (perhaps lines do not exist on alien worlds) and when confronted claim that they pay taxes to the U.S. government. They operate on their own dilated time. Expect punctuality only from Earth-based wealthier, orderlier, native races.
This is why there exists a certain rate limit to how many aliens the U.S. can accrete in a year - there exists an alien drag causing frictions and collisions. For an efficient, orderly, and wealthy (coming from punctuality - London has its Big Ben, Zürich has its clock towers, Germany has its anal-retentive rites of adherence to rules/regulations and order, the U.S. has its NIST atomic clocks) society, limit entropy.
Law and the equal application thereof.
There is no defensible reason why individuals born in the United States Territories do not have the full rights of citizenship!
Only states' citizens have full rights under the U.S. Constitution. It was because the states had been sovereign even before the Constitution was written. It is not just the U.S. territories which do not have full citizenship rights for the people born in them. The ones born in Washington D.C. cannot vote in the federal elections, either, if they continue to live there.
States gave birth to the Union, not the other way around. That is just historical fact which also accounted for the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.
So being exclusionary is part of being a citizen of the USA in early founding? Why didn't it stop at the thirteen colonies?
Yes, being a U.S. citizen was and still is exclusionary because it means nothing otherwise. There was "Manifest Destiny" so it didn't stop at the thirteen original states. Do you remember the "from sea to shining sea" ethos that seemed to have existed in every American's mind?
I think that Puerto Ricans' representatives voted before not to become a state of the U.S.A. so there might be reasons why not being a state was desirable. There were unsuccessful attempts to break away from the U.S. to become independent. One desirable reason not being a state might be the ability to avoid being drafted although I am not sure of this. It is somewhat of a moot advantage because the U.S. abolished the national draft in the 1970s and now has an all-volunteer military force.
Sea to shining sea.
See - that always seemed so "inclusionary" to me.
A nation formed from peoples from around the world who fled from unjust persecution - to find and participate in a world that was accepting of them and of others who were persecuted for "no good reason" from where they fled from. To pursue their dreams of equality and health and prosperity - without prejudice.
It sounds "inclusionary" all right but if you really think about it, it is actually exclusionary. The U.S. pretty much stopped annexing states once it has fulfilled its "from sea to shining sea" Manifest Destiny. It has excluded the annexation of "Old World" states.
Aside from Alaska which was a purchase from Russia and Hawaii which was an overthrown queendom later deciding to join, there was no additional state joining the U.S.A. since its "Manifest Destiny" to become a New World continental power had been fulfilled.
The Old World was spared the annexation drive of the U.S. so it was probably a good thing. I really think there would be an extremely ugly mess if the U.S. should try to annex China as a U.S. state. However, should the Chinese people ever decide to overthrow China and ask to join the U.S.A. as a state, the U.S. may reconsider because that was how Texas and Hawaii became states of the U.S.
I strongly doubt this scenario though because China probably still counts as an "Old World" state in most Americans' minds. I, for one, like the moat of the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, and the Southern Ocean. It protects us from the reaches of kings, queens, lords, ladies, nobles, hereditary dynasties of oppressors, diseases, squalors, iniquities, etc.
To all who yearn to breathe free and threw off the yokes of oppression of the Old World, "This land was made for you and me!" - Welcome!