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Beck attacks 14th Amendment, complete with picture of man, baby in sombreros

September 23, 2009 2:51 pm ET by Media Matters staff

From Arguing with Idiots, Chapter 12 "The U.S. Constitution: Lost in translation":

beck

Fourteenth Amendment

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Perhaps no amendment has been twisted and turned as much as this one. The "birthright citizenship clause" was originally meant to ensure that children of freed slaves would be American citizens. Of course, we don't really have that problem anymore, so here's the 21st-century revision:

All persons who successfully sneak into the country will be allowed to stay indefinitely. All crimes committed by those lawbreakers (i.e., identity theft, fraud, and tax evasion) will be ignored. These non-American Americans will be afforded free health care at emergency rooms, free education,, and special in-state tuition deals at colleges, not afforded legal citizens. All children born of these lawbreakers shall immediately become citizens of the United States. Any person attempting to thwart this revision of Section I will be labeled racists, hatemongers, xenophobes, and all-around bad people.

Previously:

On radio show, Beck read "ad" for refinery that turns Mexicans into fuel; posted it on website

Tags: Glenn Beck

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    • Author by bintx (September 23, 2009 3:04 pm ET)
      13 1
      Did you notice that the man and the baby with the sombreros have blond, fuzzy hair and round, pudgy white faces like Beck??? He can't even stand to have dark-skinned people in illustrations in his book. Scary man.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by all your eyes (September 23, 2009 3:22 pm ET)
        6  
        Well, to be fair, if they were dark-skinned, we would be calling him a racist for it. Once you've crossed the line to immigrant-bashing, you have to work extra hard to avoid that charge, or at least to give yourself plausible deniability.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by bintx (September 23, 2009 3:37 pm ET)
          10  
          Well, he is a racist.

          He freely admits that he is "uncomfortable" with minorities and Jews.
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        • Author by takizen (September 23, 2009 4:59 pm ET)
          1  
          I think you're right about this. In fact, the larger guy looks a lot like Beck.

          Does he really expect us to take seriously this idea?

          Isn't the guarantee of citizenship for those born in U.S. elsewhere in the U.S. Constitution; that is, wouldn't we have to change more than the 14th Amendment?
          Report Abuse
          • Author by highliter (September 24, 2009 1:53 pm ET)
              2
            No its not, and we are the only industrialized country to have such a law.
            Report Abuse
        • Author by captfoster2 (September 23, 2009 5:06 pm ET)
          2  
          Once you've crossed the line to immigrant-bashing, you have to work extra hard to avoid that charge,

          No wonder Glenn Beck is losing him fricken mind!

          Hey Glenn... got extra vodka to spare?
          Report Abuse
      • Author by pete592 (September 23, 2009 3:40 pm ET)
        4  
        Of course, because blonde-haired Europeans who like Mexican food are at the heart of the immigration problem.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by bintx (September 23, 2009 3:59 pm ET)
          4  
          Like me? Well, actually, I just look like my blonde-haired European ancestors who liked Mexican food . . . the rest of my family looks like my dark-eyed, dark-haired, dark-skinned Native American ancestors . . . who also liked Mexican food. In the eyes of my Native American ancestors, I would have looked like the heart of the immigration problem. LOL!
          Report Abuse
          • Author by LindaInAus (September 23, 2009 7:49 pm ET)
            1 3
            I'm very involved in the field of genealogy. One of the most perplexing things to us in the field, is why, why, why so many people claim they're ancestors were N.Indian, when they don't really know. About 99%of people who make the claim, could NOT go to
            Ancestry dot com and prove it to me with their completed family tree. (But I can with MINE. and No, I don't have any N.Indian. All mly ancestors were on the east coast of the New World by 1690).

            oh don't start with that again. That same old tired LIE, about ancestors being Native American. Whats with that corny wishful
            thinking? I mean whats the deal with thinking one is related to indians. Geeeez, people knock it off!
            Report Abuse
            • Author by MiddleLeft (September 25, 2009 10:33 am ET)
                 
              About 99%of people who make the claim, could NOT go to
              Ancestry dot com and prove it to me with their completed family tree.

              Any evidence to that claim other than your opinion? You real sure on that "about 99%". Since you are speaking for "us in the field" maybe you have a reference or link. Perhaps you are overstating your case just a little, republican style.

              Report Abuse
            • Author by bintx (September 25, 2009 6:25 pm ET)
                 
              I do know. My ggrandmother [the mother of my maternal ggrandmother, who I knew very well and with whom I was very close. She died when I was 30] was half Cherokee. She was from Mississippi. My paternal ggrandmother (the mother of my paternal grandfather) was half Cherokee and was from Arkansas.

              We, too, have done family genealogies.

              How about an apology?

              [the rest of my genealogical makeup consists of German [both sides], French [both sides], Basque [father] and English [both sides]. I am also eligible for membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, again on BOTH SIDES.]
              Report Abuse
      • Author by Don Hussein Fabuloso (September 23, 2009 3:54 pm ET)
        3  
        Har! That's the first thing that caught my eye, bintx. Just another example of how out of touch the far right is.

        Beck probably did an initial sketch that looked a lot more like the Frito Bandito, but was advised by his racial sensitivity advisor that they needed a clever disguise for their racism.

        And judging by the first paragraph on the second page, MMFA wasn't exaggerating about their "strawman massacre" description.Is the whole book done on this wacky parchment background?
        Report Abuse
      • Author by bilbo_dies (September 23, 2009 4:27 pm ET)
        1  
        And here I thought I was the only one that thought that image looked a lot like Beck. Maybe my eyes are not failing me as much as I thought.
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      • Author by darrelplant (September 23, 2009 9:36 pm ET)
           
        Looks like John McCain.
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      • Author by caveman (September 24, 2009 12:32 am ET)
        4  
        No, Beck & co. did that to avoid being accused of racism, while giving the blond immigrants stereotypical Mexican-style hats to make clear to their supporters what they really mean.
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    • Author by Übermensch (September 23, 2009 3:09 pm ET)
      4  
      Zapfino is a horrible typeface...it's up there with Comic Sans
      Report Abuse
    • Author by epkklk851 (September 23, 2009 3:24 pm ET)
      3  
      Oh Bruddah! He should really consider the wisdom of arguing about how others have distorted the 14th Amendment if he is going to do this. The 14th Amendment means that laws apply to all citizens of the United States. But, it could also be interpreted to apply U.S. law to non-citizens living or visiting in the U.S. I do not agree that illegals are absolved of crimes. I also think that people who hire them should face the law when caught. And I don't think that people are called racists for that. Now, presuming that everyone you meet with an accent is an illegal and a threat to society is grounds for a charge of racism or at the very least, jingoism.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by neon desert (September 23, 2009 4:13 pm ET)
        2  
        You may notice that section 1 of the 14th amendment differentiates between "citizens" and "persons", and also differentiates between "priviledges or immunities", and "life, liberty, or property". It's pretty clear that non-citizens are entitled to due process, and reasserts this by applying equal protection to any person under the States' jurisdiction.

        It seems pretty clear to me that section 1 of the 14th amendment was written under the premise that citizenship grants priviledges, but non-citizenship does NOT deny rights. Beck, of course, ignores the language and gives his interpretation of WHY it was written in order to further his stoopidity.

        And to think those that buy his book are even dumber than him... Depressing stuff.
        Report Abuse
        • Author by epkklk851 (September 23, 2009 4:19 pm ET)
          2  
          "And to think those that buy his book are even dumber than him... Depressing stuff."

          You got that right. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping at night worrying about how stupid some people are and what can happen when enough of them come together with a common objective. I will grant you that some people are too intellectual that they loose some touch with reality, but anti-intellectualism is dangerous.
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    • Author by ForumDriv (September 23, 2009 3:27 pm ET)
         
      I found this backgrounder with Myth/Facts on birthright citizenship very helpful (from the Immigration Policy Center): http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/index.php?content=p091609

      Consider that the 14th amend was adopted because Southern states didn't want to recognize the humanity, personhood, and citizenship of freed black slaves after the Civil War. The feeling still runs deep when it comes to Latinos and immigrants and almost anyone of color.

      To Beck: Good luck getting a roll back of the 14th amend past Judiciary Chairman John Conyers and the CBC...
      Report Abuse
    • Author by abynorml294930 (September 23, 2009 3:30 pm ET)
      2 1
      Has anyone ever thought that Glenn Beck might be the anti-christ?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by political_left-religious_right (September 25, 2009 10:11 am ET)
           
        Not a chance. The Antichrist is supposed to be brilliant.
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    • Author by Cannonball (September 23, 2009 3:52 pm ET)
      5  
      Just how does a business hiring illegal residents who apply for wage occupation equate to sailing a cargo ship to the Ivory Coast, bidding for a purchasing several hundred people at the dock (people who have been captured in internicene wars, bound and delivered to slave traders), loading them into cramped cargo holds chained together, traveling for 6 to 10 weeks across the ocean (during which time, 25% of the people die of dehydration), then lining them up on yet another dockside auction to be separated from their tribe and famliy for the remainder of their miserable life as chattel working manual labor for food and shelter, but no freedoms, in a farm economy so back ward that it only began to realize the opportunity cost of the slave industry compared to paying wages during the civil war? After all, the North expanded its economy at three times the rate of the south without slaves. Please, Mr. Beck, expand on your assertion?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Don Hussein Fabuloso (September 23, 2009 4:14 pm ET)
        2  
        I was a little disappointed, Cannonball. I really would have expected Beck to take the "indentured servitude" part and connect it to paying taxes.
        Report Abuse
      • Author by bilbo_dies (September 23, 2009 4:38 pm ET)
        1  
        After all, the North expanded its economy at three times the rate of the south without slaves.

        Uh, actually, it wasn't about expanding the economy as much as it was about maintaining the gains that you had. Besides, the north did use slaves, they just decided to abolish slavery and thought the south should go along too.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by rtejon (September 23, 2009 4:05 pm ET)
      1  
      Shouldn't the editor of a book called "Arguing with Idiots" know that "expending" would have been the proper word to use?
      Report Abuse
      • Author by neon desert (September 23, 2009 5:36 pm ET)
        3  
        Oh, come on. This is a Beck book. Any book written by Glenn Beck and named "Arguing With Idiots" I would expect to have the same level of drama as Thor Heyerdahl battling the sea in Kon Tiki, or Luath, Bodger, and Tao battling the Canadian wilderness in "The Incredible Journey". A limited vocabulary is expected.

        SPOILER ALERT for Glenn Beck's "Arguing With Idiots":




        In the end, the idiots win.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by shaggles (September 23, 2009 4:09 pm ET)
      2  
      The only Amendment the right cares about is the 2nd.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Waring (September 23, 2009 4:20 pm ET)
      1  
      I guess the only way he thinks you should become a citizen by birth is if your parents are citizens and they have the common sense to be on American soil when you are born.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by Ron Mexico (September 23, 2009 4:54 pm ET)
      1  
      Not surprisingly...he's actually wrong about the 14th Amendment. Congress debated whether or not this wording of the 14th amendment would make children of parents who were "subjects of a foreign power," that is, Chinese (who were barred from naturalizing b/c they were not white), citizens by birth. To Congress' great credit, the drafters of the amendment said specifically "Yes. And?" and subsequent court cases (e.g. U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark) have upheld this as the ACTUAL INTENT OF CONGRESS. Of course, idiots like Beck only believe in original intent when they get to make up what it is.

      What Beck is actually mad about (perhaps) is the provisions beginning in the 1965 immigration act that exempted family members from quota restrictions...but this if course would mean that Beck likes to separate families. The know-doodly-squat-ism runs is strong with this one...
      Report Abuse
    • Author by VictorLaszlo (September 23, 2009 5:48 pm ET)
      2  
      I like the line at the bottom:

      Does shaking hands with and accepting books from our enemies give them comfort? If so, then this section should be looked at a little more closely.


      Obama can't meet or speak with other world leaders like Chavez, because Chavez is un-American!

      How dare Hugo Chavez put the needs of Venezuela over the needs of America! What is he, some kind of traitor?

      Whatever one thinks of Chavez, you have to admit that that's basically Beck and his fellow idiots' line of 'reasoning,' and that it's completely ludicrous.

      Report Abuse
      • Author by Don Hussein Fabuloso (September 23, 2009 8:03 pm ET)
        4  
        I liked that line too, Victor. Imagine if all of the world's leaders decided that shaking hands with, or accepting a gift from, leaders who aren't their allies amounted to treason.

        What the hell is Obama supposed to do when offered a book from the leader of another country, shoot him?

        Report Abuse
        • Author by LKL (September 23, 2009 8:58 pm ET)
          5  
          "What the hell is Obama supposed to do when offered a book from the leader of another country, shoot him?"

          Oh, you liberals and your hatred of guns. Of course he should shoot!
          Report Abuse
    • Author by draftedin68 (September 23, 2009 6:28 pm ET)
      1  
      Two seeds in a Jalapeno...

      Does anybody know why they used images of Rush and his baby brother Glenn?

      Report Abuse
    • Author by New Frontier (September 23, 2009 8:10 pm ET)
      2  
      All persons who successfully sneak into the country will be allowed to stay indefinitely. [...] Any person attempting to thwart this ... will be labeled racists, hatemongers, xenophobes, and all-around bad people.


      Look at what happened to those Native Americans who tried to thwart the white man from staying here indefinitely. They were labeled as hate-mongering, xenophobic racists. All around bad people, just like Glenn says.

      Report Abuse
    • Author by toombsie (September 24, 2009 1:14 pm ET)
      2  
      "All persons who successfully sneak into the country will be allowed to stay indefinitely. All crimes committed by those lawbreakers (i.e., identity theft, fraud, and tax evasion) will be ignored."

      Here's a test, if in reality Beck isn't a racist and he harps on illegal immigrants so much because he is genuinely concerned about "fraud" and "tax evasion" then he should reserve equal shares of time on his program exposing illegal immigrants as well as wealthy tax evaders with off shore bank accounts (of which the US government is about to bring charges on 4000+ names). Because, after all, a one wealthy millionaire can steal more from the government using off shore accounts than probably 1000 immigrants making minimum wage could put together. However, does Glenn ever talk about tax evasion and fraud of the wealthy? No, he conveniently ignores them. It also just a coincidence that probably the majority of the wealthy people with off shore bank accounts are white people.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by Wes Zeigler (September 24, 2009 8:03 pm ET)
           
        Beck and Fox news might be entertaining if they weren't serious. Beck is the poster boy for a type of prideful ignorance in Amerkia.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by Have Gone (September 24, 2009 1:52 pm ET)
         
      "Arguing with Idiots"...

      From the little I've read of Beck's book above, it sounds as though this book is better named, "Arguing so you can sound like an idiot."

      Kudos to Alexander Zaitchik for continuing his important work to expose this clown.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by donwelty (September 24, 2009 11:42 pm ET)
         
      I have seen a copy of Beck's book. First, Beck on the cover looks like an officer from a bad world war II movie without the insignia of one of the opposition governments. Second, the title appears to make it an autobiography. I thought Glenn was talking about himself. Third, the back has some of the labels that people have placed on Glenn--"idiot" is one. In case you are wondering, this book and Beck's Common Sense were both at Costco, not Borders Books where I frequently buy books.

      I emailed Costco my dislike of seeing Beck's Rants on their shelves.
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