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Monday, July 23, 2012

Evaluating U.S. Presidential Candidates

A few days ago I wrote about how I evaluate U.S. politicians from abroad.  At that time I focused my attention on the Senate races and didn't say anything about the presidential contest  (Obama versus Romney).

Recently, Just Me over at the Isaac Brock Society filled that gap with this excellent post:

As an American abroad, What assurances do I want from the U.S. Candidate for President?

He makes 5 points which are, in my humble opinion, just good old common sense.

Allow me to add 3 more points of my own:

1.  That the U.S. government be required to include Americans abroad in all future censuses.  Right now, American civilians abroad are not included and not counted because the U.S. government says that it's "too hard" to find them.  Nonsense.  If they think it's possible to find them for tax purposes then clearly they think they can find them, right?  Enough with this laziness.  Time to count us, homelanders!

2.  That some sort of agency be created within the U.S. government (perhaps the State department) that is responsible for managing the relationship between the U.S. government and the American diaspora.  These would be the "go to guys" when the diaspora wants to communicate with the U.S. government and vice versa.

3.  That an effort be made to inform the "Accidental Americans,"  those people who have no idea whatsoever that because of an accident of birth (birthplace or parent's citizenship) that they are considered U.S. citizens according to the laws of the United States.  Once they are made aware of their status, these people should be given a full disclosure about the rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship and they should be given the chance to opt out with a fast and simple procedure and no penalties and no exit fees. If an "Accidental" chooses not to retain U.S. citizenship then a CLN (certificate of loss of nationality) should be issued on the spot by the U.S. embassies concerned.


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