Erick Erickson HR 2 7/2/26

Listoff. We have a listoff. Welcome. It is Eric Erickson here across the United States of America. The phone number is 877-97-9-37-425 if you want to be on the program. Let's talk about, well, the law, shall we? I'll take your phone calls here in a bit. I actually want to talk about the Second Amendment. In order to keep a well-regulated militia? The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Clearly, clearly, it's about a well-regulated militia. It's not about your right. You've got a presuppositional phrase there. And the founders. did not contemplate semi-automatic handguns or a nation with more guns than people or machine guns or anything like that. They, I mean, they had muskets back in the day. They didn't have repeating rifles. They didn't have pump action shotguns. They didn't have any of the things that came from the Civil War and after. Look how bloody the Civil War is. And they certainly did not have mass school shootings. They had to have gotten their interpretation of the Second Amendment wrong and the Heller decision because there is no way the founders would have contemplated semi-automatic handguns. That, my friends, in a nutshell, is what the left argues about the Second Amendment because the founders could not have contemplated something. They could not have meant this thing. In the last 24 hours, I have heard a lot of people say the founders could not have contemplated Joe Biden leaving the border insecure or unsecured and having a flood of illegal immigration come into the country and have birthed tourism. They could not have anticipated these things. Therefore, the 14th Amendment cannot mean what for 120 years we've said it meant. The exact same argument being deployed by the left on the Second Amendment is being deployed by some on the right for the 14th Amendment. Eight members of the Supreme Court. Eight members, not five. The actual decision was a six-three decision, not a five-four decision. It was a six-three decision. Six members of the United States Supreme Court said that if you come into the country and you give birth to a child, that child is an American citizen. Six of them said it. Two others said the same thing applied to illegal aliens, but not birth tourism. That's right. It was 8 to 0 on the issue of children of illegal aliens. Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch both said as much. Samuel Alito was too nebulous for anyone to decide, although following out his logic, there would be a class of illegal alien children who would be.

that that person's citizenship and allegiance lies with that prior country. So if you come in from Mexico and you give birth to a child, your child is a citizen of Mexico, therefore has ties to Mexico. But there's a catch. You come into the United States. You give birth to children who were both illegal aliens. And now those kids... get married and have a child who is now also a legal alien because their parents were born here but are illegal aliens. Their kid, two generations removed from Mexico, would also be an American citizen based on the Samuel Alito test of allegiance to prior nation. A second generation child not born in Mexico is under Mexican law, not considered a Mexican citizen. Therefore, that kid would be considered an American citizen under the Samuel Alito case. The whole issue, however, is this. The people who are telling you that this is the end of America because of this decision, what they are not telling you is it was an eight vote on illegal alien kids becoming citizens. And also it's what we've done for over 120 years. It's what we've done for over 120 years. Birth tourism is something new. And I think that a statute could be used to resolve it. I think a statute could pass and be held constitutional. Brett Kavanaugh gave the sixth vote to the majority. Brett Kavanaugh argued that it's a statutory issue. Now, Amy Coney Barrett filed no concurrence. She was with the majority. But Amy Coney Barrett being assailed, by the way, by some on the right who think given the fight we had for her, by the way, a Clarence Thomas could not have been confirmed the way Amy Coney Barrett could be confirmed. But Amy Coney Barrett is a procedural list, and she has routinely sided with the right. Oftentimes, she's been attacked for not siding with the right in an initial case, and it is redone, and the procedures she wanted followed were followed, she sides with the right. And Amy Coney Barrett is more likely to side with Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas than any other people on the Supreme Court. She sides with Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, both of them 81% of the time in close cases. She didn't in this case. And you should not be assailing Amy Coney Barrett as some are, and let's be honest, they're assailing her. One, she's a woman, and two, she has adopted black children from 80. This is the woman who ruled that Haitians, temporarily here in the United States, could be rounded up and sent home, and she has two children adopted from Haiti, and they're attacking her because she's a woman, and also she's a woman with two non-white children. That's why she's being attacked. But you know what Amy Coney Barrett did? She sided with the 6'3 majority in this case. And the three in the minority, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Samuel Alito could not agree on a standard. Five members of the Supreme Court agreed on a commonly shared standard for citizenship, and the six concurred with them for different reasons.

The three in the minority, the three y'all all cheer on and the three who actually are solid justices, but they couldn't agree on a standard. Neil Gorsuch would have been in the majority. It would have been 7-2 had John Roberts carved out an exception for birth tourism. Neil Gorsuch would have been with the majority. And if you had Clarence Thomas, if his dissent were the majority opinion, you know what would be the law of the land today? Illegal aliens born in the United States are overwhelmingly American citizens. Birth tourists not, but illegal aliens born in the country are American citizens based on the logic and argument of Clarence Thomas, who argued that where the illegal alien intends to domicile depends, will determine the citizenship of their children. And all those illegal aliens who came in, they want to be American citizens, they want to reside, they want to domicile, they want to set up home in the United States. They don't want to go back. They want to be here. And so their children under Thomas's decision would be here and be citizens. Everybody wants to dance around those inconvenient facts because people on the right would rather whip you into a frenzy right now and get you mad and make you think that Amy Coney Barrett sold us all out when actually she's been one of the most solid conservatives on the court. 80% of the time sides with Clarence Thomas and with Neil Gorsuch. By the way, Neil Brett Kavanaugh, or Brett Kavanaugh, who has been spared the outrage, Brett Kavanaugh is more likely to side with John Roberts. than he is any other justice on the court. Notice how the attacks on Brett Kavanaugh aren't there. They're all against Amy Coney Barrett. And you know what? There are some easy solutions to this. Those easy solutions begin this way. Those easy solutions are executive orders to apply to the territories of the United States because under settled law, The 14th Amendment does not automatically apply to American territories, just to American states. So the president can today issue an executive order that restricts birth tourism in Guam, Northern Marianas Islands, and our Asian territories, or Pacific territories. Not only that, but the Secretary of State can issue orders restricting pregnant women from coming into the United States when they're about to give birth. We don't need a statute for that. And the Secretary of State can get compliance from nations whose citizens travel to the United States to help enforce the law to restrict people being pregnant. You know what can also happen? Congress can ban surrogacy for birth tourism. There is a growing movement of Chinese communists hiring women in this country to give birth so their children are automatically American citizens. You could make it a crime. You can make it a crime for a person to serve as a surrogate for a birth tourist. You would need Congress to act in that case. You would also need Congress to act if they wanted to ban birth tourism altogether and to deprive citizenship to birth tourists. Congress, I think, could do that because I think Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh would side with Gorsuch, Thomas, and Samuel Alito on that issue.

I have no way to know that for sure about Amy Coney Barrett since she just sided with the majority decision. But given that she more often than not sides with Gorsuch and Thomas and after them sides with Brett Kavanaugh, I think she could be persuaded to say birth tourism is something different. Birth tourism is like American Indians. You see, when the 14th Amendment was passed, American Indians were not given citizenship. They were viewed as having sovereign ties to their tribes and that they did not intend to become American citizens. Birth tourism follows the same logic. These people don't intend to be domiciled in the United States. They intend to come here, have a child, and go home, and then later send their child back to the United States to take over with communism. It's what the Chinese really want. They want to take over the United States using the rules of the United States, breed a bunch of communists, have them board here so they have citizenship and then take them back to China to indoctrinate them for 20 years, Manchurian candidate style. But there are things we can do, and by the way, the president's already secured the border. The number of crossings is down to almost zero daily. And now Republicans, you need to consider this. There's no such thing as permanence in politics, and there are a bunch of Democrats out there, socialists running for open borders. Some of the right are actually openly calling for some sort of strongman, a dictator, an American Caesar. They really are. There are some of the right who are doing that. And I'm not nutpicking. There are some prominent voices on the right who want some sort of Republican dictator who never leaves office. That's not going to happen. And there's no such thing as permanence in politics. You will get Democrats in charge again. So the way to forestall that to prolong their conversion and back to sanity. is to police your own side and make sure the Republicans deal with inflation and deal with corruption and deal with ruthlessly competent government so that the voters want to restore them to office and protect the country from the Democrats. Right now, Republicans are failing on that, which makes it more likely the Democrats could come back and take advantage of this decision. So if you want to stop this decision and you want to stop the status quo, You've got to make sure the Republicans are being ruthlessly competent and honest so the voters restore them to office. Those who love him? Listen to find out what he's going to say next. Those who disagree with him also listen to see what he's going to say next. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

The Four Things You Need to Know podcast, giving you the four things to pay attention to after the show, available on YouTube and your favorite podcast app, or by texting Eric to 33777. Welcome back. Let's go to the phones here to Oklahoma. Brian, you're going to be up next. Welcome, sir. How are you? Hi, Eric. Yes. So, birthright citizenship, children are born in this country with constitutional rights. Now, our children all have constitutional rights, but there are some of these rights that they are not allowed to exercise until they get old enough and wise enough to make decisions, you know, informed decisions for themselves, such as... you know, bearing an arm or voting. I would like to propose that changing your nationality is on par with that kind of a magnanimous, you know, life-changing thing, you know, and that children should not be allowed to, you should be able to have that child because it's not the parent that's getting the right. It's the child that's getting the constitutional right. So the child, when he turns 18, ought to be able to. decide if he wants to become an American citizen and then make that decision once he's old enough and matured enough. That's an interesting idea, Brian. Yeah, essentially citizenship held in trust until they're 18 and get to decide. Yeah, you know, and maybe that would get rid of some of the Wackadoo progressives as well who are ashamed to be in this country. Of course, we would probably have a bunch of people here who chose no country. Just as people are choosing no gender, the non-binarys, we would have these citizenless people. What do we call them, gypsies? Are you allowed to, or do you roam or whatever? They roam around. But how? It's an intriguing idea, isn't it? Some of you people come up with very clever ideas. When we come back, Jarvis, Julie, the rest of you want to take your phone calls. 877973-725. Stick around with me because I, Jarvis, I see what Jarvis wants to talk about. And so I'm very intrigued in taking his call when we come back. But first, I need to tell you about the perfectly stung mattress topper. It's like an air conditioner for your bed. It has fans in it, in the base of it. And it... flows cool air through the mattress topper. You can watch the fitted sheet inflate, and it's very quiet. Now, you can crank that sucker up, and you'll hear the fans, and it'll keep you cool at night. But it also can heat you up in the wintertime when it's cold. It'll heat you up, and you've got multiple zones so your spouse can have different zones. It just works. You can control it with your phone, Android, or iPhone. You can set it to come on automatically. You can set it to adjust automatically through the night, and you sleep perfectly snug. So you go to perfectly snug.com slash Eric, perfectly snub.

snug.com slash E-R-I-C-K. You can save $280. This thing, it's like having an electric blanket, but also an air conditioner, so it cools you up, it warms you down. It warms you up and cools you down. And it's just the right amount of, it's not too firm and it's not too soft. You don't sink into it, but you don't just float on top of it, wake up with a backache. It's perfectly done, and it keeps you perfectly snug. Perfectly snug.com slash Eric. And by the way, no water recirculators, thank goodness. Never going to have a leak. Perfectly snug.com slash Eric. He's got the courage to tell you the truth because the truth is what matters. You're listening to the Eric Erickson show. Hello and welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. Delighted to have you with me. The phone number is 877-97-973-7-4-25. Should you wish to be on the program, would be very happy to have you. And I want to take a phone call here. Jarvis has been waiting very patiently. Thank you, sir, for waiting. How are you? Fantastic. How are you, Eric? I'm great. What's going on? Well, I heard you talking about Independence Day, and I am an African-American, proud African-American. I love this country. I caveat that off the rip. However, it's a complicated thing to celebrate the independence of the American people when my ancestors were not deemed independent. in 1776. And so that's a complex thing. I've lived the American dream. I've college educated, had a great family life. I've owned homes and owned homes. And I'm an entrepreneur. I've been able to build businesses, had a great career in IT. But all those things being said, it's still very complicated to celebrate. this great country in all of its greatness, I can recognize its greatness, but at the same time, there's a contradiction there in not only just in its history, but to a certain degree that carries forward still today where the, you know, the Constitution and Declaration of Independence don't seem to apply to my people in the exact same way that they do for others. You know, I don't think Jarvis, anybody can dispute what you're saying, that it was an unfulfilled legacy of the revolution. And the promises, all men are created equal, were endowed by our creator, we're certainly in alienable rights, among these life, liberty, and happiness. Happiness originally being pursued a property. It was argued it needed to be changed to happiness, which they did in the subsequent drafts. And yet, you know, even the founders knew there was a problem here. Bernard Baylon in his book, I've mentioned a number of times, the ideological origins of the American Revolution.

Let me read you some quotes here. This is a report of speech in the House of 1770. Lord Chancellor Camden declared that for some time he had be held with silent indignation the arbitrary measures which were pursued by the ministry, that however he would do so no longer would... but would openly and boldly speak his sentiments. In a word, he accused the ministry of having framed a conspiracy against liberties of their country. This is a Boston town meeting in 1770. A series of occurrences, many recent events afford great reason to believe that a deep laid and desperate plan of imperial despotism has been laid and partly executed for the extinction of all civil liberty, the august and once revered fortress of English freedom, the admirable work of ages, the British Constitution seems fast tottering into fatal and inevitable. ruin, the dreadful catastrophe threatens universal havoc and presents an awful warning to hazard all-if preadventure, we in these distant confines of the earth may prevent being totally overwhelmed and buried under the ruins of our most established rights. Now, both sides in England and here arguing that there appear to be some conspiracy to overthrow the rights of the British in New England, and here's the problem. As the suspicion began to metastasize, that the rights were being overthrown, there was a greater recognition within the American colonies, particularly in New England at the time, that you could not claim that all men are created equal, where those of dark skin were not created equal. And the logic of the revolution was rapidly pushing the northern colonies in particular, which were not as dependent on slavery, to the idea that we had to get rid of slavery. And I understand for some black Americans in the United States that it's complex, but also a whole lot of white guys died on battlefields in the Civil War so that we could all be free and equal people. The battle him of the Republic, as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free. And the strum and drang of the logic of the revolution led rapidly to the founders of the country, including Thomas Jefferson, understanding that inevitably the slaves would have to be free because they could not build the foundation of this country on the idea of freedom. without also granting freedom then to the slaves who, if we were arguing for equality, had to be treated equal. And increasingly what you would find in the writings of the founders, even beyond... Jefferson was something had to be done. This again from Bernard Baylon's book, no one had set out to question the institution of chattel slavery, but in 1776 it had come under severe attack by writers following out the logic of the revolution. The connection for those who chose to see it was obvious. Slavery was a central concept in 18th century political discourse.

As the absolute political evil, it appears in every statement of political principle and every discussion of constitutionalism or legal rights and every exhortation to resistance. Can any power in this province, a Massachusetts polemicist asked in 1754, what slaves of any part of the British nation? Who would not choose to dine upon a turnip with old fabricus and be a freedman rather than flow in luxury and be a slave? It was the loss of attachment to a free constitution that had plunged Rome from the summit of her glory into the black gulf of an infamy and slavery. Tyrannical governments reduced people to a kind of slaves to the ministers of state. An ambitious ministry must be taught that in the attempt to enslave us would be as fruitless as it would be in politic. Those who are taxed without their own consent expressed by themselves or the representatives, John Dickinson wrote, with supporting quotations from Pitt and Camden, quote, our slaves. We are taxed without our consent expressed by ourselves or our representatives. We are therefore slaves. Josiah Quincy concluded in 1774 two years before the Declaration of Independence. Quote, I speak it with grief. I speak it with English. Brightons are our oppressors. I speak it with shame. I speak with indignation. We are all slaves. The most abject sort of slaves said John Adams. This is not lurid rhetoric. Slavery is a political concept at specific meeting, which a later generation would lose. To 18th century Americans, it meant as a newspaper writer put it in 1747, quote, a force put upon humane nature by which a man is obliged to act or not act according to the arbitrary will and pleasure of another. It meant a later pamphleteer wrote, being wholly under the power and control of another as to our actions and properties. It meant the inability to maintain one's just property and material things and abstract things, rights and things with a proper constitution guaranteed a free people. Both symptom and consequence of disease in the body politic, it was the condition that followed the loss of freedom. Slavery, in that sense, far from being mere exclamation and hyperbole, was a term referred to a specific political condition, a contention characteristic of the lives of contemporary... Frenchmen, Danes, and Swedes, as well as Turks, Russians, and Poles. But it also applied equally to black plantation laborers in the American colonies, for their condition was only a more dramatic, more bizarre variation of the same. And the founders recognized the great contradiction that would eventually have to be addressed. It was the unfulfilled promise of the revolution.

It is an unfulfilled promise that Thomas Jefferson himself recognized slaves would have to go free and he would have to give it up. And he began to write after the revolution that if the initial generations of Americans did not fix the situation, the situation would be fixed violently predicting a civil war to come. I understand if you're a black American, there is a complex legacy, if you're not a recent immigrant to the country, a complex historic legacy of slavery in the country, and we shouldn't be dismissive of it, but we should also recognize that in this country, a whole lot of men died to make other men free, and it has taken time to become an ever more perfect union, of which we still have a ways to go. But when you look back at where we were versus where we are now, I do not understand the people, and there are some on the left who insist that we are no better off now than we were 100 years ago. We are no more advanced away from institutions of racism and discrimination than we were 100 years ago. And history itself shows us that those people are deeply indebted to a poison in their minds that keeps them hating this country when actually the profound progress in this country is absolutely amazing. The progress towards equality in this country, the progress towards economic innovation and elevation of non-white citizens in this country, it continues to improve. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Is there racism? There always will be. Not an excuse. We're just all sinners, and it's a sin, so there will be. But are we as a nation moving well beyond the legacy that shackled our founders and led to a civil war? Absolutely. No question in my mind. And that alone is why we should celebrate because we as a country continue to progress in the right direction in history towards a more equal country where people can be free, not with the state helping them do what they want to do, but by the state getting out of their lives and unburdening them so they can be the best American they want to be. And ultimately, at the end of the day, that itself is a choice to be or not be the best American you can be. And the government getting out of the way to let you do it is one of the things that makes this country unique, where you don't have... to be on the social safety net. And that's the revolutionary response to the Democratic Socialists right now, is demand you stay on the Social Safety Net, piled up and burdened by the government, and they would punish you if you dared to get off. And what makes America so unique is that in this country, you don't have to pile yourself up on the Social Safety Net. You can be free and independent and stand on your own two legs and be of greater success than anyone on the Social Safety Net. Mary and Tulsa, Oklahoma, you're going to be up next. Welcome to the show, Mary. Hey, Eric, greetings to you and your family. I pray they're all in good health. They are, thank you. I just wanted to say, I came to the United States. I married an American. Anyway, and what happened was I was coming over the border and, you know, the whole nine yards. And they said to me, if you don't get this paperwork started. We have no issues with separating spouses or mothers from children. Do you understand that? And I realized I'm in a serious situation here. So as soon as they let me go, I was in Seattle, Washington. We came down and we ended up close to Kansas City, Kansas, where I started the paperwork for my children and for myself.

And I think living in the United States of America is one of the greatest blessings that anybody could have. The USA gives opportunity for anybody and everybody. The USA is incredible. I am thankful when I can walk into the store, and I see everything available that I could buy and have and get. And everybody gets money. It's a matter of what they do with their money. And everybody who's got a job and is doing what's right now, I have to watch myself because I was a stay-home mom. And I taught my children at home. But my husband worked and he finally retired. And we have a very, very blessed life. I have no complaints. I have no issues with the United States of America. When I first came here, I thought these people don't know how good they have life. And I'm thankful to be here. I'm grateful, and I think it's wonderful. I'm glad. I think the people here are wonderful. And I just wanted to say, you know what, it's the unthankful and ungrateful and spoiled people. that have bad attitudes toward the United States. Listen, that's well said, Mary. Thank you so much. And congratulations on now being an American citizen. That's always great. A buddy of mine is a federal judge who got to preside recently over some people becoming American citizens. People who just, they wanted to be Americans and they love it. We're a flawed nation. We always will be, but it's overcoming the flaws that counts, which we continue to do, headed in the right direction. Now, you should head over to swissamerica.com slash Eric today. Swissamerica.com slash ERICK, sign up with them, begin a relationship with them. They can get you. their complete and free report, The Secret War on Cash, takes less than 15 minutes to read. They got a great rating by the Better Business Bureau, and they've been in the business for 40 years working with precious metals and with people. If you go to swissamerica.com slash Eric today, you can sign up with them, click their news and views tabs and get... up-to-date information about the markets, the BRIC nations, commodity prices, how it affects your investing strategy, and they can help you. They've also got a great podcast, Swiss America Trading. You can go to Swissamerica.com slash Eric, find it all, sign up on that website, put in your information, get the free report. It can help in your retirement of finances. If you're interested in buying precious metals, gold coins, for example, which I have done with Swiss America, you can, precious metal IRAs. You can talk to them about that, and so much more. Swissamerica.com slash E-R-I-C-K. That's Swissamerica.com slash Eric. Sign up today with Swiss America. When the truth seems hazy, Eric will clear the way. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

Just joined us? No worries. Check out the Eric Erickson Show 24-7 stream at Ericerickson.com. Available for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Hello and welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. 877973-745. Julie, calling from St. Louis. You're up next. Welcome. Thank you. Hey, so Brett Kavanaugh gave us a little bit of a roadmap of what to do about birthright citizenship. And along comes our idiotic congressman, Andy Ogles, to propose a bill called the, quote, Anchors Away Act. I mean, if you want to alienate sensible people toward the middle, that's what you call the bill. I mean, Jarvis' call is very inspiring. So here's a man who's done everything correctly and he's still conflicted. What do you think a man like that is going to react to a bill called the Anchors Away Act? We just got to get the messaging. So Julie, do this point, and I've read about this the last couple of days, that the... The hysterical tone from people on the right, a friend of mine actually put up a tweet that we should start sterilizing all women immigrants to the country who aren't American citizens, less they get pregnant here, or dissolve the country. Some have called for nullification, the failed pre-Civil War idea. I mean, it's very trite to say you can catch more with honey than with vinegar. You want to bring people to your side. The Democratic Socialists are doing their very best to alienate Americans from the Democratic side, and now you've got the anti-immigration folks on the right doing their best to alienate people from our side. You don't have to be biblical donkeys. You can't actually make a persuasive case. Most Americans actually have concerns about birth tourism and illegal aliens. Most Americans do. But you don't have to be a jerk about it. You can be loving and compassionate while also defending the rule of law. And you will persuade reasonable people to come to your side. You know, there are people in the right news. Oh, the tone police, the tone police like Julie. But she's absolutely right. We've got to stop the socialist takeover of America. Those people are crazy. And the way to stop the socialist takeover for America is to ourselves not be crazy, to be open and willing to engage with people lovingly, to do those things. To stand for the rule of law, it is possible, and we should consider not being crazy or biblical donkeys as we persuade people to be on the winning team with us. Now, I want you to win your battles at night with your children by not having arguments over hot water in your house. You can have hot water forever with the Reney tankless water heater. If you go to talkingtankless.com.

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