First of all, I know that League chum Ryan has already discussed the ridiculous Michele Bachmann dual citizenship kerfuffle over at the main page. If you’re interested in a more thoughtful analysis of the issue, go there.
Also, I really couldn’t possibly care less if Ms. Bachmann is a citizen of Switzerland. As a dual citizen of both my father’s country of birth and this great nation of ours (though I think I have to dust off some paperwork on the former), I think dual citizenship is dandy. Pace another LoOG colleague, I happen to think the rest of the world has a tremendous amount to offer Americans, and would encourage everyone to break out their passports (or maybe get one) and see as much of it as they can. Really, it’s worth the jet lag.
And finally, it’s not like anyone really needs to take Michele Bachmann all that seriously. Sure, I think she instantiates everything that’s wrong with the GOP these days. Yes, I think it says something truly horrifying that she was ever treated as an even remotely plausible candidate for President. (Though the same could be said for about 75% of the people who strolled across the dais for those early debates.) Indeed, the fact that she routinely says preposterous things with essentially no repudiation from her higher-ups in the party makes one wonder what, if anything, is too nutty for the Republican leadership to countenance. But at the end of the day she’s a backbencher with delusions of grandeur, and that’s all she’s likely to remain for the duration of her political career.
But still, there is something deeply ironic and cosmically meet about the doyenne of nativist, xenophobic jingoism being castigated by elements within her own tribe for having the temerity to be a citizen of *clutches pearls*… Switzerland! They speak French there, people! And have socialized medicine! What the hell was she thinking?
No, seriously. What the hell was she thinking? Politically, I mean. I don’t know what her motivations were for wanting Swiss citizenship (presumably easier travel within Europe, were she to visit), but surely she knows her constituency well enough to know this would be a headache. I imagine this will all blow over soon enough, but the only people who are likely to give a whiff of a damn about this preposterous non-issue are the people who comprise the core of her supporters. Why piss them off?
Anyhow, the whole thing gives me the giggles. (Yes, Blinded Trials. Home to the Internet’s most incisive political analysis.) It would be a sad commentary if something like this were to cost a member of Congress her job… unless that particular MOC had herself stoked the fires that led to something like this being considered a problem in the first place. In which case it’s hilarious.
PS> Confidential to Rep. Bachmann — you’ll also want to bone up on German before visiting Switzerland. They speak that language there, too. (Somehow that country has managed to have more than one official language without collapsing into a babel-like melee. Go figure.) Might I suggest you start with schadenfreude?
What was she thinking? She was thinking that the rules as demands of everybody else don’t apply specifically to her. Look at the entirety of the Republican Party to see how deeply this rot goes.
What’s not to like? Bachmann in the land of the Cuckoo Clock.
The Swiss are welcome to Michelle Bachmann. She’ll fit right in. Switzerland is probably the most xenophobic bunch of weirdos I’ve ever seen. They absolutely hate Muslims and they’re surprisingly sexist.
To be honest you don’t sound any better than the people you describe in your message. Totally stereotyping and proofing that you’ve never been to that country. I won’t even elaborate on what ways Switzerland has achieved greater equality than the US. I think most readers here know better anyways.
Having looked into this a bit, I think this is what happened:
Marcus Bachmann, as the child of Swiss citizens, is entitled to Swiss citizenship, both for himself and for his entire immediate family. Some of the Bachmann kids were interested in becoming Swiss citizens, so he filled out the “whole family” paperwork, He didn’t specifically exclude his wife, either because there’s no checkbox for that, or because no one thought it would matter much. Politico, with its usual flair for the completely trivial, made an issue of this, and the rest is what passes these days for the first rough draft of history.
Again, the whole story is inane. I couldn’t care less if she planned to spend all of her remaining summers learning to yodel.
But oh, it tickles me that it’s happening to her.
“Switzerland! They speak French there, people! And have socialized medicine! What the hell was she thinking?”
Otoh, everyone owns a gun. And (for Europe) low taxes.
Oh, and killer raves.
And, lest he forget, Russell Saunders has a cousin who lives there!
“No, seriously. What the hell was she thinking? Politically, I mean. I don’t know what her motivations were for wanting Swiss citizenship (presumably easier travel within Europe, were she to visit), but surely she knows her constituency well enough to know this would be a headache. I imagine this will all blow over soon enough, but the only people who are likely to give a whiff of a damn about this preposterous non-issue are the people who comprise the core of her supporters. Why piss them off?”
Ugh, have we really reached a point that someone engaging in something as innocuous as this is getting second guessed? It is one thing to say something stupid with the cameras and microphones on. But if folks need to consider every life decision they ever make through the lens of what their potential political supporters might think, regardless of how non-germane the action is to their position, we’ve officially lost it.
Oh, we officially lost it a long time ago.
Easier to travel? Switzerland gives Americans a 3 month Visa on Arrival, whereas we Swiss have to go through a lengthy and annoying process of Visa application, get a new and expensive biometric passport and sometimes get refused for no reason. I guess US authorities are afraid we’re not coming for touristic reasons but for the lower salaries and fewer jobs available. (/sarcasm)
But in all seriousness, today’s rules are much stricter here, she wouldn’t get Swiss nationality that easily nowadays, and to me it’s not a question of mixed allegiance, it’s a question of fairness, you shouldn’t have all the benefits of a nationality without living in, contributing to and taking responsibility for a country.