Real Americans Can Be Swiss

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In writing this blog, we generally try to steer clear of domestic politics - except to the degree that domestic political issues affect the security-clearance world. We interpret that broadly, to include public perceptions and trends that could either damage individuals who hold security clearances, or typify ideas and world views that could affect the concepts involved.

One of those ideas, voiced most loudly by 2008 Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin, then echoed for the past three years by other Republican politicians and members of the Tea Party, is the concept of that some Americans, and not others, are "Real Americans."

To those holding that viewpoint, Real Americans are, by definition, Republican. More than that, however, they hold Real American Values. They are overwhelmingly White, overwhelmingly fundamentalist Christian, underwhelmingly educated, and overwhelmingly consider themselves to be the guardians of Real America; which many would be hard pressed to identify on a map of the world.

In their view, any so-called citizen of the United States who does not share their Real American values is not really American, just some sort of parasitic, job-taking, morality-corrupting, tax-dollar-sucking occupier of the country that Real Americans call home.

This Real American view has a strong outpost in the State Department Bureau of Security's Personnel Security and Suitability staff, DS/PSS - the folks who adjudicate the security clearances of - and therefore control who gets to be - State Department employees. A visitor to that office will see more Rush Limbaugh calendars, ties painted with American flags and eagles, crew cuts and bibles than are to be found in any other venue in Washington.

As a result, DS continues to routinely deny or revoke security clearances based on ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. Too cowardly to openly voice their own bigotry and racism, they couch these revocations in terms of Foreign Preference and Personal Behavior guidelines, usually without meeting any of the requirements necessary to apply those guidelines in accordance with law (DS/PSS is also among the least-well-trained and least-well-regulated security clearance adjudication units in Government, operating with nearly no oversight).

At present, DS/PSS is an aberration in a country and a Government that, by and large, has put Jim Crowe behind it. In our view, existing DS/PSS staff should be replaced in its entirety with loyal patriotic Americans who are, nonetheless, capable of imagining an America in which Jews, Gays, Persian-Americans and Arab-Americans can be equally loyal, patriotic citizens. So we are mindful of any trend, like the "Real American" trend, that would, rather than moving that retrograde minority forward into the 21st century, attempt to move our whole country back into the 1950s.

Imagine our surprise this week when former presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann, who repeatedly in her campaign touted herself as among the "realest" of Real Americans, declared her intention to exercise her right to Swiss citizenship!

Yes, you read that right: a person who considers herself to be far more American than you, far more patriotic than you, far more representative of American culture and values than you, not only sought a Swiss passport, but joked about running for office in Switzerland. A few days later, she retracted her bid, but not that of her husband and children who are, we now learn, "dual nationals" (a status recognized by Switzerland but not the United States).

State Department employees: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! This stunt was performed on an open course by a professional Real American!

DS/PSS can and certainly will pull the clearance of any employee who exercises a foreign right of citizenship, based on the "Foreign Preference" guideline of E.O. 12968.

Or will they?

That depends.

DS/PSS employees are "Real Americans" and share both the antiquated biases and the smug and intractable  ignorance of  that vocal political minority:

Switzerland is OK. We've heard of them. They make a cheese we like, and Hershey's chocolate. Their people are generally White, Christian and conservative, and are very different from, say, those nasty Kenyan people who are Black, drink cows blood, and run around naked blowing up our embassies and stuff (our embassy in Kenya was bombed, wasn't it? Pretty sure it was.)   

For them, Real Americans can be Swiss. They can be German, British, Irish and possibly even (shudder) French.

They just can't be American citizens who are brown-skinned, or not Christian, or Gay.