The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver

[james_davis_nicoll]

The Mandibles: A Family, 2029-2047 by Lionel Shriver

Comments

[asyouknow_bob]

"...the US’s foreign-born Latino President ..."

Sorry, right there - - this is where I got stuck.

Is it ever explained how or why the Constitution was amended to allow this? 2029 is only 13 years from 2016, it takes some number of months or years for ratification...

(...And I see I'm going need to spend some time booting up my new Dreamwidth account; at minimum, I'll need my LJ avatar here...)

[philrm]

I think you can take it to mean that Shriver's knowledge of civics matches her knowledge of economics.

[(Anonymous)]

The constitution allows foreign born presidents; what it doesn't allow is presidents which are not citizens by birth. (Ted Cruz is foreign born. John McCain, born on a US base in the US controlled Panama Canal Zone, is a marginal case. Both have been accepted as being eligible to be elected to the presidency.)

Ted Cruz is also a Latino. So in principle the situation in the book could be obtained by having Ted Cruz succeeding Donald Trump (or Bernie Saunders) in 2025, and being reelected in 2028, or succeeding Bernie Saunders (or Mike Pence) in 2029. James' review, which doesn't mention the president's politcal alignment, is compatible with Shriver calling out Republican financial profligacy.

[scott_sanford]

It was very interesting to watch excitable right-wingers try to spin reasons why the black man born in Hawaii wasn't a valid presidential candidate but the white guy who wasn't born in America was perfectly suitable for the presidency.

In my opinion John McCain should be fully eligible, but when he was born there was a legal vagueness regarding people who were neither born within the US nor in a country not the US. This loophole was quickly plugged to bring the law as written in line with the law as it was meant to be...but an argument the other way is not obviously wrong.

[james_davis_nicoll]

As I recall, a sop to America's growing Latino population to ensure the Democrats keep their lock on the White House.