Comments by "Luredreier" (@Luredreier) on "Forbes Breaking News" channel.

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  32.  @tanderson6442  A number of things. US citizenship comes with some pretty big downsides. In the case of some countries it involves losing your own citizenship due to not allowing double citizenship, that could be a problem if you have a better passport in your home country or if you indeed may lose the right to permanent residency in your own country by losing said citizenship. You may lose privileges from your old country like social security, healthcare etc rights when at home visiting family that you have as a citizen in some countries. American citizens also have to pay taxes abroad on top of the local taxes, meaning that if they ever come back they'll have a significant financial burden there... And there might be other restrictions that I'm not aware of for some countries. Since this is Washington DC a lot of these people may work for the embassies, so they may lose their job as a non-citizen of their respective countries. There's a number of reasons why people do not desire to become a citizen. I was born and raised here in Norway, I've yet to apply for citizenship, because until recently that would have required me to give up my Icelandic citizenship. A citizenship that would be difficult for me to regain later since I've never lived in Iceland. Not had my mother applied for a Norwegian citizenship, despite living here for close to 50 years. Your assumption that people who have lived in the US for 30+ years will apply for citizenship is wrong. People who are legal residents, who are paying taxes will live their whole lives in the US without a citizenship. My sister has moved to the US with her husband who is Asian. While Norway is more convenient for her it's not for her family. So they moved to the US after living in Germany for a while. Now they're talking about moving back to Europe, but that's difficult due to their sons having grown up in the US. Keeping their current citizenships keeps their options open. Getting a US citizenship would burn bridges for them and their family. And we're talking highly educated people, he's a economy professor doing lectures internationally. And she's highly educated as well, doing work that it's rare for Americans to know how to do. They are currently unable to vote for school boards of the school their kids attended as non-citizens. Unable to vote for who is to decide how much local taxes they pay, how the city is planned etc. Her oldest son was born when they moved to the US, her youngest son was born in the US. Their sons where both top 10 in their university classes from what I understand. Both have grown up, gotten jobs and works in international jobs. One of them has a European girlfriend, the other a African one. That family will leave the US if they don't end up feeling welcome. So will many others. The US is not the best place in the world to live, even if it's definitely not a bad one. My sisters husband has also helped a friend of his start up a company in the US creating US jobs and they're partners in that company. After Trump came into office they've been considering leaving the country as they're no longer feeling welcome.
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  39.  @poet7158  Given how the US is using a first past the post electoral system the position that giving Washington DC state rights would lead to a imbalance since the first past the post system gives anyone with a plurality of the votes 100% of the power despite not holding a majority and indeed being opposed by a majority of voters. Meaning that since DC is blue republican voters there still would have no representation, just like Democrat voters in Texas currently are unrepresented in the congress. The system splits you guys into two political parties that basically never agree on anything. Under that system it makes sense to oppose giving Washington DC that representation since they would both have fewer people then most states, and would side more with your opponent. The idea that they shouldn't be represented at all doesn't make sense. But it could make sense for them to be merged with Maryland for the purpose of federal level elections, since most of Washington DCs Metropolitan area is a part of Maryland anyway. If I was a republican that would be my counter proposal. Because people of Washington not having a say in the US Congress obviously is unreasonable. But the way the Democrats wants to give them a say is problematic for you. For local elections they can remain independent. Maryland should still have a bigger population so sharing that representative shouldn't hurt them too much. If that's indeed impossible then the democrat position is indeed the only remaining viable one. But honestly you guys really should reform your election system. It's not tenable long term. Republicans are going to lose the ability to win elections long term since they alienate conservatives of other ethnicities with their policies. And there's more then one way of being right leaning. In a proportional system the American right could win elections even if the republican party itself doesn't become the biggest party, through the use of coalitions like we use in Europe. Both the republican party and the Democratic party would likely split up into multiple political parties that more closely align with what people genuinely believe in.
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