WHO WON?
Liberal Student Left SPEECHLESS in Birthright Citizenship Debate (Repost)
Cam Higby · 1:00 to 11:00 of 37:34
“Should birthright citizenship be based on birth on US soil?”
THE CONSERVATIVE WINS
REF scored it 202 to 316
Not close · confidence 78%
The Liberal Student
I support birthright citizenship
The Conservative
Soil alone shouldn't grant citizenship
MVP MOMENT
The Conservative: 'If you don't give it citizenship just because it was born here, then it's not raised here... that's the only reason it's allowed to be raised here. So why is that important?'
REF'S CALL
The Liberal Student conceded the core of the opposing case early, saying 'you should be an American citizen, but not because you were born geographically at random on American soil.' After that, the only real defense was a vague hope that an 'anchor baby' will 'go on to do great things for America,' and The Conservative's repeated 'why does that geographical location matter?' went unanswered. The Conservative was not clean either, claiming only 'four other countries' have soil-based citizenship and that Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal 'used to have this doctrine.' That is false, since roughly 30 countries grant it and most of the European ones never had pure jus soli. But the Conservative's structured proposal (citizen or permanent-resident parents, naturalization kept open) beat The Liberal Student's drift into Canada, Trudeau and a mistaken claim that Germany 'banned' birthright citizenship.
WHAT DECIDED IT
- 1The Liberal Student conceded early that parentage, not soil, should ground citizenship, so the debate had no real clash for most of its length.
- 2The Conservative offered a concrete alternative (citizen or permanent-resident parents plus continued naturalization) and anticipated the green-card objection.
- 3The Conservative's comparative-law claims were overstated and partly false, but The Liberal Student never caught the errors and added his own false Germany claim.
FOULS CALLED
- The Conservative: Slippery Slope / Appeal to Fear - suggested al-Qaeda or Russian soldiers could have babies and 'build a standing army in America.'
- The Conservative: False Premise - said only 'four other countries' have soil-based citizenship and that Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and the Czech Republic 'used to have' it, which is inaccurate.
- The Liberal Student: Irrelevant Tangent / Red Herring - pivoted from birthright citizenship to Canada's immigration influx, Trudeau and UK money laundering.
- The Liberal Student: Self-Undermining Concession - agreed citizenship should come from parentage 'not because you were born geographically at random,' which gives up the side he was assigned.
- The Liberal Student: False Premise - claimed Germany 'banned' birthright citizenship and tied its economic size to that, a dubious causal link.
● YOUR TURN
THINK YOU'D BEAT THEM?
Take a side on “Should birthright citizenship be based on birth on US soil?” and debate a real person live, on camera. REF scores you the same way.
Debate it liveREF judged 10 minutes of tape, starting at 1:00, from a machine transcript. Names come from the video and what's said in it. REF judges facts first, from first principles.