My Neighbor Is Becoming a Citizen

A copy of Springsteen's "Nebraska".

From another naturalized citizen, please also pass along my congratulations!

MAGA hat?

 seriously though, I have a question about permanent residents. I have a friend who immigrated to the states as a child at the age of 10 with his parents. He's been a green card holder for 40 years now. As an attorney I'm fully aware of rights conferred upon him such as speech , Etc. And I'm aware that he can be deported for cause. However, he is constantly espousing radical political diatribes. I don't know. For some reason it irks me that he must constantly complain about our political situation when he in fact obviously does not have the right to vote. The fact that he is obnoxiously vocal about the political party he does not support and is constantly critical for some reason it irks the s*** out of me. I've asked him if he wants to complain so much why doesn't he become a citizen so he can vote to change whatever he finds deficient with our system.  His responses I'm a do it someday. His brother has become a naturalized citizen several years ago. Am I just being a jerk?

Ovid, shouldn't you be building your General Lee tribute 911 right now?

In reply to pres589 :

LOL. Coming along slow. Medical situation improving so I'm making a little progress.

Reading your edit/addition, I understand being annoyed with the guy you know.  Reminds me of foreign exchange students I knew in college that talked about how "stupid" America was.  I'm pretty up with immigrants coming here and all that but I found that quite annoying and said as much. 

Glad to hear you are feeling better.

First, congratulations.  

Second, I understand the “logistics” issues. My friend and coworker is Mexican. His wife and daughter are birth citizens. He was retaining his Mexican citizenship so he could easily go home for his retirement.  Probably 4 years ago he went for citizenship. A big part of it was anti Mexican political sentiment, citizenship was safer than permanent residence. One other perk was it helped in sponsoring family members coming into the US. 

Keith Tanner said:

I wasn't trying to come across as a downer, sorry if it came across that was. I have to admit I've got a different viewpoint on this. I have a green card and a US-sourced wife, and I'm going to be picking up my citizenship soon because it's the best long-term solution to stay in my home. Green cards expire, so you have to go through an expensive renewal process when they do. It also adds a certain level of insecurity, although not as much as being on a visa. So when I get my citizenship, it's not going to be for a hoo-rah reason but for logistical ones. The US is a good place to live, but it's not only good place to live. I'd probably prefer a free pint brewed by a friend over something draped in the stars and stripes.

Nah. I'm pretty pragmatic as it is.

Yeah, the U.S. isn't the only good place to live. I imagine it's a much bigger step up coming from a small-ish African country than from Canada or other developed nation.

I figure might as well give him a free pint *and* a half-joking gift draped in the stars and stripes. Brewing a free pint doesn't seem like a lot of work to me. I was going to brew something anyway, I just let him pick what it was going to be. (The pilot batch didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, anyway. It's just 'okay'.)