America used to be the "Melting Pot" where immigrants would come and assimilate into their new country's culture, adopting its language and customs. No thanks to the poisonous, suicidal ideology of liberalism, to even suggest that English be the official language of our government (or even the private sector) is to invite much opprobrium and accusations that you are a slew of "-ist" pathologies. It is now un-American to suggest that people who come here try to fit in with the rest of us Americans.
John Fund talks about Nancy Pelosi and the fascist Democrats willingness to tell an overwhelming majority of Americans to get stuck on this subject.
The U.S. used to welcome immigrants while at the same time encouraging assimilation. Since 1906, for example, new citizens have had to show "the ability to read, write and speak ordinary English." A century later, this preference for assimilation is still overwhelmingly popular. A new Rasmussen poll finds that 87% of voters think it "very important" that people speak English in the U.S., with four out of five Hispanics agreeing. And 77% support the right of employers to have English-only policies, while only 14% are opposed.(The irony of Ahnuld lecturing people to learn English - he's been here for 39 years and still has a heavier accent than an Asian kid would have after 39 weeks - shall go unremarked upon by me.)
But hardball politics practiced by ethnic grievance lobbies is driving assimilation into the dustbin of history. The House Hispanic Caucus withheld its votes from a key bill granting relief on the Alternative Minimum Tax until Ms. Pelosi promised to kill the Salvation Army relief amendment.
[T]he public is ready for leadership that will forthrightly defend reasonable assimilation. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger won plaudits when he said last June that one way to close the Latino learning divide was "to turn off the Spanish TV set. It's that simple. You've got to learn English." Ruben Navarette, a columnist with the San Diego Union-Tribune, agreed, warning that "industries such as native language education or Spanish-language television [create] linguistic cocoons that offer the comfort of a warm bath when what English-learners really need is a cold shower."
But the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that last year filed over 200 lawsuits against employers over English-only rules, has a different vision. Its lawsuit against the Salvation Army accuses the organization of discriminating against two employees at its Framingham, Mass., thrift store "on the basis of their national origin." Its crime was to give the employees a year's notice that they should speak English on the job (outside of breaks) and then firing them after they did not.
If I were to move to France and demand that they speak English to show sensitivity to my po' widdle feewings, they'd snarl, "Obtenir de l'enfer ici, vous stupides d'Amérique" back at me. Mexico has their southern border braced against invaders and then turns and blasts us for our feeble feints at building a Potemkin wall. This is what fuels Tom Tancredo's one-issue campaign - you ask him what he had for lunch and he'll go off on illegal immigration - and his supporters, people who are sick and tired over being called xenophobic racists because they want immigrants to follow the process their European ancestors did.
I wonder if any of the Stupid Party clowns (other than Tancredo) will take a strong, SERIOUS, FOR REALS, stand on securing our borders and defining our English-speaking culture or whether they're too busy trying to pander to the Latino vote?
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