December 1, 2007

Assimilation

Perhaps it’s just me, a product of Ukranian and Polish grandparents who, prior to producing my mother and her two sisters and later raising me, immigrated to the United States and immersed themselves in the business of becoming English speaking, patriotic Americans, but…

I have long been rather nonplussed at the drive by our portside political community to make light of the above concept.

Should the Salvation Army be able to require its employees to speak English? You wouldn’t think that’s controversial. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is holding up a $53 billion appropriations bill funding the FBI, NASA and Justice Department solely to block an attached amendment, passed by both the Senate and House, that protects the charity and other employers from federal lawsuits over their English-only policies.

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.

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.

What aggravates me here is that, we being a democracy and all, the Democrats, knowing that the vast majority of Americans believe that the English language should be coin of the realm here in the U.S., continue to press their multi-lingual agenda — of course, we know that they are motivated by targeted minority votes rather than the good of our country — and that they are willing to make light of the will of The People as such.

Maybe they should rename their party…

Yet the 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.”

“SNIP”, as they say,

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. The EEOC sued only four years after a federal judge in Boston, in a separate suit, upheld the Salvation Army’s English-only policy as an effort to “promote workplace harmony.” Like a house burglar, the EEOC is trying every door in the legal neighborhood until it finds one that’s open.

The EEOC is no friend of the American People. They stink of the SPP/NAU agenda.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), who authored the now-stalled amendment to prohibit the funding of EEOC lawsuits against English-only rules, is astonished at the opposition he’s generated. Rep. Joe Baca (D., Calif.), chair of the Hispanic Caucus, boasted that “there ain’t going to be a bill” including the Alexander language because Speaker Pelosi had promised him the conference committee handling the Justice Department’s budget would never meet. So Sen. Alexander proposed a compromise, only requiring that Congress be given 30 days notice before the filing of any EEOC lawsuit. “I was turned down flat,” he told me. “We are now celebrating diversity at the expense of unity. One way to create that unity is to value, not devalue, our common language, English.”

That’s what pro-assimilation forces are moving to do. TV Azteca, Mexico’s second-largest network, is launching a 60-hour series of English classes on all its U.S. affiliates. It recognizes that teaching English empowers Latinos. “If you live in this country, you have to speak as everybody else,” Jose Martin Samano, Azteca’s U.S. anchor, told Fox News. “Immigrants here in the U.S. can make up to 50% or 60% more if they speak both English and Spanish. This is something we have to do for our own people.”

Azteca isn’t alone. Next month, a new group called Our Pledge will be launched. Counting Jeb Bush and former Clinton Housing Secretary Henry Cisneros among its board members, the organization believes absorbing immigrants is “the Sputnik challenge of our era.” It will put forward two mutual pledges. It will ask immigrants to learn English, become self-sufficient and pledge allegiance to the U.S. It will ask Americans to provide immigrants help navigating the American system, the chance to eventually become a citizen and an atmosphere of respect.

Go to any other country in the world and try to undermine its official language, and see how well recieved you are.

In 1999, President Bill Clinton said “new immigrants have a responsibility to enter the mainstream of American life.” Eight years later, Clinton strategists Stan Greenberg and James Carville are warning their fellow Democrats that the frustration with immigrants and their lack of assimilation is creating a climate akin to the anti-welfare attitudes of the 1990s. They point out that 40% of independent voters now cite border security issues as the primary reason for their discontent.

In 1996, Mr. Clinton and a GOP Congress joined together to defuse the welfare issue by ending the federal welfare entitlement. Bold bipartisan action is needed again. With frustration this deep, it’s in the interests of both parties not to let matters get out of hand.

The entire quoted Opinion Journal column, by John Fund, is here.

The only reason the Democrats are so dead set on creating a multi-lingual America is to get the votes of those immigrants/minorities who don’t consider learning English or otherwise assimilating into mainstream America a priority.

The modern Democratic Party is so, so different from the one to which I belonged and that which I supported during my younger, less informed years. Today, they are more than willing to sacrifice our country, the form of government that makes it great and any and every other ideal that distinguishes America from infinitely less desireable geographic entities for the sole purpose of having their politicians elected to office.

To my way of thinking, that is not only grossly disgraceful, but it is also pure, unmitigated treason.

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13 Responses to “Assimilation”

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  3. That 1 Guy Says:

    When I first read this crap, the first thing that came to mind is “How fluent in Spanish is Pelosi? Or any of the others?” I do believe you’re right when you say it’s just to get the minority votes. Funny thing is, even here in Fresno, a lot of the folks that they are trying to buy off don’t buy their lines…

  4. Seth Says:

    T1G –

    None of this bides well for the Democrats come the 2008 elections; They have pushed the envelope far too heavily since taking over Congress and now they’re paying the price — more and more voters are realizing that they’re all about politics to the extent that they have back-burnered the good of the country, and that nothing they say to their constituents or promise to get elected counts for much. All that flip-flopping…

  5. Shoprat Says:

    The failure to defend our culture is a failure of both parties but the Donks are proud of it.

  6. Seth Says:

    Shoprat –

    I hadn’t really thought about it that way, but now that you mention it, you’re absolutely right, LOL.

    What a comedy act the Democrats have evolved into since the far left bought ‘em.

  7. Always On Watch Says:

    The only reason the Democrats are so dead set on creating a multi-lingual America is to get the votes of those immigrants/minorities…

    Much as Europe did when it imported those hordes of Muslim immigrants!

  8. Seth Says:

    AOW –

    And much as our own cherished (NOT!!!!) left is working on doing today.

    They’ll butt-munch CAIR and all other Muslim constituencies to get their votes, and when the inevitable Islamic problems eventually reach tragedy levels (bloody, destructive riots, terrorism, et al), they’ll blame it on the Republicans.

  9. Goat Says:

    This will come back to bite the Dems hard in ‘08 if the Iraq war continues to progress as well as it has recently. Some 90% of the people think English should be the National Official language.

  10. Gayle Says:

    What infuriates me about the Dems is they are so selfish they would sell us out simply to regain power. I hope that Goat is right and that it bites them in their butts really hard.

  11. The Gray Monk Says:

    Our very own Labour Party has been undermining the language of the UK for decades with their politically motivated “multi-faith/multi-culturalism. There isn’t a local authority anywhere in Britain that isn’t producing every official notice it sends out in at least two languages and in parts five or six. We also have TV channels now broadcasting only in Hindi, Gujurati and Arabic - and of course, Welsh.

    I give it maybe fifty years and we won’t be a “United” anything. Assuming we are still - the native Brits that is - able to occupy our own country with Labour’s open door policy to immigrants from everywhere except Europe.

  12. Seth Says:

    Goat –

    I’m actually enjoying watching the Democrats cheerfully sow the seeds of their own November, 2008 demise.

    Gayle –

    I believe the teeth marks will be large and deep. :-)

    Gray Monk –

    It sounds like your politicians are taking pages from the San Francisco playbook: When I last lived there, city agencies had translations in armloads of languages: Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, Arabic, an indeterminate language or two, Filipino, etc, etc…

    Hell, who needs to speak English in that multicultural quagmire when they seem to aggressively accommodate every foreign language known to man?

    Nationally, while our own liberal contingent tries ever harder to do what Britain’s Labour Party has apparently been more successful at doing, we are still a country whose majority (you wouldn’t know it to read our newspapers and watch our evening news, as western media lists sharply to port) has Judeo-Christian and politically conservative leanings — the Democrats are learning that more and more as they attempt to use their Congressional majority to advance their multicultural agendas.

    They will be extremely displeased at the culmination of the elections in November, 2008, now that the American people have had a sample of their current politics.

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