By Allan Wall
05/11/2008
Last week, on May 5th, Cinco de Mayo, Senator John McCain once again showed his contempt for the Republican base by hitting it with a double whammy.
In the same statement (see here) McCain announced that 1) he was opening a Spanish language website, and 2) he was going to the convention of the Hispanic chauvinist agitator group the National Council of La Raza [NCLR].
Why did McCain choose Cinco de Mayo to announce his double whammy? As I pointed out recently, Cinco de Mayo is not even a big deal in Mexico. It’s hardly celebrated. My school didn’t even suspend classes for it.
But in the U.S., Cinco de Mayo has become a big Mexican-American drinking fest and de rigueur occasion for pandering by U.S. politicians — chief among them being Panderer-in-Chief George W. Bush.
John McCain’s Spanish-language website is called Estamos Unidos (We are united). If you only changed one letter, the "m" to a "d", then it would be Estados Unidos (United States). Clever, eh? You can see the website here.
The website has links to articles. Some of the articles are in Spanish, but some are in English. As time goes by, we can expect the McCain camp to hispanify more of the website.
There are also plenty of videos, including one with McCain talking (in English with Spanish subtitles) to Latino entrepreneurs. There are also promotional videos featuring Mel Martinez, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario Diaz-Balart plugging for McCain. All four of them are Cuban-Americans. In fact, all but Mario were born in Cuba. Cuban-Americans and Mexican-Americans do not always cooperate, but all the big league Mexican-Americans are already going for the Democrats, so I guess McCain had to settle for the Cubans.
Of course, McCain is not the only candidate with a Spanish website. Barack Obama has one also, which features a blog by Conchita Cruz of South Carolina. Conchita says she’s registered to vote, although judging from her photograph, she barely looks old enough.
The Obama website reports Obama gushing on about Cinco de Mayo too. Apparently, he said that
"As Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, it reminds us that, although the Mexican cultural traditions are an important part of who we are as Americans, the American dream is still out of reach of many Latinos." [My emphasis…!]
Hillary has what’s called a "bilingual" website, with articles in both Spanish and English and it includes her "Hispanic Agenda". (Hmmm, how about an American agenda?)
So why is it bad for any of these candidates to have Spanish-language websites? Aren’t they just reaching out to voters?
Yes they are — but in the wrong way, taking us down the slippery slope of linguistic, cultural and political balkanization.
A common civic language is a great advantage, one we shouldn’t toss on the junk heap so easily. English is our national language. It’s our language of public discourse. It’s the language of the Constitution and our legal system. How can you really understand American politics without knowing English?
Bilingual campaigning is still in its infancy. But it is already encouraging a divided electorate. In 2002, I wrote a VDARE.COM column about a Texas election in which gubernatorial candidate Tony Sanchez ran a bilingual campaign. But the image Sanchez presented in English was radically different from the image he presented in Spanish. That’s the way these things inevitably work.
Besides, American citizens are supposed to know English. It’s one of the requirements to get citizenship: "Applicants for naturalization must be able to read, write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in the English language." (There are exceptions — the elderly and the physically and mentally impaired are not required to learn English).
As for individuals born in the U.S., it used to be understood that they'd learn English by the time they got to school — though you can’t always count on that these days.
Linguistic balkanization is a threat to American national unity — and these three candidates are irresponsibly contributing to it. Shame on all three of them.
This campaign has even seen Univision-sponsored bilingual debates, held for the Democrats and the Republicans. Shame (again) on all those who participated — which was just about everybody, with the honorable exception of Tom Tancredo.
But John McCain’s encouragement of balkanization is not really a surprise. In the past, he has expressed his contempt for American culture, saying
"a nation conceived in an idea, in liberty, will prove stronger, more enduring, and better than any nation ordered to exalt the few at the expense of the many or made from a common race or culture or to preserve traditions that have no greater attribute than longevity."
In other words, who cares about a common American culture (or race)?
But when speaking to Hispanic leaders, McCain waxed eloquent about the growth of their culture (and race) in the United States:
"This [is] one of the defining moments in American history that really does define what kind of nation we are. If there was ever such a thing as a noble cause, it is the one we are embarked on now. Anyone who is afraid that somehow our culture will be anything but enriched by fresh blood and culture, in my view, has a distorted view of history and has a pessimistic view of our future."
So when John McCain promotes mass immigration, it’s more than desire for votes or big money. The man actually wants his country to be Hispanicized.
Nor is it surprising that McCain, in his Cinco de Mayo Double Whammy, announced he would deliver a speech to La Raza July 14th.
In case you're not familiar with the National Council of La Raza ["the Race"], it’s a radical Hispanic pressure group, funded by, among others, the Ford Foundation, Citigroup, Wal-mart, George Soros…and even by your tax dollars.
What does La Raza stand for? It supports driver’s licenses and in-state tuition for illegal aliens. It opposes a fence on the border and immigration enforcement cooperation between state, local and federal authorities. La Raza has links with MEChA and sponsors radical Mexican charter schools. And it’s currently attempting to shut down debate over the illegal invasion.
McCain’s kind of people, in other words.
This is by no means the senator’s first visit to "The Race".
In 1999, McCain was honored by La Raza and in 2004 he delivered the keynote address at their annual conference.
(Another prominent Republican who has spoken to assembled Razistas is Karl Rove, who spoke to the group in 2006. Rove was cheered for calling for an amnesty and booed for calling for border security, which shows you where La Raza stands.)
Here at VDARE.COM we don’t tell you how to vote. We can only tell you how bad the candidates are on the National Question.
Vote for whomever you want. But conservatives, and those who want to stop the alien invasion and America’s balkanization, should be under no delusions about John McCain. The man is an open borders fanatic, an associate of radical anti-Americans, a contemptuous enemy of white middle-class Americans and traditional American culture.
Yes, I know McCain served his country in the military and was a POW. As an Iraq veteran myself, I salute him for it. But that doesn’t give him a pass for the rest of his life, a blank check to tear our country apart.
McCain has a horrible record on immigration. Americans for Better Immigration gives him a grade of D (for both his Career grade and Recent grade).
Regarding the election, Roy Beck of Numbers USA/Americans for Better Immigration has a useful chart comparing the presidential candidates. Beck breaks down the candidates on immigration –related issues. On some issues, McCain is no different from Hillary or Obama, sometimes he’s a little better, sometimes worse. Not a great recommendation.
McCain’s negative leadership in promoting McCain-Kennedy and other horrible (though thankfully defeated) amnesty bills in recent years shows us exactly where he stands. He has supported marches by illegal aliens and is a strong proponent of Bilingual Education. His "Hispanic Outreach Director" is Juan Hernandez, a former Mexican cabinet official and rabid amnesty supporter, who has openly stated his goal was for Mexican-Americans to always "think Mexico first".
But it’s not just McCain’s positions, it’s his attitude. McCain is extremely contemptuous of Americans — even including fellow senators — who disagree with him.
In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, former Senator Rick Santorum described how things were during the amnesty debates:
" John McCain was the guy who was working with Ted Kennedy to drive it down our throats, and lectured us repeatedly about how xenophobic we were, lectured us, us being the Republican conference, about how wrong we were on this, how we were on the wrong side of history, and that you know, this is important for his…because having come from Arizona, knowing the strength of the Hispanic community, that we were going to be seen as racists, and he wasn’t going be part of that, that he was not a racist, and that if we were for tougher borders, it was a racist thing."
(Similarly, John McCain tried to prevent North Carolina Republicans from bringing up comments by Barack Obama’s preacher in a TV ad).
What’s really sad, discouraging and frustrating is how many GOP voters claim to care about protecting our borders but voted for John McCain anyway.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) recently released a study titled Poll: Voters Unaware of Candidates' Immigration Positions subtitled "McCain Supporters Farthest off the Mark". Ain’t that the truth!
It explains that
"A new poll using neutral language finds that primary and caucus voters have little knowledge of candidates' immigration positions. The results also show that voters often do not share their candidate’s position." [PDF]
What were these people thinking?
According to the CIS poll, only 34% of McCain voters (in the primaries and caucuses) know that McCain favors "eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants who meet certain requirements."
Incredibly, of those polled who voted for McCain, "35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement that would cause illegals to return home, another 10 percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21 percent didn’t know his position."
According to CIS, only 31% of McCain voters agree with the man on immigration.
Thanks a lot, folks, for selecting John McCain as the GOP candidate for president.
Now we're stuck with this guy — at least until November.
In his own way, John McCain is just as alienated from the United States as Barack Obama. Sure, each man has his own style, which appeals to a different set of voters. But both candidates display contempt for traditional American society, and both are contemptuous toward white working and middle class Americans.
McCain, like other elitist Republicans, thinks grassroots Republicans have nowhere else to go, and will have to vote for the GOP. That’s why the candidate thinks he can stick it to them again and again and they'll still vote for him come November.
But a lot could happen in the next six months. And John McCain, if he continues to stick it to the Republican base, just might be surprised.
American citizen Allan Wall ( email him) resides in Mexico, with a legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived here his "Dispatches from Iraq" are archived here his website is here.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.