Disappointing Lou Dobbs

By Patrick Cleburne

04/21/2007

So it is sad to report that a recent interview he gave to Britain’s Financial Times is disappointing.

Lunch with the FT: Lou Dobbs by Edward Luce April 20 2007 is admittedly hostile and soaked with the type of uniquely British supercilious condescension which, one suspects, had more to do with the American Revolution than generally realized. Perhaps Dobbs felt the need to be conciliatory.

Luce reports:

I had always assumed that what motivated him was a cultural — and particularly linguistic — chauvinism dressed up in the language of economic populism. Apparently I was wrong.

Since one man’s chauvinism is another’s patriotism, this is not encouraging. Neither is Dobb’s response:

he goes to some length to disabuse me of the charge of xenophobia that he suspects is lurking beneath my questions. “There is no country that comes close second in the level of diversity or of lawful immigration that the US attracts. I embrace it.”

And much, much worse:

Nor…does he have any fears about a competition between Spanish and English to become the dominant language in the US. “It just doesn’t matter to me if America has one language or not,” he says. “What matters is whether immigrants are committed to this nation. Do they fly one flag in their heart?”

This suggests a disastrous misapprehension. As Joe Guzzardi pointed out recently, refusal to learn the language of the host country is a very direct window into the hearts of immigrants: and a discouraging one.

Furthermore the drift to a multi lingual society rapidly leads to discrimination against monolingual speakers: the host community whom Dobbs is concerned to protect.

Many correspondents tell us the Lou Dobbs Tonight show frequently adopts themes and news items which have appeared on VDARE.COM. (No, we don’t expect to be acknowledged.)

Suggest his researchers read a little deeper.

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