Sorry. We don’t hold with the use of invincible ignorance (simply refusing up front to listen to the other side’s evidence) around these parts.
Nice try. You raised the issue of illegal immigration by citing Santorum’s illegal-immigration talking points as your only evidence for the “racist” claim. Thus, you’re stuck with it unless you either drop the claim or find another line of evidence.
Republicans have had a “fund Democratic primary and Green Party candidates we want to hurt the Dems” for a while now. Al Sharpton came in for a lot of big bucks from people 180 degrees opposed to his platform in 2004 as I recall. Nader got a lot of help trying to get on the ballots in 2004 as well by people who gave to both him and then maxed out to Bush.
Will Casey caucus with the Dems? If so, then I’d vote for him. End of story. The Dem party won’t let him do anything nutty anyway.
It took one the biggest Goddamned hurricanes ever to get you to realize some people are struggling in life?!? How observant. :rolleyes:
We all know there are people struggling. That’s why many of us do what we can in our own small ways to help out. Be it volunteering or donating cash/items. If you can’t find any hope in life until everyone is saved, that would explain your seeming lack of pleasure in life. There will always be people that are suffering in some way. I take, unselfishly, comfort in knowing that I and the ones I love are still doing allright. Even friends that have recently lost their jobs aren’t destitute.
I’d love to have a world where nobody is roughing it out. Not gonna happen. So I do what I can to help, and enjoy what is good in the lives of my loved ones.
If you feel some need to beat yourself up with the guilt stick over current or even past issues, that’s your right. It’s also my right to state that overall, we have it pretty damn good.
Don’t even try. As soon as we figure out what’s cool (or l33tn355) today, the bastards change the cool words all over again. Dat’s da real shiznit. 
The Democrats may challenge the Green Party’s signatures.
Apparently, the Greens also got money from pro-Republicans. Amazingly, their Senate candidate has no problems with that.
Robin
More to the point, MsRobyn, they only got money from conservatives.
Why is that so amazing? He’s on the ballot now, with enough money to actually campaign effectively, and while I’m sure he knows that the Republicans just gave him the money to hurt the Democrats, that’s not his concern…the Green party tends to think that the Republicans and the Democrats are just two sides of the same coin, anyway, both equally as bad.
More of a bigot really. Defend American culture when the most populous illegal immigration population shares all their cultural traits, including language, with US citizens from the Southwestern US that aren’t from illegal immigrant stock. There is the English Only bit which strives to discourage government participation and eliminate equal protection of those not fluent in English language. And their is the lie about illegals recieving SS benefits.
Since so many, especially the movers and shakers, in the anti-illegal immigration are ignorant, stupid, bigoted, or some combination of all three, I can see how this BS is gobbled up as Gospel by them. It doesn’t have to be this way, as there are honest, non bigoted arguments against illegal immigration. But apparently they don’t rabble raise as well as those arguments are seldom used.
I didn’t mean “amazing” in the sense of “OH NOES!!!11!!!” I meant “amazing” in an ironic sense.
I don’t care what the Greens’ thinking is, the fact that they’re okay with money no matter where it comes from kind of gives me disincentive from voting for them.
Robin
Sorry to come in and post some facts in a thread, but claiming that advocating an official language is a sign of racism is not borne up by the realities of peer nations to the US, and possibly insulting to those truly subject to the evil of racism.
If wanting or having an official language is racist, then the world is filled with racist countries.
France: French language - Wikipedia
Spain: Spanish language - Wikipedia
Italy: Italy - Wikipedia
In fact, you can see a large list of racist countries here, many of whom have only one official language. In fact, it looks like the US is dragging its feet behind the more enlightened countries by not having an official language. But that’s not a fact, that’s opinion.
[Mel Blanc] Ummm, could be![/Mel]
Well, if you accept that premise whole-hog, then I guess the next fallacy to be attacked is that having a different language determines or is a primary determining factor in “race”. I think that will be a hard one to prove myself - as far as the twin evils of racism and intolerance go, most people I know who are subject to their impacts speak the same language I do. Then I guess we can ask why I see so little talk of countries like France being “racist” for having an official language - in fact, a few casual searches don’t pull up any instances of those who feel that a current US-based desire for an official language is “racist” also posting that the French are “racists” for having an official language. But I guess that must be the SDMB search database giving me problems, or me not using the proper search terms. It is Monday, after all…
I said bigoted not racist. But the world is full of bigoted countries. And the English-only movement in the US is primarily a bigoted movement supported by primarily by bigots. And FWIW, Spanish (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, territory of Puerto Rico) is as US a language as French (Louisiana) or English (the other 50 states).
That is all true. But it is also true that, in the U.S., “language” and “culture” have been used as code-words for “race” and the “Official English” movement was a cover for a racist agenda from the start.
From Blood, Class and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies, by Christopher Hitchens, discussing the “official English” movement of 1988:
In that respect, then, one would have to have some compelling evidence that the person in question is using the desire for an official language as a racist “code-word”. Now, IIRC we’ve had a few misunderstandings in the Pit where people accused others of something or another over code-words or code-numbers even. I don’t think we want to re-open the whole code/magic numbers thing, as that seemed to really embarass a few people, but I have no idea whether or not this Santroum fellow is a member of a racist movement. And if there isn’t other evidence that shows he’s only using it as a “code word”, then claiming that the official language thing is a racist agenda is, well, not quite supported. Thus far the evidence seems to be he’s a Republican, wants to build a wall to stop illegal immigration from its primary source (Mexico), and wants to protect “American Culture”, whatever the hell that is.
So a more chartiable reading of those points might give another opinion - that he’s a guy who wants to have an official language for the sake of efficiency and smaller goverment spending (printing all government publications in 2 or more languages could be a huge cost), wants to grab the low-hanging fruit in slowing down illegal immigration (the border of Mexico is unquestionably the largest source of illegal immigrants, regardless of the initial country of origin of the immigrants themselves), and finally, I guess by defending American Culture…well, I’m not sure what he means by that; it seems the least-defensible thing. Maybe he’s harkening to a misguided and warped 1950’s-type world where men were men and drove Cadillacs with tailfins, women were women and stayed in the kitchen and had a martini ready for the man when he got home, and Junior was an Eagle Scout who would grow up to marry the girl next door.
But rolling out the racism charge really seemed odd to me based on so little. If I hadn’t had such a boring morning today and been recently looking up the question of “official languages” and history, I guess I wouldn’t even have commented at all.
Its not that the “English only” meme is, by definition, racist. But, as I’m sure you recognize, it offers cover and camouflage. It permits a re-definition, so that a person who might otherwise examine his opinions in a harsh light is allowed a softer, gentler definition. No, of course, I have nothing against Mexicans, I’m just terribly concerned about the Gov. printing office budget. And efficiency. Lay awake nights, worrying about efficiency.
Racism is no longer acceptable in America, and thank the Good Lord for it. Very few people will admit, even to themselves, that they have any taint of racism. In most cases, if forced to confront thier own racism, people will change, at least outwardly. Step one, for the optimist, best you can hope for, pessimist.
But offer such a person some cover, some camouflage, for the same attitudes and they are much less likely to make the needed changes, to confront themselves. As far as language goes, I would relate a current joke: what do you call someone who speaks several languages? Multi-lingual. Someone who speaks two? Bi-lingual. Someone who speaks only one? American.
Just so…
This might be an explanation, therefore it is the explanation. Frankly, I don’t put any trust in theories that rely on secret decoder rings.
I appreciate the frankness, John. I think the “secret decoder ring” implication is a meaningless bit of snark. In all candor, with all due awe.
On the other hand, the arguments advanced in favor of English as an official language are so weak that it seems that some guessing at ulterior motives is necessary.
It is possible for people to support political issues for reasons that aren’t socially acceptable; it seems awfully foolish to completely ignore the possibility that a politician might be lying about their motives. I know that honesty and trustworthiness is what our legislators are usually known for, but the explanations offered for the necessity of English as an official language don’t strike me or a lot of other people as sufficient for the amount of money and energy people have spent advancing that goal.