What the Spanish language presidential debate means for the Republican party

It was bad enough that the GOP candidates, with the sole exception of Tancredo, participated in this all-Spanish language debate. But it passes belief that they participated in a debate in which the moderator was a non-citizen and a vocal champion of the “invasion” that is transforming America into a culturally Hispanic country.

The GOP candidates, with the exception of Tancredo, are revealed as fops and fools. They deserve the Ehud Olmert Prize for National Surrender. — Lawrence Auster

I would have great difficulty voting for any candidate who participated in this debate. The candidates who have done so have legitimized Spanish as a public language for America, as a language of American politics at the highest level. They have explicitly abandoned the idea of assimilation and a common American culture. Republicans and conservatives, even when they supported large scale immigration, stood for assimilation—that was their theme, that was the core of their beloved “American civic religion.” By contrast, I always said that to favor assimilation while supporting the mass immigration of unassimilable peoples was absurd, because the unassimilable immigration would inevitably change our culture, notwithstanding all our rhetoric about assimilation. The GOP candidates’ participation in an all- Spanish presidential debate proves my point in spades. Assimilation has officially died as the ideal of the Republican party and mainstream conservatism.

It was Bush in the 2000 campaign who initiated this explicit abandoment of assimilation, with his speech in Miami celebrating the spread of the Spanish language in America. And now, seven years later, Bushism has taken over. Right-liberalism (all people are the same and can assimilate to our universalism-based culture) has led to left-liberalism (all cultures are of equal value and we must be equally open to all of them).

It is no more possible for a Republican party that has nominated one of these candidates to say that it believes in assimilation, than it would be possible for a Republican party that has nominated Giuliani to say that it believes in traditional family values.

* * *

And who was the moderator of this debate? As Allan Wall informed us when we discussed the upcoming debate last month, it was Jorge Ramos of Univision, a Mexican citizen living in the U.S. who seeks the complete Hispanicization of America through immigration and demographic expansion.

Mark Krikorian wrote about Ramos at the Corner:

What right does Jorge Ramos, one of Univision’s anchors, have to moderate a debate for American citizens about the American presidential election? The man is a foreigner—I don’t mean foreign-born, I mean a foreign citizen. As this profile explains, Ramos “maintains Mexican citizenship in order to have the option to return there one day.” Ramos (a “minority” champion who’s one of the whitest men I have ever seen) has written, among other books, No Borders: A Journalist’s Search for Home and is an explicit cultural separatist; from a 2002 column (original here, Allan Wall’s translation here):

“The famous and stereotypical idea of the melting pot is a myth. The European immigrants—Italians, Germans and Poles, that preceded the Latinos assimilated rapidly to the American culture. But the Latinos have achieved the feat of integrating economically to the United States without losing their culture. Such a phenomenon has never occurred before.”

As Allan asks, “Would Mexico allow Lou Dobbs to moderate a debate for Mexican presidential candidates? Of course not.”

For many years, immigration supporters have said that we don’t have to worry about cultural assimilation, because the experience of participating in the American economy would assimilate people culturally as well. Ramos’s statement that Hispanics have integrated economically into the U.S. without losing their culture is a direct reproof of that. Allan Wall at Vdare quotes Ramos further on this point:

“There are entire days in which I do not have to pronounce a single word in English, nor do I eat hamburgers or pizzas, and I certainly don’t watch TV programs in a language besides Spanish. Sometimes all the emails I receive are in Spanish and those who greet me say ‘hola’ or ‘alo’ but not ‘hello’. This would be normal in Bogota, Santiago or San Salvador. But it is becoming more frequent in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami and Chicago.

“Why? Well, it’s because the United States is undergoing a true demographic revolution. Some like to call it “la reconquista”. The same territories that Mexico lost to the United States in 1848—Arizona, Texas, California…- and many others that did not form part of the Mexican Republic—such as Florida and Illinois –are experiencing a genuine cultural invasion. …in many of these places Spanish predominates over English and they sell more tortillas and hot sauce than bagels and ketchup…

“Presently there are more than 40 million Latinos living in the United States—to the 35 million that the Census counts you have to add the 8 million undocumented [VDARE.COM note: That’s PC for illegal aliens] that are mostly of Latin American origin… Spanish is heard in every corner of the country, including the White House… The most-listened to radio program in New York is El Vacilon of Miami and not….Howard Stern’s show.”

There’s more. Read the rest of Wall’s quotes of Ramos.

It was bad enough that the GOP candidates, with the sole exception of Tancredo, participated in this all-Spanish language debate. But it passes belief that they participated in a debate in which the moderator was a non-citizen and a vocal champion of the “invasion” that is transforming America into a culturally Hispanic country.

The GOP candidates, with the exception of Tancredo, are revealed as fops and fools. They deserve the Ehud Olmert Prize for National Surrender.

- end of initial entry -

RG from Dearborn writes:

This Jorge Ramos is a unbelievably smug, slick, publicly open “reconquista”—no question about it. It’s shameful that someone who openly yearns to transform the U.S. into a Latin American nation and a non-citizen at that wields such political/media power. North American Union here we come!

Scott C. writes:

I have witnessed in my lifetime the dissolution of American culture and a profound betrayal of the American people, particularly the middle class, by both political parties. I expected it from the Democrats, whom I consider traitorous, but I did not expect it from the Republicans, whom I have supported, contributed to and campaigned for since 1980. Over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that neither party represents the interests of the citizens of this once great nation. I am saddened and sick at heart. Last week I got a phone call from the RNC, asking for a contribution. I said, “I have no intention of contributing to the Republican party.” The caller asked, “Aren’t you still a loyal Republican?” I answered, “I didn’t leave the Republican party. The Republican party left me. The Republicans no longer represent my interests. If you want a contribution from someone whose interests you do represent, call an illegal alien.” Then hung up.

LA replies:

While I said a few weeks ago that this debate was terrible news, and said we needed to appeal to the candidates not to attend it, I didn’t follow up. I feel badly that I didn’t. We should have made a huge stink about this. We should have tried to launch a telephone campaign to persuade the candidates not to attend. Instead we did nothing.

Terry Morris writes:

“We should have made a huge stink about this. We should have tried to launch a telephone campaign to persuade the candidates not to attend. Instead we did nothing.”

That’s right. We did nothing. And that’s on us.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 11, 2007 12:04 PM | Send