Posted by Mr. J.Q. Public |
Please do not be misled by the blog administrators' classification of this post (over my objections) as "Satire & Humor." I have never been more serious in my life.
I see in this op-ed by Tancredo, who I'd sort of forgotten was running for president,that he took a principled stand against participating in the Spanish-language debate that ran on Univision. (Memeorandum) If it weren't for the fact that God has apparently endorsed Tom Huckabee, and I believe in doing whatever God wants me to do, I would definitely consider giving my support to Sam Tancredo.
Tancredo refused to take part in the Republican Spanish-language debate because he doesn't want "to endorse the further Balkanization of American political life." (Miami Herald) I didn't understand this at first because I was always under the impression that the Balkans are islands somewhere in the Middle East, but then I looked it up on Wikipedia and learned that it is a term "used to describe the process of fragmentation or division of a region or state into smaller regions or states that are often hostile or non-cooperative with each other."
The only way for us to build a unified body politic is to ignore voters who refuse to learn English well enough to become real Americans. As George W. Bush has taught us, sometimes you have to be a divider to be a uniter.
Mark Krikorian at The Corner said:
Whatever you think of [Tancredo] as a candidate, is there anything in the op-ed that a conservative would disagree with? The only rationale for actually going to this debate would be to say you're running precisely to ensure there are no future debates like it and that all immigrants have a moral obligation to learn English before participating in American politics. (Foro de Candidatos Presidenciales Republicanos)
I couldn't have said it better myself. "Is there anything in the op-ed that a conservative would disagree with?" A real God-fearing conservative believes in making people live up to their moral obligations, even if it means we can't talk to them in their language to explain what their moral obligations are.
This is what people who accuse Mike Tancredo of being a "racist" fail to understand. He's not saying that Spanish-speaking people can never be real Americans. He's just saying that Republicans don't have any reason to talk to the ones who aren't.
I hope the other Republican candidates---who did participate--- will take note. Why should conservatives pander to the many Spanish-speaking Americans living in this country if they won't even bother to learn English well enough for Republicans to explain to them why they should vote Republican? If they won't learn English before trying to decide who they should vote for, they deserve a Democratic president.
And as Romney said in the debate, when Republicans act like Democrats everyone loses, even Hispanics. (Townhall)
In his Miami Herald op-ed, Mike Tancredo argued:
Can anyone imagine Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft having a Republican primary debate in German or Italian in 1912? Of course not.... I do not believe it is proper to appeal to the ‘‘Hispanic vote'' or the "Asian vote'' or the "Black vote." I believe we must appeal only for American votes. (Miami Herald)
Tancredo, a true Republican, is only interested in the votes of real Americans.
He doesn't want or need the "Hispanic vote" or the "Asian vote" or the "Black vote"---not even if they try to give it to him. On the other hand, if people who think of themselves as "Hispanics", "Asians", and "Blacks" will only put their special interests aside and think about what is good for America instead of what's good for them, then Tancredo will talk to them (provided they first learn English, of course). But if they want to vote for Tancredo, they're going to have to earn it. That's the American way.
At a blog called Rubber Hose (which I assumed from the name would be conservative, but clearly isn't, since there is a four-letter word right in the title of the post) the blogger Upyernoz has a posting called "Why Tancredo is Full of Sh_t" purporting to point out "contradictions" in Tancredo's speech.
Specifically, Upyernoz (from the name, I think he might be an Arab or Hungarian) finds it inconsistent for Tancredo to argue in The Miami Herald that a political debate is aimed at all citizens and then to argue in the same article that "[c]onducting political debates in any language other than English, whether Korean, French, Farsi or Spanish, is telling new immigrants that they need not take that particular requirement for naturalization seriously." (Miami Herald)
I think Upyernoz is
failing to read between the lines and missing a subtle
point. What Sam Tancredo is saying is that since you have to know
English to be a citizen, it's pointless for a Republican politician to learn Spanish. Only English speakers need apply. Learn English, become a citizen, and get a
job---IN THAT ORDER---and then you can listen to Mike Tancredo debate. He's not being racist; he's just giving you something to look forward to.
All this is making me wish I could vote for Tancredo in the primary instead of Huckabee. I also feel bad that I always got Tancredo mixed up with that guy who dropped out, Tom Brownback. All three of them held up their hands at that Republican debate when they were asked who didn't believe in evolution, which is when I first started getting confused about which one was which.
But now Tancredo has made me realize how much we really need a Republican with the courage to take a stand on this whole pandering-to-Hispanic-voters-by-debating-in-Spanish nonsense.
I like Tom Huckabee but he seems kind of like he might be too nice to be president. He said a lot of touchy-feely stuff in the debate about Republicans needing to "reach out" to Hispanics that sounded exactly like a Democrat.
If the Republicans only got 30 percent of the vote, somehow we didn't do a very good job of communicating that that's what we would provide in terms of opportunity and fairness. It says more about our party and our need to reach out thank it does about than it does about the Hispanic population of this country. If we're really serious about truly saying we want more than 30 percent of the vote, then as we look at issues like education we'll understand that while the dropout rate from high school is 30 percent among all populations, it's 50 percent among Hispanics. ....We've got to change that by creating personalized education that focuses on perpetuating what's good for students, not just making what's good for the school. There's also issues and disparities between diabetes and other issues of health. So I think, if our policies reflect lifting people up, we'll get the vote. (The Transcript of the GOP's Univsion Debate)
You know what these ministers are like. They yammer on so much about seventy times seven and loving your enemy and turning the other cheek that after awhile it sinks in and they start taking Jesus literally.
Jesus is my savior, but right now we need more of an old Testament kind of president, and if Dick Cheney's not going to run, it's going to have to be someone who doesn't believe in evolution and does believe in an eye for an eye. I've almost given up hope that Dick Cheney will run, so I wish God would let me vote for Mike Tancredo.
I don't know why God didn't raise Tancredo's numbers in the poll, but He didn't. So all we evangelical types can do is pray that God will change His mind and give us a sign that he's withdrawing his endorsement of Huckabee. As the Bible says, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men."
JQP
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Memeorandum has discussion here. And you might want to check out these blogs:
Crooks and Liars questions Tancredo's assertion that his Italian grandparents were made to learn English and sets out the case for concluding he is a racist.
The Unapologetic Mexican argues that Tancredo is suffering from "internalized colonialization."
LatinoPundit says Tancredo has lost the Latin vote.
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