Newt Gingrich’s The Americano
September 23, 2009
Newt Gingrich, one of the only Conservatives who seems to fully understand how critical the Latino electorate will be to future elections, just launched a new website: The Americano. Funny that the same man who called Spanish “the language of the ghetto” just two years ago is now leading the way on bilingual Conservative media. I’ll give it to Gingrich – he’s smart. Hopefully this effort serves as a good reminder to Progressives that they can’t just take Latino voters for granted.
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This is not to surprising. Gingrich has no principles. He simply goes wherever he thinks the votes are and does what he must to fool people into giving his party their vote. We are right to be worried about this. Gingrich is, as you say, very smart. He is good at fooling people. We must make sure he is fought.
Newt wasn’t lying. 1:10-1:35 http://tinyurl.com/ghettolanguage
In addition to many Conservsatives not appreciating the future impact of the latino vote, I can add at least three other reasons for their heavy resistance:
1- The Conservative media fuels the fire with divisive labels and misleading Americans into thinking their taxes will increase to support immigrants and people will lose their jobs to lower wage workers.
2- Americans generally fear things they do not understand. The basic American 3-step plan is to 1) attend school 2) get a job 3) work and live happily every after. With immigrants,come having to re-tool, re-think and re-learn. Americans have to add a 4th step to the plan: re-education, of language, culture and understanding. That upsets the 3 easy steps.
3- America has traditionally considered itself the place where others desire to come, to adapt and assimilate into its language, culture, traditions and customs. There does exist a combination of pride, heritage, slight arrogance and at times simple ignorance to the customs of places beyond our borders.
One dichotomy that exists in America is the very fact that students are told and taught in school that they need study a second language to further their knowledge and provide an advantage when seeking a career. Students do see a foreign language as a type of advantage in the workforce. The short-coming is that many seem to not realize that learning a foreign language is not necessarily to move to a foreign country and speak the language there, rather, it is to work here, in country, and better understand our domestic workers who speak a foreign language, as well as attracting business abroad.
In sum, the main reasons latinos and foreign languages and customs are currently tolerated is because of politics and capitalism. Politicians realize the vote potential. Business realizes the economic potential. The shortcoming is that, unlike places like Europe and Latin America, people are less concerned with the cultural value for America.
I immigrated to the USA legally and learned English. Why can’t others do the same?
Matt – You’re lying to yourself. ALL politicians seek votes to keep them in power, not just conservatives.
The citizens of the USA have rejected time and again, to make English an “official” language of the USA. True it is the predominant language, but Americans understand that being a nation of immigrants, our culture is deeper and richer when we have a choice as to what language or languages we choose to speak.
Part of family came as French in the 1700′s. That language was stamped out in south Louisiana. Part escaped the tragedies of the former Yugoslavia – that language was abandoned. Part came from south America – Peru. Thank goodness I adopted Spanish as a second language. I am much more as a person for doing that.
Americans, in general, reject limitations on our achievements, so speaking only one language, English, would place a limitation on society, and on our intellect as a society.
Monolingual Americans (English-only speaking), by putting so much pressure on first generation, Spanish speaking persons in the USA, are actually putting themselves and their children at a potential disadvantage.
It is true that as adults, it is more difficult to learn a second language. So Spanish speakers who arrive in the USA as adults, may not learn English.
BUT, these very same parents, feel the pressure to learn English, and they pass this pressure to their children. Their children will learn English, and they will learn it well. They will also learn Spanish.
At the same time, English speaking Americans are encouraging their children to learn a second language to compete in the future global economy. It will be more difficult for children of monolingual parents to do so.
Therefore, in the next generation, the children of the Spanish speakers will have the advantage in the workforce, because they will speak two languages.
Thanks to the pressure from the “English only” people, the bilinguals will be the employers, and the monolinguals, the employees. Interesting how things work.