Tom Tancredo wraps his bigotry in the American flag for the Miami Herald:
I declined the invitation to participate in the Spanish-language Republican presidential debate on Sunday because I do not want to endorse the further Balkanization of American political life.
The debate is being sponsored by Univisión, the country’s largest Spanish-language network, and the candidates’ answers will be translated into Spanish. Spanish-language news broadcasts and public-affairs programming is an expression of our First Amendment freedoms. I have given many interviews to Univisión as well as local Spanish-language stations. However, a Spanish-language presidential debate is a different animal altogether.
The question of bilingualism is not new to American politics. A former Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, once spoke about the importance of new immigrants giving up their old languages and allegiances in order to become equal partners in American democracy:
“We freely extend the hand of welcome and of good fellowship to every man, no matter what his creed or birthplace, who comes here honestly intent on becoming a good United States citizen like the rest of us. . . . Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction and purpose, not of creed or birthplace. The politician who bids for the Irish or German vote, or the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman or German, is despicable, for all citizens of this commonwealth should vote solely as Americans.”
Can anyone imagine Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft having a Republican primary debate in German or Italian in 1912? Of course not.
Funny thing. Woodrow Wilson won the election in 1912. I bet he would have been willing to talk to people in German.
This is the only country in the world that celebrates the fact that we can’t speak any foreign languages. We should all be learning Spanish. If there is a hell, people will speak nothing but Spanish and Tom Tancredo will be miserable.
Let me get this straight. So you’re a candidate. And debates are held to convince registered voters, actual American citizens, that they should vote for you. And most people vote for candidates who are mindful of their concerns and will work to solve issues which are important to them, the voters. And you, the candidate, tell these people, real American voters that their being actual legally voting citizens doesn’t matter? And that you don’t give a flying fuck about anything that might concern them because some of them might not speak English??
Wow! You, Mr. Tancredo, are a major league f@#%$&ing asshole! And, by the way, a credit to your Party.
Don’t be too sure about Wilson. He was originally from Georgia after all, and a base segregationist when it came to employing black people at the White House (ie, he didn’t).
Funny thing. Woodrow Wilson won the election in 1912. I bet he would have been willing to talk to people in German.
Ain’t nobody going to get that.
.
1916 is another matter.
sometimes you reap what you sow.
There no question that Tancredo is helping the Democrats. Except that he got reelected in his Colorado district with 67% of the vote, I would have guessed that he is a Democratic mole, making us look good.
I hope that he keeps up the good work. Still, I would not care to live in his district, and I’m not even Hispanic.
IF there is a hell, people will speak perfect English, Spanish, and 15 other languages, and will forever be changing from English to one he does not speak as he comes into hearing range.
They will also ignore him as a moron when he does speak. Oh, wait, they mostly do that already.
yeah, that’s even better.
This is the only country in the world that celebrates the fact that we can’t speak any foreign languages.
I honestly don’t think this is even hyperbole but an actual, literal mindboggling fact.
I’ve been in France you can be damned sure they’re proud as hell of their language and their speaking skills IN that language. But even the most narcissistic “patriotic” French citizen would come across as ludicrous as CELEBRATING his/her being monolingual.
I’ll never forget the day not so many years ago (literally maybe 3 or 4) when a poor soul who spoke very little English dialed the wrong number (mine) and once I figured out he spoke Spanish, I was able to help him. My boss walked by and his eye freaking boggled, a non-“Hispanic” speaking Spanish? And I’ll never forget his words, he asked someone else standing nearby if I was a spy.
I swear to God you can’t make that shit up – speaking Spanish and not being dark-skinned with black hair and brown eyes now makes you a spy.
It was just so mind-blowingly bizarre and stupid I did not even have a comeback when I got off the phone.
Now do I understand that most Americans are monolingual English speakers? Sure of course. Most French citizens are monolingual as well, same for Germans, Spaniards and Italians. But celebrating that is neo-Nazi, Falangist or whatever other domestic version of fascism applies.
Here in Romania there’s a significant ethnic Hungarian population and the head of our local version of the “Romanian pride” aka fascist party (PRM), Cornel Vadim Tudor went up on the equivalent of the Senate floor and said he could never learn Hungarian because it was the language “horses spoke”.
99.9% of Romanians took that for exactly what it is, stupid, idiotic, fascist crap. I mean it’s ludicrous.
I absolutely love the logical fallacy of all these scared shitless monolingual “English only” crowd when the very words they speak and they way they are pronounced are OVER HALF FRENCH you dumb non-Chaucer reading mouth breathers! Jesus.
I can’t remember the name of that moron in Philadelphia with the cheesesteak thing, the one Giuliani loves so much, I swear I’d pay 100 EUROS to see him read four lines of Beowulf, I really would. If he can order his own products in Old English (the REAL English!) I’ll eat my fucking hat.
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum
Hey Tom Tancredo, if you can READ that, not even translate it or explain it, just READ it aloud I will vote for you.
Bonus “Chaucer” edition for Tommy T:
Out of the develes ers ther gonne dryve
Twenty thousand freepers on a route,
And thurghout helle swarmed al aboute,
And comen agayn as faste as they may gon,
And in his ers they crepten everychon.
He clapte his tayl agayn and lay ful stille.
;););)
Pax
Joey Vento.
Let’s see here:
George Washington knew Greek and Latin.
Ben Franklin could read and write French (even writing poems in it) , Italian, Spanish and Latin and was so fluent in German he set up TWO newspapers in the language.
Thomas Jefferson – Latin, Greek (good enough to read Homer in the original!), French
Alexander Hamilton – Fluent in French (his mother was French)
John Adams – fluent in French (even better than Franklin)
James Madison – Latin, Greek, French and Italian
On and on and on. Of course what’s the point, right? They’re only the founders of the freaking country.
Pax
They’re were just effeminate elitists.