May 11, 2008
Memo From Mexico,
By
Allan Wall
In A Double Whammy, McCain Sticks It To The Base On Cinco De Mayo
Last week, on May 5th ,
Cinco de Mayo, Senator John McCain once again showed
his contempt for the Republican base by hitting it with
a double whammy.
In the same statement (see
here) McCain announced that 1) he was opening a
Spanish language website, and 2) he was going to the
convention of the
Hispanic chauvinist agitator group the National
Council of La Raza [NCLR].
Why did McCain choose
Cinco de Mayo to announce his double whammy?
As I pointed out recently , Cinco de Mayo is not
even a big deal in Mexico. It’s hardly celebrated. My
school didn’t even suspend classes for it.
But in the U.S.,
Cinco de Mayo has become a big Mexican-American
drinking fest and de rigueur occasion for
pandering by
U.S. politicians—chief among them being
Panderer-in-Chief George W. Bush.
John McCain’s Spanish-language website is called
Estamos Unidos (We
are united). If you only changed one letter, the
"m" to a "d", then it would be
Estados Unidos (United States). Clever, eh?
You can see the website
here.
The website has links to articles. Some of the
articles are in Spanish, but some are in English. As
time goes by, we can expect the McCain camp to
hispanify more of the website.
There are also plenty of videos, including one with
McCain talking (in English with Spanish subtitles) to
Latino entrepreneurs. There are also promotional videos
featuring
Mel Martinez,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
Lincoln Diaz-Balart and
Mario Diaz-Balart plugging for McCain. All four of
them are Cuban-Americans. In fact, all but Mario were
born in Cuba. Cuban-Americans and Mexican-Americans
do not always cooperate, but all the big league
Mexican-Americans are already going for the Democrats,
so I guess McCain had to settle for the Cubans.
Of course, McCain is not the only candidate with a
Spanish website. Barack Obama
has one also, which features a blog by
Conchita Cruz of South Carolina. Conchita says she’s
registered to vote, although judging
from her photograph, she barely looks old enough.
The Obama website reports Obama gushing on about
Cinco de Mayo too. Apparently, he
said that "As Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo,
it reminds us that, although the Mexican cultural
traditions are an important part of who we are as
Americans, the American dream is still out of reach
of many Latinos." [My emphasis…!]
Hillary has what’s called a
"bilingual" website, with articles in both
Spanish and English and it includes her
"Hispanic Agenda". (Hmmm, how about an
American agenda?)
So why is it bad for any of these candidates to have
Spanish-language websites? Aren’t they just reaching out
to voters?
Yes they are—but in the wrong way, taking us down the
slippery slope of linguistic, cultural and political
balkanization.
A common civic language is a
great advantage, one we shouldn’t toss on the junk
heap so easily. English is our national language. It’s
our
language of public discourse. It’s the
language of the Constitution and our legal system.
How can you really understand American politics without
knowing English?
Bilingual campaigning is still in its infancy. But it
is already encouraging a divided electorate. In 2002, I wrote
a VDARE.COM column about a Texas election in which
gubernatorial candidate
Tony Sanchez ran a bilingual campaign. But the image
Sanchez presented in English was radically different
from the image he presented in Spanish. That’s the way
these things inevitably work.
Besides, American citizens are supposed to know
English. It’s
one of the requirements to get citizenship:
"Applicants for naturalization must be able to read,
write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in
the English language." (There are exceptions—the
elderly and the physically and mentally impaired are not
required to learn English).
As for individuals born in the U.S., it used to be
understood that they’d
learn English by the time they got to school—though
you
can’t always count on that these days.
Linguistic balkanization is a threat to
American national unity—and these three candidates
are irresponsibly contributing to it. Shame on all three
of them.
This campaign has even seen
Univision-sponsored bilingual debates, held for the
Democrats and the
Republicans. Shame (again) on all those who
participated—which was just about everybody, with the
honorable exception of
Tom Tancredo.
But John McCain’s encouragement of balkanization is
not really a surprise. In the past, he has expressed his
contempt for American culture,
saying
"a nation
conceived in an idea, in liberty, will prove
stronger, more enduring, and better than any nation
ordered to exalt the few at the expense of the many or
made from a common race or culture or to preserve
traditions that have no greater attribute than
longevity."
In other words, who cares about a common American
culture (or
race)?
But when speaking to Hispanic leaders,
McCain waxed eloquent about the growth of their
culture (and race) in the United States:
"This [is] one
of the defining moments in American history that really
does define what kind of nation we are. If there was
ever such a thing as a noble cause, it is the one we are
embarked on now. Anyone who is afraid that somehow our
culture will be anything but enriched by
fresh blood and culture, in my view, has a distorted
view of history and has a pessimistic view of our
future."
So when John McCain promotes mass immigration, it’s
more than desire for votes or big money. The man
actually wants his country to be Hispanicized.
Nor is it surprising that McCain, in his Cinco de
Mayo Double Whammy, announced he would deliver a speech
to La Raza July 14th.
In case you’re not familiar with the National Council
of La Raza [“the Race”], it’s a radical Hispanic
pressure group, funded by, among others, the
Ford Foundation,
Citigroup, Wal-mart,
George Soros…and even by your tax dollars.
What does La Raza stand for? It supports driver’s
licenses and in-state tuition for illegal aliens. It
opposes a fence on the border and immigration
enforcement cooperation between state, local and federal
authorities. La Raza has links with
MEChA and sponsors radical
Mexican charter schools. And it’s currently
attempting to
shut down debate over the illegal invasion.
McCain’s kind of people, in other words.
This is by no means the senator’s first visit to
"The Race".
In 1999, McCain was honored by La Raza and
in 2004 he delivered the keynote address at their
annual conference.
(Another prominent Republican who has spoken to
assembled Razistas is Karl Rove,
who spoke to the group in 2006. Rove was cheered for
calling for an amnesty and booed for calling for border
security, which shows you where La Raza stands.)
Here at VDARE.COM we don’t tell you how to vote. We
can only tell you how bad the candidates are on the National
Question.
Vote for whomever you want. But conservatives, and
those who want to stop the alien invasion and America’s
balkanization, should be under no delusions about John
McCain. The man is an open borders fanatic, an
associate of radical anti-Americans, a contemptuous
enemy of white middle-class Americans and traditional
American culture.
Yes, I know McCain served his country
in the military and
was a POW. As an
Iraq veteran myself, I salute him for it. But that
doesn’t give him a pass for the rest of his life, a
blank check to tear our country apart.
McCain has a horrible record on immigration.
Americans for Better Immigration gives him
a grade of D (for both his Career grade and Recent
grade).
Regarding the election, Roy Beck of Numbers
USA/Americans for Better Immigration has a useful
chart comparing the presidential candidates. Beck
breaks down the candidates on immigration –related
issues. On some issues, McCain is no different from
Hillary or Obama, sometimes he’s a little better,
sometimes worse. Not a great recommendation.
McCain’s negative leadership in promoting
McCain-Kennedy and other horrible (though thankfully
defeated) amnesty bills in recent years shows us exactly
where he stands. He has supported marches by illegal
aliens and is a strong proponent of Bilingual Education.
His
"Hispanic Outreach Director" is Juan Hernandez, a
former Mexican cabinet official and rabid amnesty
supporter, who has openly stated his goal was for
Mexican-Americans to always "think Mexico first".
But it’s not just McCain’s positions, it’s his
attitude. McCain is extremely contemptuous of
Americans—even including fellow senators—who disagree
with him.
In an interview with Hugh Hewitt, former Senator Rick
Santorum
described how things were during the amnesty debates:
" John McCain was the
guy who was working with Ted Kennedy to
drive it down our throats, and lectured us
repeatedly about how xenophobic we were, lectured us, us
being the Republican conference, about how wrong we were
on this, how we were on the wrong side of history, and
that you know, this is important for his…because having
come from Arizona, knowing the strength of the Hispanic
community, that we were going to be seen as racists, and
he wasn’t going be part of that, that he was not a
racist, and that if we were for tougher borders, it was
a racist thing."
(Similarly, John McCain tried to prevent North
Carolina Republicans from bringing up comments by Barack
Obama’s preacher in a TV ad).
What’s really sad, discouraging and frustrating is
how many GOP voters claim to care about protecting our
borders but voted for John McCain anyway.
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) recently
released a study titled
Poll: Voters Unaware of Candidates’ Immigration
Positions subtitled "McCain Supporters
Farthest off the Mark". Ain’t that the truth!
It explains that
"A new poll using
neutral language finds that primary and caucus voters
have little knowledge of candidates’ immigration
positions. The results also show that voters often do
not share their candidate’s position." [PDF]
What were these people thinking?
According to the CIS poll, only 34% of McCain voters
(in the primaries and caucuses) know that McCain favors "eventual citizenship for illegal immigrants
who meet certain requirements."
Incredibly, of those polled who voted for McCain,
"35 percent mistakenly thought he favored enforcement
that would cause illegals to return home, another 10
percent thought he wanted mass deportations, and 21
percent didn’t know his position."
According to CIS, only 31% of McCain voters agree
with the man on immigration.
Thanks a lot, folks, for selecting John McCain as the
GOP candidate for president.
Now we’re stuck with this guy—at least until
November.
In his own way, John McCain is just as alienated from
the United States as Barack Obama. Sure, each man has
his own style, which appeals to a different set of
voters. But both candidates display contempt for
traditional American society, and both are
contemptuous toward white working and middle class
Americans.
McCain, like other elitist Republicans, thinks
grassroots Republicans have
nowhere else to go, and will have to vote for the
GOP. That’s why the candidate thinks he can stick it to
them again and again and they’ll still vote for him come
November.
But
a lot could happen in the next six months. And John
McCain, if he continues to stick it to the Republican
base, just might be surprised.
American citizen Allan Wall (
email
him) resides in Mexico, with a
legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan
recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the
Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are
archived
here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
articles are archived
here his "Dispatches from
Iraq" are archived
here his website is
here.
