Friday, June 23, 2006
Speaking of "demagoguery"
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson has weighed in on the evils of opposing bilingual ballots:
[T]here probably would have been no problem if other members of the caucus hadn't raised a separate issue: the act's requirement that bilingual ballots be made available in localities where significant numbers of voters speak a language other than English.
Hmmm. Let me take a wild guess: Any chance the issue might be voters who speak, say, Spanish? Any chance this is just a warm-up for the rabid demagoguery we're going to hear from Republicans on the immigration issue this fall?
Bilingual ballots do not upset people because they hate immigrants. Immigrants are not supposed to be voting until they become American citizens. What upsets people is that America's polling places now resemble outposts of the United Nations.
Election Day is a civic event that should affirm America's national unity. Instead, we now suffer debates about the size of Chinese-language signs at our polling places.
Honestly, Mr. Robinson, can someone who is unable to distinguish the English word Bush from Gore actually cast an informed ballot -- or will his ballot be cast Chicago-style: "vote for him -- good Democrat."
There is demagoguery at work on the Voting Rights issue -- but the anti-bilingual ballot side is not a practitioner.
|posted by Jim on 10:27 AM|
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