Democrats vs. assimilation

Yesterday, Arnold Schwarzenegger issued yet another "controversial" statement, this one about Mexican immigrants assimilating. I had two initial thoughts: a) I'm not carrying Arnold's water anymore, and b) few could quibble with his pro-American comments that are similar to ones stated by leading academics. Needless to say, the Democratic Party has proven me somewhat wrong, trotting out a few supporters of illegal immigration and massive immigration from Mexico and opponents of assimilation to try to help the MSM make a "controversy" where a serious policy discussion should exist instead.

Here's what Arnie said:
"And that is very difficult for some people to do especially, I think, for Mexicans because they are so close to their country here so they try to stay Mexican but try to be in America so there's this kind of back and forth and what I'm saying to the Mexicans is you've got to go and immerse yourself and assimilate into the American culture become part of the American fabric. That is how Americans will embrace you. That was my, I think, the secret, if there is one, to success."
Now, let's compare that with "Can We Still Afford to Be a Nation of Immigrants?" by Stanford Professor of History David M. Kennedy [1]. Harvard's Samuel Huntington made a similar point [2]. Other scholars have said much the same, see "Multiculturalism, Immigration, and Aztlan".

Now, for the other side's take, KGO's Nannette Miranda offers "Activists Find Governor's Comments Offensive". It only quotes two people, an activist and an activist professor:
Luis Arteaga, Latino Issues Forum: "I'm offended because once again, this governor is making these blanket generalizations about the Mexican community that comes in so many different shapes, sizes and beliefs. And yet he wants to couch us all as un-American."
That, of course, misrepresents what Arnold said. The only other quote is from Prof. Melissa Michelson of California State University East Bay (homepage)
"I think he put his foot, his ankle and his entire lower leg in his mouth. He really seems to have a misunderstanding about how Mexican immigrants see themselves and their place in this country."
Wait, it gets worse. Here's the chairman of the California Democratic Party, Art Torres:
"Californians of all backgrounds are living the California dream while maintaining their culture, customs and languages... It is not the governor's place to dictate to new Californians how much of their language to speak, how much of their culture to keep or how quickly to assimilate."
It isn't enough to simply live the "California dream". As a country, we have a duty to demand that those who come here do assimilate. Without that, we're simply a territory. (Torres' quote comes from a Los Angeles Times blog from one Robert Salladay discussing the "controversy". Needless to say, he can't find America with both hands.)

It hardly comes as a surprise that the leader of the California Democrats would say something like this, especially considering one of his past quotes:
"[Proposition] 187 was the last gasp of white America in California."
This page has more quotes:
"It is not the governor's place to tell immigrants to abandon their culture and language," declared LA Congresswoman Hilda Solis on a conference call hosted by the Democratic Party. Solis insisted that Schwarzenegger is trying to "appeal to his right-wing base."
Here's an earlier quote from her:
"We are all Americans, whether you are legalized or not"
Back to the Democratic Party's conference call:
Bay Area Congressman Mike Honda said we "should forget the melting pot concept." In a comment certain to stir the "reconquista" fears of nativists, Honda declared that Schwarzenegger misunderstands "the history of the Southwest. The Southwest was part of Mexico."
Clearly, many leaders of the Democratic Party do not support the concept of America, prefering instead to push corporate pluralism, irredentism, and Gramscism. While not all Democratic leaders are anti-American, many are. Until they purge themselves of their anti-American leaders, should the Democratic Party be considered an American party at all?

Naturalized citizens who are offended by the remarks of the Democratic Party leaders, but who are also opposed to Arnold's other Bush-friendly illegal immigration-related moves should consider a protest vote for Art Olivier.

UPDATE: Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has commented on Arnold's comments, saying among other things: "The vast majority of Mexican immigrants who come here.. come here to be a part of the American dream..."

If you translate "American dream" as "making money", then he's right. If you translate it in the more, shall we say, Capra-esque way, then he's not right in the use of "vast majority". And, while Tony Villar isn't an immigrant, it's helpful to note that he's a former campus radical and a leader of the racial separatist group MEChA.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Kennedy writes:
All prognostications about these possibilities are complicated by another circumstance that has no precedent in American immigration history: the region of Mexican immigrant settlement in the southwestern United States is contiguous with Mexico itself. That proximity may continuously replenish the immigrant community, sustaining its distinctiveness and encouraging its assertiveness. Alternatively, the nearness of Mexico may weaken the community's coherence and limit its political and cultural clout by chronically attenuating its members' permanence in the United States, as the accessibility of the mother country makes for a kind of perpetual repatriation process.

In any case, there is no precedent in American history for these possibilities. No previous immigrant group had the size and concentration and easy access to its original culture that the Mexican immigrant group in the Southwest has today. If we seek historical guidance, the closest example we have to hand is in the diagonally opposite corner of the North American continent, in Quebec. The possibility looms that in the next generation or so we will see a kind of Chicano Quebec take shape in the American Southwest, as a group emerges with strong cultural cohesiveness and sufficient economic and political strength to insist on changes in the overall society's ways of organizing itself and conducting its affairs.
[2] We'll have to settle for this review, which says:
Because of geographic proximity, [Huntington] writes, Hispanic immigrants are more likely to remain in "intimate contact" with friends and families in their home countries; more likely to enter illegally; and more likely to stay regionally concentrated in the Southwest--that is, in areas that in 1835 were part of Mexico proper. The result, Huntington argues, is that "the Southwest could become the United States' Quebec."

Comments

Yeah try and post an anti-illegal comment on Kos and see what happens. You may not get banned, but you will be troll rated and flame roasted.

A: All of them. Duh. Go post something vaguely liberal on "red state" or "LGF" and you'll get banned in, like 2 seconds.

My personal experience is this: 'Bushbot' type blogs are more likely to delete comments and to ban. But I would hardly say "all" of them (or more generally all "red state" blogs) do that.

And IMO LGF is a cyberspace neighbor of the lunatic fringe. However, I made hostile posts there a few years ago -- just after the outbreak of the Iraq war -- and was not banned.

Instead, usually my posts were treated the same way they generally are on most "leftist" sites: facts and rational argument that does not support 'blue state' dogma are simply ignored, or any/all replies consist only of ad hominem or childish personal ridicule*.

Such a crap sandwich of a blog...

Which pretty much describes the 'crap' you've posted here.

*Or worse:

Yeah, we saw a shining example of left-wing tolerance on display at Columbia the other night.

Yeah, we saw a shining example of left-wing tolerance on display at Columbia the other night.

What leftist site has a liberal(in the original sense of the word) policy like that?

A: All of them. Duh. Go post something vaguely liberal on "red state" or "LGF" and you'll get banned in, like 2 seconds.

Such a crap sandwich of a blog...

guys the only way to stop evil doers inside this nation is by using the old and understood ways of real war against that evil doer and enemy nation state, its called armed fighting and blood and mass death, the mexican will use this idea on you when the time is right and the population is hispanic and our government only talks!mexican!..the only way is to go to washington with one million guys with arms and tell the rats what to do, and if that rat non government orders its troops to attack you, its called civil and race war, so get in line for the camp system.

Haha, it's funny to watch these racist commenters resort to the use of childish language to make their point. Definitely good content.

"open support for NABLA"
should be NAMBLA, of course.

LW has stated that he views his posters as content providers and will put up with virtually anything. What leftist site has a liberal(in the original sense of the word) policy like that? But allow me to suggest a plan for someone who wants to get banned: (1) state flatly that Israel was behind 9/11, (2) lavish use of the "n" word, (3) open support for NABLA. Just trying to help.

But it got ugly when they started to dance with my sister!

Bummer, man; 'cause you want her for yourself, right? And she be pimpin' herself out to the Messicans an' all. How old is your bitch sister? And why you callin' her ugly?

yeah man cuz you better like ban that dude cuz omigod hes like messin with yer blog and makin it look so bad you know and sometimes I feel like postin on blogs and such and i don't know what to say cuz you gotta be smart to post on blogs but i dont know

And can you help me? I found a tortilla in my back yard the other day and I think I have illegal immigrants living near me.

Am I banned yet, bitch?

perroawhizzle dull north,

Nope! But I did find out that there are Messicans living down the road from me! I played some Messican oompah music really loud and some cholos came out and started dancing. But it got ugly when they started to dance with my sister!

Mr. Lone Wacko - can you help me fix my cholo problem?

When "little johnny" posted the above was he high on cerveza, tequilla or something illegal? There are no other possibilties.

Willikers!

I never knew that there were Messicans who were trying to take over the country!

In my school, one time, a teacher asked a Messican kid where the name 'Guadalajara' came from and the Messican kid said:

'up your ass, bitch.'

They expelled him!

Can you post more information on how we can drive out these Messicans?

Speaking of assimilation, here is a photo, (full size in print, where I saw it) but here cropped, showing a Long Beach CA school's marquee, entirely in Spanish!

http://www.presstelegram.com/search/ci_4434276