English in America Is Controversial?

Thursday - September 03, 2015

RUSH: Do you believe that it has become, in certain quarters in this country, do you believe that it has become controversial that Donald Trump told Jeb Bush he ought to speak English, that that has now become an example of nativism?  You know, Jeb went out there and was addressing an audience, I think in Florida, and he was telling them in Espanol. "El hombre no es conservador." Meaning Trump's not conservative. And Trump said (paraphrasing), "You know, Jeb, you need to lead here, bud. You need to speak English. We're in American."  And that's become controversial. 

Over at CNN you would not believe. The Washington Post is editorializing that this is horrible what Trump said.  Now, I'm gonna tell you, this is one of these things -- how to put this.  Every now and then we have evidence of the decline of so much about what has made this country great and this is another one of these things.  They go in spurts. 

I mean, every day we get little bits of evidence here and there in terms of pop culture. Something like this comes up where everybody thinks that English is the language of this country and then you find out that many in the Democrat Party and the Drive-By Media think that's nativist and braggadocios and unfair?  What the hell are you going to do in this country if you can't speak English?  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Okay, I've been threatening to do this for two days, and I haven't. It's just other things have taken precedence. So I now am going to discipline myself. I'm gonna do this now.  It isn't any big deal.  It's just something I've had on the top of the stacks for two days and I've just kept it. It actually turned out well. You know what? My instincts on this... I knew if I waited, that all hell would break loose over this, and it has now. 

So even when I think I'm screwing up, I'm actually not. Even when I think that I'm making a mistake, I'm really not.  Here's how it all started.  This is Tuesday in Miami after a campaign stop. Jeb Bush spoke with reporters and a reporter asked him in Spanish, "Your campaign put out two important statements criticizing Trump's record.  Why are you now reacting to Trump?"

JEB:  (speaking Spanish)

RUSH:  I feel like I'm listening to a UN speech.  The only thing missing is the translator.  That was Jeb Bush speaking Espanol.  Basically... You know, I have the transcript.  Do you want to hear what he said?  He said, "Nancy Pelosi" and he said, "Hillary Clinton," but the other thing...  But stop and think what this was.  This is the presumptive nominee, the presumptive Republican nominee.  Here.  Now that... Play this again.  It speaks for itself.  This is the presumptive -- in many quarters now, the desired, the presumptive -- Republican nominee. 

(replaying sound bite)

RUSH:  (pretending to speak Spanish)  All right, here's what he said"

"Why are you reacting to Trump?" 

"Well, because he attacks me every day.  He attacks me every day with barbarities, with things that are not true.  What we did today was simply put in his own words the fact that this man's not conservative, backing people like Nancy Pelosi. He's given money to Hillary Clinton. He's been a Democrat longer than he's been a Republican. He said that he feels more comfortable being a Democrat.  So he doesn't have a record because he hadn't been a person that served like I have for eight years as governor, but he's not conservative." 

Okay, fine.  Here's the next bite.  The question from the reporter: "Mr. Governor, what is your strategy to counterattack this Trump phenomenon?  I imagine you have to be worried."

JEB:  (speaking Spanish)

RUSH:  All right, what he said there was, the question again: "What is your strategy to counterattack this Trump phenomenon?  I imagine you have to be worried." 

"I am worried about the future of this country, and I think we need tried leadership from a conservative so that we can change the direction of the country.  And the subject of Trump, it makes that more difficult because the man's not conservative.  He doesn't have a record where you can say he's conservative.  Besides that, he tends to personalize everything.  If you're not in total agreement with him you're an idiot or stupido or that you don't have energy or blah, blah, blah." 

Okay, so Trump reacted to this by saying, "You know, I like Jeb. He's a nice man. But he really should set the example by speaking English when he's in the United States." Now from that we have -- at least on CNN and in other quarters of the Drive-By Media we have -- a full-blown controversy, and the controversy is about Trump.  Many in the Drive-By Media and their associates are saying that this proves that Trump is a "nativist," and if you don't know what a nativist is, it's not pretty. 

Nativist is an insult. 

It's what the Wall Street Journal calls those of you who are opposed to open borders.  If you are opposed to open borders, if you want the law to be adhered to, you are a nativist.  It's not a pretty thing.  It's a cut.  It is an insult.  So now Trump is being called a nativist, and they actually had a number of televised chat sessions on CNN about this, and it became a controversy, that English should be spoken in America.  It became a controversy that Trump said Jeb should lead and speak English. 

Now, Trump had his defenders on CNN, but there are more people condemning Trump for speaking English.  You people that don't understand the Trump phenomena, you don't seem to understand that all you're gonna do by continuing to harp on Trump, is you're just gonna add to his support and you're gonna further energize the supporters he's already got. Because this, to them, is not controversial.  This is simple.

English is the official language of this country.  It should be spoken.  If anybody is gonna amount to anything in this country, they have to learn English.  It is the language of our country.  But now it is becoming controversial to say that.  It's braggadocios, it's nativist, it's xenophobic to say that.  Now, every day, folks, there are things that happen in our country that make us pause and, "Gee, man, we're losing our culture."  One of those little things might be the lyrics of a song or the subject of a movie. 

And then other days there are things that happen that totally shock you, that make you realize we're farther gone that we even knew, and this is one of those to me, where a guy who suggests that a presidential candidate ought to speak in English, he's the controversy?  He's the problem?  Trump or anybody suggesting that the presidential candidates ought to speak English, that's a controversy?  I understand speak Spanish here and there to Spanish audience. You want to show your worldliness and your talents and your skills and so forth. 

But Trump's reaction to this was somewhat common-sensical. 

The Washington Post reacted to Trump.  They said: "With that, Trump may have sparked yet another debate about whether or not to make English the official language of the United States. ... In response, top Bush campaign aides fired back, suggesting that Trump's comments about English put him on a 'one man mission' to kill the Republican Party."

Really?  Suggesting that English is the official language of this country is tantamount to destroying the Republican Party?  Having the audacity to say that?  Maybe even worse, having the audacity to believe that English is the official language of this country, that can destroy the Republican Party?  No wonder the Republican Party is in dire straits. This is astounding to me. 

And then here's another quote.  This is editorial page editor, Fred Hiatt, at the Washington Post.  Listen to this.  "When we lived in Moscow, people used to ask my wife and me, 'Who are you by nationality?'  'Americans,' we’d say. Invariably the response would come: 'Yes, but who are you really?'  Russia, you see, is a kind of melting pot, like the United States, but ethnicities don’t melt in quite the same way. People consider each other first as Armenians, or Tatars, or Jews ... and only second as Russian citizens."

So Fred Hiatt here is saying, yeah, in Russia nobody is a Russian first.  They're an Armenian first or whatever else first, and then they're Russian.  And then he said, "That is the kind of thinking that Donald Trump, and the Republican presidential candidates who are pathetically jumping on his nativist bandwagon, would bring to this country."

Are you kidding?  It's already here, Mr. Hiatt. Where in the world are you paying attention?  It's even worse.  We now have Afro-Americans for I don't know how long, then African-Americans. We have Uglo-Americans. We've had female Americans. We genderize people before we give their ethnicity.  This country has been in the process of Balkanization for years.  What do you mean, bring it to this country?  Trump is gonna bring this kind of Balkanization?  It's already here.  This guy's exactly opposite.  Trump and other people who think like he does are standing up in opposition to this kind of Balkanization.  We're Americans and then whatever else second. 

And if you review immigration in this country, let's go back to the Ellis Island days of immigration.  When Western Europe was sending all kinds of refugees here.  They were coming from Poland, they were coming from Italy, they were coming from Ireland, all over the place.  And they came here to be Americans.  They came here to be Americans first.  They did maintain their individual ethnicities.  They set up neighborhoods.  The Irish lived in certain places and did certain jobs.  The Italians in New York had certain neighborhoods, did certain jobs. 

But they came here to be Americans first.  They didn't come here to be Italian Americans.  They didn't come here to be Irish Americans.  They came here to be Americans.  They came here, they wanted to become Americans, they did, they assimilated.  And that became the primary thing they were proud of.  That's what they wanted.  That's not what's happening now.  What's happening now is the exact opposite. 

There is no assimilation.  There is no melding or melting pot, if you will.  There is a purposeful Balkanization going on brought to you by the modern-day Democrat Party and specifically Barack Hussein O.  We have Mexican-Americans. We have Hispanic-Americans.  We have gay Americans. We have LGBT Americans. We have Muslim Americans.  Americans is always second.  The ethnicity is always number one. 

And the modern day Democrat Party wants it that way because they think America needs to be punished, because we've been too big for our britches.  We've been too big. We've been too powerful and we acquired our power in ill-gotten ways. We stole it. We stole the resources from other people and other countries.  It's absurd and obscene, and this Balkanization that's happening in this country right now, they support it.  It's one of the ways you rip apart the fabric of this country, by diluting what it is to be an American, by making an American seem less in importance than anything else about you. 

And for Fred Hiatt, the editorial writer for Washington Post to sit here and recount his days in Moscow and say this is what Trump is bringing to America.  Trump is raising his hand and trying to stop this.  The conservative movement, the Tea Party, whatever you want to call 'em, are doing their best to stand up and stop this dilution of what it means to be an American.  We all are. 

This is incredible.  And the fact that this has become a controversy?  The fact that speaking English in your own country and standing up for that is fighting words?  It's incredible.  I've got a story here, La Raza has come out and gotten involved in all this.  And they back, guess who, Jeb Bush.  They're slamming Trump for English language patriotism.  And we're supposed to bow down. We don't want to offend La Raza.  Really?  This is one of those instances where it lets you know it's worse than you thought it was.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: How many old immigrants do you know, like maybe your grandfather, grandmother?  They refer to where they came from as the old country.  They assimilated.  They became Americans.  Over in the in the New York Daily News, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, New York archdiocese wrote a piece that's unbelievable.  Contained in his piece, in his op-ed in the New York Daily News, Cardinal Dolan, "Nativism Rears its Big-Haired Head: Donald Trump's Anti-Immigrant Rhetoric is a Sad Return to a Terrible American Tradition.

I mean, this is no different than Fred Hiatt sitting there worried about Trump bringing nativism back, nationalism, xenophobia, nativism.  That isn't what is happening here.  It's mind-boggling and incredible.

Anyway, I've gotta get to your phone calls here, folks.  We'll do that coming out of the break here at the bottom of the hour, otherwise they're just gonna keep piling up, and I've gotta start sometime, so it's next.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Look, all of this is a reaction to Trump suggesting that Jeb Bush lead by speaking English.  Now, here's the story in Breitbart.  "Donald Trump told Breitbart News that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should be speaking English -- not the Spanish he spoke to attack Trump in Miami this week -- on the campaign trail. ... 'I like Jeb,' Trump said. 'He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.'"

Now, it sounds simple.  The idea that this is a profundity?  The idea that this is a controversy now?  It's just mind boggling.  Here comes La Raza.  "As Donald Trump continues to surge in the polls he's received increasing attacks from pro-amnesty rivals

like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio."  And now here comes La Raza backing Jeb Bush, slamming Trump for English language patriotism.  Trump's call for language patriotism, however, received a stinging rebuke from the ethnic advocacy group La Raza. 

By the way, do you know La Raza is federally funded?  It is.  I didn't know it, either, until I read the Victor Davis Hanson piece on the air to you yesterday.  Federal taxpayers subsidize La Raza and here they are: "Every time Trump opens his mouth he widens the gulf between the Republican Party and Latino voters."  La Raza doesn't care a whit about the Republican Party.  La Raza wants the Republican Party to not exist.  La Raza is the Democrat Party.  And here they are worried what Trump is doing to the Republican Party? 

The Republican Party doesn't need any help in creating problems for itself, sadly.  What is this language patriotism?  Where the hell did that get started?  How in the hell is the fact that the official language of this country, even remarking on that, suggesting that, supporting that somehow is phony, braggadocios, nativist patriotism?  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  Look, all of this is a reaction to Trump suggesting that Jeb Bush lead by speaking English.  Now, here's the story in Breitbart.  "Donald Trump told Breitbart News that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush should be speaking English -- not the Spanish he spoke to attack Trump in Miami this week -- on the campaign trail. ... 'I like Jeb,' Trump said. 'He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.'"

Now, it sounds simple.  The idea that this is a profundity?  The idea that this is a controversy now?  It's just mind boggling.  Here comes La Raza.  "As Donald Trump continues to surge in the polls he's received increasing attacks from pro-amnesty rivals

like Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio."  And now here comes La Raza backing Jeb Bush, slamming Trump for English language patriotism.  Trump's call for language patriotism, however, received a stinging rebuke from the ethnic advocacy group La Raza. 

By the way, do you know La Raza is federally funded?  It is.  I didn't know it, either, until I read the Victor Davis Hanson piece on the air to you yesterday.  Federal taxpayers subsidize La Raza and here they are: "Every time Trump opens his mouth he widens the gulf between the Republican Party and Latino voters."  La Raza doesn't care a whit about the Republican Party.  La Raza wants the Republican Party to not exist.  La Raza is the Democrat Party.  And here they are worried what Trump is doing to the Republican Party? 

The Republican Party doesn't need any help in creating problems for itself, sadly.  What is this language patriotism?  Where the hell did that get started?  How in the hell is the fact that the official language of this country, even remarking on that, suggesting that, supporting that somehow is phony, braggadocios, nativist patriotism?  

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here's Alex in Temecula, California.  Great to have you.  I'm glad you waited, Alex.  Hi.

CALLER:  Thank you so much, Rush.  Straight to the subject in regard to Trump and Bush and the fact that English is being our first language.  My father was born in Vladivostok, Russia; migrated to Siberia into China, and then came to the United States in San Francisco, and I was born 70 years ago.  I'm 70.  But the one thing that he insisted upon was that I speak English, only English, and that I become American.  The fact that I was an American primed his patriotism because he was one of the most patriotic people I've ever known in my life.  He passed away 20 years ago. It's saddened me that it's becoming incorrect or politically incorrect to be an American and to be able to speak English as a first language.

RUSH:  I'll tell you what it is.  You're exactly right.  What is happening here, slowly but surely... Do not doubt me. You're gonna think this may sound over the top. What's happening here is that it is becoming something of guilt.  It is guilty.  You are guilty to be an American.  So if in the United States of America a presidential candidate goes out and starts talking Spanish, speaking Spanish and another candidate says, "You know, I think you ought to speak English"?

Then all of the groups rally around the guy who spoke Spanish and then furthermore condemn as a nativist and as a bad guy, as a xenophobe, a candidate who suggests that English be spoken because it's the language of the country.  What on earth makes this controversial?  Where in the world is it controversial that the national language of any country be spoken?  (interruption)  Well, it doesn't fit with the outreach program, but it's more than that.  There has to be something overall, overriding that. 

Sure, there's the outreach program. "We're trying to reach out to Hispanics because we want to get their votes. The Republicans, blah, blah." If I could just address that, that is a sign of just how pathetic Republicans are.  We really believe here that Hispanic voters are so (whatever the word would be) that all we have to do to get their votes is pander to 'em, that somehow a candidate speaking Spanish is gonna be enough to get their vote? 

The thinking is... That may have been the thinking of the Republican Party, but there's something overriding it. There's an umbrella under which that falls, and that is that America itself is unjust, that America itself is not legitimate.  It is flawed, deeply from its founding.  You cannot get one place to the other without believing that because there has to be an element of guilt.  You are behaving guilt. Not that you feel guilt.  I'm not saying that.  It's not a guilt complex.

I'm say you're committing a crime. 

You are guilty of believing in America's superiority by insisting that English be spoken.  That's nativism.  That's populism.  That's xenophobia.  That's racism or what have you.  And the only way those kinds of theories can exist is if you have already accepted that America's existence is illegitimate.  That its founding was immoral and illegitimate and unjust and that all of this is part of the process of correcting all of the unjust immorality and illegitimacy of the founding of this country.

In other words, "English as the official language is illegitimate because the country is.  The country exists because it was built on the backs of slaves," whatever they want to say to disqualify the greatness or any other aspect of this country.  To me, this is... I couldn't believe when I got up today and I read about this and I saw that there was really a deep controversy here over the fact that Trump had said, "You know, we ought to speak English," that that became controversial, and that it was something for which Trump was overwhelmingly guilty, committed some grave error.