2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumRepublicans Introduce Legislation To Discriminate Against Non-English Speakers
Rep. Steve King (R-IA), most recently in the headlines after attacking President Obamas young daughters for going on vacation, introduced the English Language Unity Act in the House earlier this month, along with Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) in the Senate. As King notes on his website, the bill would require all official functions of the United States to be conducted in English. Federal and state governments print thousands of documents every year, many of which are translated into other languages besides English.
One major impact Kings bill could have is to stop the decades-long practice of printing non-English ballots in areas where theres a significant non-English language group. Indeed, Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 currently requires local jurisdictions with a substantial number of non-English speakers to allow them to vote in other languages.
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/03/29/1795201/steve-king-english-only/
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,706 posts)The GOP's efforts to improve their image among Latinos are getting off to a great start.
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)By making them learn English. Oh they'll appreciate it one day.
GOP, Keeping that tent wide open
sofa king
(10,857 posts)That's all I see here, Republicans frantically casting about for some social out-group that is not organized well enough to fight back against (and do more damage to) the GOP itself.
Hate is not without its consequences and some few Republicans are wise enough to note that when they voted to keep the gays down in the elections of 2004 and 2006, they also voted to lose their homes, jobs, and life savings. In the meantime, random swipes like these merely reinforce the convictions of folks like us here at DU.
But for the frightened and ignorant masses who huddle around the GOP for protection from the fears the GOP itself amplifies and projects, these drum-beats have got to be becoming tiresome and uninteresting--and scary, since most of us aren't afraid to point and call bullshit on such stupidity anymore.