On the Sunday shows, three top journalists mocked and ridiculed the Thursday Senate vote to make English the official national language, and thus prevent demands for government agencies to provide official forms and processes in other languages. On ABC's This Week, Cokie Roberts dismissed it as “a very silly debate” and Fareed Zakaria, Editor of Newsweek International, castigated the bill as “nonsense” and “nativist populism that is distasteful." In his end of show commentary on Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer also derided the vote as “silly.”
Criticizing Americas for speaking too few languages, Zakaria demanded: “What is the great problem in the United States?...That we speak too many foreign language languages, there are too many signs -- Americans are too multi-lingual? Have we forgotten what language we speak?" Zakaria soon charged: “It's a political football that has nothing to do with the real problem. It is simply one more way to try to assert a certain kind of nativist populism that is distasteful." Schieffer mockingly asked: “Were you like me and thought English was our national language? Sort of like we know the Washington Monument honors George Washington even though it doesn't have a sign on it that says 'Official Monument to George Washington.'...Of course new citizens should speak English, but why would the Senate spend hours debating whether to make English our national language? Let me break it to you gently: because it gives Senators something to do while they avoid addressing the real problems...” (Transcripts follow.)
ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, picking up the roundtable discussion after George Will pointed out how the Voting Rights Act requires ballots in additional languages:
Cokie Roberts: “At the moment what you've got is a political debate over this question of English and it is to me a very silly debate because on the one hand we know that most people speak English. It is true that-”
George Stephanopoulos: “Most want to speak English.”
Roberts: “Exactly and learning English is a pathway to success. It is also true, however, that you dial 411 and you get press one for English, press two for Spanish and that's not going to change. As long as American business sees it in its best interest to have bilingual everything we're going to have bilingual everything.”
Fareed Zakaria: “About 150 years ago, German was the second most-spoken language in the United States. In fact, Bismarck speculated on whether the United States was going to be a German speaking country or an English speaking country. It's nonsense. This is an English-speaking country. The commercial incentives are all to speak English. Anyone who is trying to get ahead in this country knows that. There is a transitional phase for those who come in here and because we take in lots of people that means the transitional phase involves lots of people who companies want to cater to. What is the great problem in the United States?”
Roberts, over Zakaria: “None, none.”
Zakaria: “That we don't speak, that we speak too many foreign language languages, there are too many signs -- Americans are too multi-lingual? Have we forgotten what language we speak?”
Roberts: “I grew up in a city where the stores all said [gives French and Spanish for “we speak French,” “we speak Spanish.”]
Zakaria: “If you went to Yorktown in New York, until 30 years ago it was essentially German speaking part of New York.”
George Will: “More than 200 years ago, the first Congress of the United States contemplated printing laws in German as well as in English.”
Zakaria: “And they lost by one vote.”
Will: “And they didn't do it and it's a very good thing. You [Roberts] say it's 'silly.' You [Zakaria] say it's 'nonsense' to worry about this. Let me tell you why it's not. The law has an expressive function and by saying there are some expectations that we can have for immigrants coming to the country, we set not a high bar but a bar which is that we are not a nation defined by ethnicity, we are defined as Lincoln said by a proposition, we're a creedal nation-”
Zakaria: “The proposition is that liberty is spoken in English? George, my point is what is the problem that we are trying to solve?”
Will: “We are trying to solve the problem-”
Zakaria: “That Americans aren't speaking English?”
Will: “No, we're trying to get people who come here to understand that if you cannot read the laws, read the founding documents and follow the political arguments of the country, you are not going to be part of the country.”
Roberts, over Will and Zakaria: “But I think that people do understand that.”
Zakaria: “Believe me, they understand that, George, because they can't cash a check without-”
Will: “But then why is it -- if you say it is obviously true, why is it 'silly' or 'nonsense' to stipulate something obviously true in the law of the United States?”
Zakaria: “Because it's a political football that has nothing to do with the real problem. It is simply one more way to try to assert a certain kind of nativist populism that is distasteful.”
Will: “It's 'nativist populism'? That's just name-calling. It's like Mr. Reid saying it is 'racist' to expect people to speak English.”
Roberts: “There is a lot of name calling going on in this debate.”
CBS's Face the Nation, Bob Schieffer's end of show commentary:
“And finally this morning, as we were just discussing, it is official. The Senate voted last week to make English the national language of the United States. Do you feel a lot better knowing that? Or were you like me and thought English was our national language? Sort of like we know the Washington Monument honors George Washington even though it doesn't have a sign on it that says 'Official Monument to George Washington.' Even I figured out that one.
“So we'll hear more about silly issues between now and election day and come to think if it, maybe we should make the Washington Monument the national monument to our first President, otherwise people might think it honors the Washington Airport. And if Senators designate Grants Tomb the official tomb of General Grant, maybe that old joke about who's buried there will go away. While they're at it, maybe Senators could also declare the U.S. Capitol to be the national monument to wasting time and avoiding responsibility. Actually, I doubt any of us needs to be reminded of that.”
The above, what he actually said on the air, differs slightly from the posted text on CBSNews.com.
