September 10, 2007

Memo From Mexico, By Allan Wall

Univision’s Spanish-Language Panderfest—A Black Day For America

"It was remarkable. We made history". That’s what Joe Uva said about the Univision-sponsored Democratic debate/forum/pander-fest, held on Sept. 9th, in Miami. [Joe Uva: "Hicimos historia" By Eduardo Orbea, Univision Online, September 10, 2007.]

Joe should know. He’s the CEO of Univision, America’s most-watched Spanish-language network. (Not only that, but during the week of August 27^th to Sept. 2^nd, Univision was the #1 rated network among all 18-34 year old adults, with 9 of the 20 highest rated programs—beating CBS, NBC, ABC, CWTV and Fox.)

Of course the candidate face-off was good for Univision’s profits—but was it good for the country?

The Univision forum (it really wasn’t a debate) involved seven Democratic Party candidates: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mike Gravel, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, Christopher Dodd, and Bill Richardson. All seven groveled before two blond Univision moderators, Maria Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos, and pledged their undying loyalty to Hispanic Manifest Destiny.

Down here in Mexico, I watched the whole broadcast in Spanish. Its use of languages was a little convoluted, but all the candidates agreed on it beforehand. First, Maria Elena or Jorge asked the questions in Spanish, which were translated to English for the benefit of the candidates, only two of whom understand Spanish, and transmitted to them via earpieces. Then the candidates answered in English, while a nearly simultaneous voice-over Spanish translation was broadcast. I found the effect of two languages simultaneously spoken to be rather cacophonous. But perhaps it’s appropriate—a symbol of what our nation might become.

[Read the transcript in English (PDF) and Spanish (PDF) Excerpts here and here.]

A few questions are in order.

If the answer is yes, then what’s the big deal? Treat them like everybody else.

If the answer is no, maybe we need to spell out exactly what the differences are. Because maybe the non-Hispanic majority ought to have some kind of say in the nation’s future too. You wouldn’t get that impression from the Univision event, however.

Patriotic Americans of Hispanic ancestry don’t need to be pandered to and they don’t need a special tailor-made forum to attract their attention. But obviously, this media event wasn’t staged for them—it was staged for Hispanics who put their ethnicity before their American citizenship.

Furthermore,

Would Mexico allow Lou Dobbs to moderate a debate for Mexican presidential candidates? Of course not.

As a foreigner here in Mexico, I am strictly forbidden by law to meddle in Mexican politics. If, for example, I did something as seemingly harmless as march in a protest demonstration, I could be immediately booted from the country. It’s happened to other gringos.

And Jorge Ramos does much more than march in demonstrations. He is an open promoter of the transformation of the United States into a Latin American country. Ramos predicts that transformation will be complete within a century. And if present trends continue, he’s right. [100 Dias Para La Boda, JorgeRamos.com, May 14, 2007]

Of course, he’s doing his part to bring such a transformation about. But maybe American citizens, and not just blond Mexican anchormen, should have a say in the matter.

Any self-respecting country would have given Ramos the boot years ago.

But the seven Democratic candidates were more than happy to pander. And not only did they bend over backwards to pander to Hispanics, they all displayed their fundamental socialistic orientation. They all want to spend more of your money to fulfill their promises to Hispanics and others.

The Democratic demagogues want universal health care, more spending on education and housing, and (in some cases) aid programs for Latin America. The discussion of each social crisis: health, education, housing, was prefaced with how it affects the Hispanic community.

(No mention of crime, however).

None of the candidates talked about the Constitution or traditional American political principles. It was all about feelings, slogans and anecdotes.

And there were plenty of anecdotes. Barack Obama talked about his father, from a small African village, not mentioning that his dad abandoned him. John Edwards talked about his hardworking old man and about an illegal alien who got hurt in a factory. Edwards also boasted that his hometown is now 50% Latino. Mike Gravel talked about a slain soldier in Iraq whose father was about to be deported, and bellyached about having to wait two hours to enter the U.S. from Canada.

None of the candidates shared any anecdotes about Americans harmed by illegal immigration.

As for Dennis Kucinich, he signed up for the wrong campaign. His "human unity" rhetoric more closely resembled that of a candidate for President of the World than for the U.S.A. Alone among the candidates, he agreed with the idea that Spanish should be made America’s second official language.

Here's what the candidates had to say about immigration:

The Univision-chosen subject matter was also telling. There were the Hispanic-related issues (immigration, Spanish, racism) and the welfare issues (health, education, housing). But nothing about the social/family values issues Hispanic voters are supposedly so concerned about. It was all about "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme!"

As for foreign policy, the only countries specifically mentioned were Mexico, Venezuela, Cuba and Iraq. And the Iraq questions were prefaced with the statement that the majority of Hispanics favor a troop withdrawal. The implication was that it’s what Hispanics want, not what U.S. interests are, that should be considered.

With the exception of World Citizen Kucinich, the candidates did make an attempt to say that securing our border was important. But they all support a "path to citizenship" (amnesty), they don’t want to separate families (anchor babies) and want to stop raids.

The questions themselves were carefully crafted to advance the Hispanic agenda. The first one was "Why is it important for you to be in this debate and is it a risk?" Candidates were also asked if they would promote Spanish as a second language.

Another question began by referring to the "negative tone" of the immigration debate and asked the candidates how they would fight "anti-Hispanic" sentiments. (Is the president’s job to uphold the Constitution or to fight "sentiments"?)

Hillary’s reply was:

"Well, I think this is a very serious problem…there are many in the political and frankly in the broadcast world today who take a particular aim at our Latino population. [VDARE.COM NOTE: She means Lou Dobbs, and she's wrong. Dobbs isn’t criticizing "our Latino population", he's criticizing that portion of Mexico's' Latino population illegally resident in the United States.] And I think it’s very destructive. It undermines our unity as a country."

Notice how politicians talk about "unity" when they want you to agree with them and decry division when people don’t agree with them?

Another loaded question began by stating that none of the 9/11 hijackers passed through Mexico, so why should we build a wall on the Mexican border and not the Canadian border?

While they all talked around the issue, none of them was willing to answer the question "Why not a Canadian Wall?" which, aside from the unmentionable cultural problems, is that Canadians aren't wading the Niagara River in any great numbers.

The last question asked the candidates to tell what they thought was the biggest contribution of Hispanics to the United States. John Edwards replied that there were so many ("in every conceivable way") it would be a mistake to mention just one.

Bill Richardson, of (mostly) Hispanic origin himself, tried to have it both ways. On the one hand, he said Hispanics have the same interests as everybody else, but he missed no opportunity to play up his own Hispanic identity.

Upon being asked if he would promote Spanish as the nation’s second language, Richardson broke the rules of the debate by asking if he could respond in Spanish. Told he couldn’t, Richardson started talking about his Latino pride, his disappointment that Latinos couldn’t hear "one of their own" (i.e., Bill) speaking Spanish:

"…I was under the impression that in the debate Spanish was going to be permitted because I’ve always supported Univision all my career, but I’m disappointed today that 43 million Latinos in this country, for them not to hear one of their own speak Spanish—[applause] is unfortunate. In other words Univision has promoted English-only in this debate."

And then he started speaking Spanish anyway, until Ramos cut him off.

All in all, this was a black day for America.

Democratic candidates self-righteously present themselves as being polar opposites of President George W. Bush. But their answer to the National Question is, for all practical purposes, identical to that of the president they so love to loathe: abolish America.

When the forum was finished, arrogant Mexican meddler Jorge Ramos reminded Hispanic viewers that "You have the opportunity to change history."

So do we, Senor Ramos. So do we.

[Email moderator Jorge Ramos. Email moderator Maria Elena Salinas. Be polite!]

American citizen Allan Wall (email him) resides in Mexico, with a legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are archived here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM articles are archived here his "Dispatches from Iraq" are archived here his website is here.