Every day we’re seeing a new stunner. We’re seeing many of our politics’ and culture’s “givens” being sandbagged. The latest example comes from Donald Trump, who is on a roll as his poll numbers rise and he gains a following of feverent political Beliebers who jealously defend and parrot his every word because he’s seen as a political rock star. In this instance, he’s articulating the worst behavior in someone who’s a nativist: saying someone should speak English if they’re in the U.S. This time he aims it a Jeb Bush for daring to speak Spanish in his campaign. Up until now, it was considered a plus if a politician knew Spanish and used it to address Spanish speaking groups. Apparently no longer:
In an interview with conservative website Breitbart, Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump dug into his opponent Jeb Bush, saying he should lead by speaking English while in the U.S.“I like Jeb,” Trump said, according to Breitbart. “He’s a nice man. But he should really set the example by speaking English while in the United States.”
Trump has been in the news for his targeted jabs while campaigning — including those directed at Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and immigrants from Mexico who are in the U.S. illegally.
Speaking to reporters in Miami on Tuesday, Bush spoke in Spanish, as he frequently has on the campaign trail. Talking about Trump, he said, “El hombre no es conservador,” which translates as “the man is not a conservative.”
It’s yet another new low bar being set by Mr. Trump. It will correctly be seen by Hispanic voters as yet another slap in the face at Latinos in the United States, but, then. Trump seems to be making a calculated effort to gain white voters by fanning backlash against immigrants and seemingly is not passing up an opportunity to be seen as disdaining, stereotyping and overall dissing Latinos as a group — and in this case he blasted a politician who dares to committed the sin of speaking in Spanish.
FYI George W. Bush did some campaigning in (bad) Spanish. Several Presidents have used it from time to time. Jeb Bush happens to be better at it than most.
But now just watch the screams of “Talk in English!!!” at a future Jeb Bush stop or by Republican sympathizers if the Democratic nominee ever uses it. And the battlecry will be picked up by the professional conservative media talkers who make huge bucks by demonizing one political party or candidates deemed to liberal for them.
A major politician who made a statement like Trumps would have been dismissed as a nativist extremist only 5 years ago.
Welcome to our new, cruder, ruder and less tolerant century.
The bar is being lowered so far any moment we’ll see a “Welcome to the South Pole” sign.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.