OPINION:
One of the most effective ways to protect the freedom, growth and stability of this country is to fight government dependency. We do that by advancing policies that help give everyone living here the best opportunity possible to achieve their potential.
Apart from the Constitution, in the most diverse nation in the world, the English language has been the one constant uniting force that has helped make this nation the success that it is.
Finally making English the official language of the United States is a winning issue.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people who spoke a language other than English at home nearly tripled from 23.1 million in 1980 to 67.8 million in 2019. That’s not a bad thing.
What changed is our mindset about what it takes to be a successful participant in the great American success story. Handout-crazed politicians on the left, primarily in blue states, big cities and the Washington swamp, and those who enable them are to blame for this shift in mentality.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as legal immigrants flooded our cities, escaping poverty, war, and lack of opportunity, the American melting pot had many languages spoken at home. There was an acknowledgment that critical to those immigrants often moving from poverty into the middle class in one generation was a willingness to learn English.
Immigrants had to make learning English a priority.
Those new Americans didn’t have road signs in other languages.
They didn’t have translators at their jobs or expect to be catered to by the diversity, equity and inclusion lobby and lawsuits from liberal nonprofits. Most of them never received much of a handout at taxpayer expense either.
They worked, saved and did what they needed to do to pave their own street with the gold they earned.
You cannot achieve your potential as an American in the job market, academically or even socially, without reading, writing and speaking English well.
One would assume that’s precisely why many Democrats oppose making English the official language.
This country used to be about making your own wealth, not benefiting from someone else’s.
Part of that was a commitment to integrate in a way that brings the best cultural aspects of where you came from and adding it to American society. It was about sharing your culture with everyone else through our shared language.
Making English the official language is a pro-immigrant and pro-diversity policy. We should want everyone in this country to succeed, support themselves and contribute to society.
Learning English is central to that achievement.
Everyone wins with English. While our broken school systems are nonsensically teaching our children Spanish or some other language they will barely use, the rest of the world is learning English, especially the Chinese.
While Americans’ reading and writing skills hit new lows, English is the dominant language of the sciences, commerce, media, entertainment and diplomacy.
Spending taxpayer money to produce street signs and official government communications in other languages creates a crutch and reinforces the flawed notion that English proficiency is not important to national unity or individual success.
Promoting English-language skills will also give people a greater voice in our politics — which should also be encouraged for legal immigrants who earn citizenship.
Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio has reintroduced a bill long championed by former Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma that has been languishing in Washington since 2005 to encourage stronger English adoption. It’s time to finally pass the English Language Unity Act.
The legislation would establish English as the official language, require government functions to be conducted in English, and introduce an English-language testing standard for naturalization.
Democrats have opposed the move for decades, and it’s another example of their ignoring the will of the people.
Americans understand how important this issue is. A 2013 Gallup Poll showed that 72% of Americans, across all ethnic and political persuasions, believed it was essential for immigrants living in the U.S. to learn English.
Rasmussen has polled on this for years. Its latest in 2022 found that Americans supported a nationwide policy, 78% to 14%. Thirty-one states have made English their official language.
It’s time to make it a national policy.
The left couldn’t care less about the real meaning of that great colossus standing in New York Harbor.
The “golden door” that she lifts her lamp beside isn’t a gateway to a welfare check.
She isn’t a symbol of lower standards and dodging the hard work it takes to make it here.
She stands for the belief that you can help create, out of many cultures, one nation united, where your destiny is your own.
• Tom Basile is the host of “America Right Now” on Newsmax and the author of “Tough Sell: Fighting the Media War in Iraq.” He served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq from 2003 to 2004.
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