The GOP's vaunted minority outreach efforts are continuing apace in the new Congress.
TPM:
Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley wants to end multilingual DMV tests, and state Rep. John Cauthorn agrees: "The average guy on the street hates Spanish, and it is everywhere."
According to Rudi Keller of the Columbia Daily-Tribune Tilley (R-Perryville) said this week that he wants the state to require anyone testing for a Missouri driver's license to pass the test in English. He explained: "How many times do you drive down the road and see the signs in other forms than English? I have been all around the state, and people think it is a common-sense issue and that we should institute it, and we are elected by the people to be their voice, and that is what we intend to do."
¡Ay, caramba! These folks are some serious bigots. Entertainingly, Cauthorn represents Mexico, Missouri.
On a serious note, the English-only crowd proves definitively that hard-liners' claim that they're all fine and good with legal immigration and only have a problem with those who break the law is a big, fat lie. Studies have shown that the group that avails itself of government forms in foreign languages more than any other are older, first-generation legalpermanent residents -- these English-only provisions' primary effect is to inconvenience grandmas and grandpas who ae naturalized citizens or hold valid green cards.
It's also worth pointing out that the comprehensive immigration reform proposals shot down by people like John Cauthorn all required proficiency in English as a pre-requisite for legalization. But they demagogued those proposals as "amnesty," thereby working to maintain a pool of over ten million unauthorized immigrants.
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