This thread demonstrates why Republicans have and continue to harm their chances, with certain voters.
Spanish is here to stay in the USA, like it or not. It is not much different that Switzerland, which has 3 languages. Or several other areas, where provinces retain languages, alongside the national language.
Wales, part of the UK, is retaining the Welsh language, alongside English. Irish and English work side by side in the Irish Republic. Finns in Sweden retain Finnish, and Swedes in Finland retain Swedish.
Bretons in Brittany retain their Breton language, alongside their French.
The English word for this occurrence, is "reality."
In related developments, I heard a good marriage slogan: "I can either be right, or I can be happy."
The "English only" spouses sound like the party, that insists on being right, at the expense of happiness and winning elections.
Bush's remarks are aimed at associating himself with the target group; Hispanics. Not much different from eating pasta with Italians, or Bratwurst with Germans. Many of you will have heard (or witnessed) the way the French are when you have made no attempt to use their language, versus when you have. The label "dumb Swede" is something I heard as a kid, based on my grandfather, son of two immigrants.
Making too much of this subject, takes the conversation into murkier and even murkier places, and they are not good ones.
I fully expect my remarks will fall on deaf (English speaking) ears, with some here.
**"Scotch" is a drink, "Scots" is a people and a regional/provincial/national variant on the English language.
The pasta the Italians have, derives from China, the tomatoes for the sauce came from Mexico. The potatoes which starved millions of Irish came from Peru.
The Americas were named for Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian sailing for the Spanish at the time, as Italian Columbus sailed for the Spanish.
Do some Hispanics have reason for claiming mistreatment? Yes, some do. In my area, kids went to integrated schools in the 1930s in one town, yet in the next town over, Hispanic kids went to segregated schools. That is a fact I didn't know as a kid, but with an open mind I have learned it.