Let’s cut the crap

In 2002, Maryland elected its first Republican governor in more than 30 years. Our new governor, Robert Ehrlich, is a moderate conservative who, given the political constraints in our state, behaves more like a moderate than a conservative. However, last week he gave conservatives something to cheer about when, as , as John Gizzi of Human Events reports, he denounced multiculturalism as “bunk” and “crap.” Here is what Ehrlich said on a Baltimore radio show:
“Once you get into this multicultural crap, this bunk, that some folks are teaching in our college campuses and other places, you run into a problem. There is no such thing as a multicultural society that can sustain itself, in my view, and I think history teaches us this lesson. With regard to this culture, English is the language. Can [immigrants] obviously honor their ethnic traditions and languages at home and other places? Of course. They are not mutually exclusive. The point here is there is a major distinction between ethnic pride, which is appropriate, and multiculturalism, which is damaging to the society in my view.”
These comments brought the predictable outcry from some Democrats, but Ehrlich has refused to back down. This, I suspect, is because he understands that most Marylanders, and maybe even most Democrats, agree with him. In fact, Ehrlich made his remarks in the context of supporting a statement by a leading Democrat, the former Governor and current Comptroller, William Donald Schaefer. Describing to the Board of Public Works how he was unable to communicate with a Spanish-speaking attendant at a McDonald’s, the plainspoken Schaefer had said, “I don’t want to adjust to another language. This is the United States. I think they ought to adjust to us.” Indeed.

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