Monday, September 08, 2003

Davis Comments Horrible

Anti-immigrant rhetoric is both wrong and wrong-headed, politically.

UPDATE: Kynn over at Shock and Awe notes that the McClintock campaign has been picking on Arnold's English too. But, actually, Davis still comes out looking worse. There's a difference between slamming someone's English and slamming their accent. If you want to argue that Arnold's grasp of the English language isn't sufficiently developed for him to be the governor of California, that's a fair line of argument (even though I don't agree with it). My lack of French would disqualify me from becoming President of France.

However, Arnold's accent is something that most adult immigrants are unable to change. After a certain age, most (but not all) people are incapable of adopting the proper cadence and pronunciation of new languages even if they devote themselves to it for decades. Knocking accents is a kind of anti-immigrant rhetoric.

It isn't the biggest deal in the world, and far less of a big deal than Arnold's N-word fetish, but it's poorly chosen and shouldn't continue.