{"id":130329,"date":"2012-03-22T12:13:09","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T16:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/?p=130329"},"modified":"2012-12-26T16:40:00","modified_gmt":"2012-12-26T21:40:00","slug":"language-economics-why-santorums-argument-doesnt-translate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/progressive-economics\/03\/22\/language-economics-why-santorums-argument-doesnt-translate\/","title":{"rendered":"Language Economics: Why Santorum&#8217;s Argument Doesn&#8217;t Translate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In between swapping his iconic sweater vest for skin while sunbathing in Puerto Rico last week, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum added even more divisive rhetoric to his belt when he made the rather factually flawed remark that if the island commonwealth wanted statehood, it must <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/03\/16\/us-usa-campaign-puertorico-idUSBRE82D16Z20120316\">\u201clike any other state\u2026[comply] with this and any other federal law\u2026 that English has to be the principal language.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/santorum-sunbathing-620x465.jpg\" alt=\"Economics Language Santorum Photo\" title=\"santorum-sunbathing\" width=\"560\" height=\"420\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-130330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/santorum-sunbathing-620x465.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.prosebeforehos.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/santorum-sunbathing-620x465-200x150.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Unsurprisingly, Republican Puerto Ricans rejected Santorum and his proposals when they took to the polling stations and voted instead for Mitt Romney, who recently cranked out a TV advertisement <em>en espa\u00f1ol<\/em> that featured Governor Luis Fortuno.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>While Santorum\u2019s political misstep cost him the 20 delegates the commonwealth has to offer, his factual faux pas translates quite well with the more radical conservative base in big-ticket states like Texas, California, and Arizona\u2014all of which are the most exposed and vocally opposed to Spanish-speaking immigrant populations given the strength and popularity of their respective anti-illegal immigration bills. As such (and as usual), what many may regard as an all-around gaffe, Tea Party conservatives view as a stroke of genius.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uWXN8fqNk4Y\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Despite having no real basis in constitutional reality, the arguments of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.us-english.org\/\">those in favor<\/a> of declaring English the official language of the United States are familiar ones: the language is for all intents and purposes the unofficial one of the country and the many immigrants who moved to the country before the influx of the more Spanish-speaking ilk had to learn English in order to integrate themselves fully within American society. Why then, many \u201cEnglish Only\u201d proponents ask, should \u201cexceptions\u201d be made for job stealing Hispanics?<\/p>\n<p>Prior to globalization, many economists regarded language as an area more specific to the social sciences than their own field of work. But with an increased flow of goods coming from an increased flow of migration and the cultures and languages that comprise them, many have begun to view language in a broader light.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<p>Take the United States, for example. A language that many native speakers butcher and abuse every day (see: Twitter), English proves to be a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vircs.bc.ca\/barriers.php\">substantial entry barrier<\/a> to higher wage earning job markets for non-native speakers. Statistically <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npc.umich.edu\/publications\/policy_briefs\/brief8\/\">lower skilled and less educated<\/a>, the fact is that pro-big business conservatives ultimately prefer maintaining the Latino immigrant population as a cheap source of labor in order to woo investments from large corporations. An easy way to do that? Don\u2019t make English the official language of the United States. <\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, in an epoch of economic uncertainty, the truth is that having an increasingly large, permanent labor class working for petty wages while a few others make huge profits is just what the free-market capitalist doctor ordered. Furthermore, it\u2019s something that falls right in line with the cracked platform the GOP has made for itself throughout the past three decades. To think otherwise is simply na\u00efve.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, openly admitting all of the above would be an unpopular move that wouldn&#8217;t likely garner much support from the masses. So in light of that, what can we take away from Santorum\u2019s deceptive statements in San Juan? Well, not much. It\u2019s a classic smoke and mirrors act on behalf of Santorum and other like-minded politicians: pander for the votes of the radical and radically intolerant with equally fanatical ideas only to maintain the economic status quo. Except this time, and perhaps a result of still being comatose from the rapturous Puerto Rican weather, Santorum chose to debut his latest display of political backwardness under the flimsy guise of \u201cconviction\u201d to the wrong crowd.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CwoQUHo--mA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>However, when given the facts that the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.infoplease.com\/spot\/hhmcensus1.html\">48.4 million Hispanics<\/a> currently living in the United States constitute as the largest and fastest growing ethnic minority group and are likely to open businesses three times faster than the national average, you might start to wonder what the future of the \u201cright\u201d crowd really is. Furthermore, at a juncture where more and more studies demonstrate the numerous <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/18\/opinion\/sunday\/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html\">benefits of bilingualism<\/a>, you might also wonder why a politician would waste his time catering to the intellectually complacent to begin with. But so it goes with a party in decline, anyway: they cry loudest\u2014and in English\u2014before they go out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In between swapping his iconic sweater vest for skin while sunbathing in Puerto Rico last week, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum added even more divisive rhetoric to his belt when he made the rather factually flawed remark that if the island commonwealth wanted statehood, it must \u201clike any other state\u2026[comply] with this and any other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":531,"featured_media":130331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Language Economics: Why Santorum&#039;s Talk Doesn&#039;t Translate<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why the GOP 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