Conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly is the mother of the anti-feminism movement, and her Eagle Forum conservative interest group is very upset by the news that minority births in the U.S. are now the majority. As The New York Times reported yesterday, “the Census Bureau has made it official: White births are no longer a majority in the United States.” Referring to the Times article, Schlafly’s Eagle Forum Legislative Alert says that it “goes on to quote experts who say that this is a wonderful thing, except for the facts that the Hispanic immigrants are uneducated and do not vote Democrat often enough.”
The Times article of course does not say that. It says, “The United States has a spotty record educating minority youth; will older Americans balk at paying to educate a younger generation that looks less like themselves?”
Because that’s the “funny” thing about “uneducated” Hispanic immigrant children: you have to educate them, just like you have to educate non-Hispanic native-born children. In other words, you have to educate children. It’s not like caucasian children are born with a degree from Harvard in their hands.
“It is not a good thing. The immigrants do not share American values, so it is a good bet that they will not be voting Republican when they start voting in large numbers,” the Eagle Forum alert adds.
The Alert continues:
The NY Times liberals seek to destroy the American family of the 1950s, as symbolized by Ozzie and Harriet. The TV characters were happy, self-sufficient, autonomous, law-abiding, honorable, patriotic, hard-working, and otherwise embodied qualities that made America great. In other words, the show promoted values that NY Times liberals despise.
Oh my God. They were TV characters! From 60 years ago! Yes, they may have been a “real-life” family, but they were acting! In a TV show! See: The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.
And it’s just plain stupid to claim that liberals hate “happy, self-sufficient, autonomous, law-abiding, honorable, patriotic, hard-working” values.
Liberals, like conservatives, are and embrace the values of being happy, self-sufficient, autonomous, law-abiding, honorable, patriotic, and hard-working. The right doesn’t own that franchise.
Instead, the USA is being transformed by immigrants who do not share those values, and who have high rates of illiteracy, illegitimacy, and gang crime, and they will vote Democrat when the Democrats promise them more food stamps.
Really? Immigrants are some of the hardest-working people you’ll ever meet. And, if they are undocumented — which is of course who you’re really talking about — they are some of the least-complaining people you’ll ever meet. Undocumented workers need — really need — a job, and aren’t going to complain because they know the consequences. To claim that they are lazy is false. To claim they are illiterate is a function of conservatives slashing education budgets and trying to keep immigrants from accessing education. And do you even know how much money someone on foodstamps gets?
The Alert continues:
Update: This post was criticized by two left-wing blogs, the Daily Kos and Right Wing Watch. Apparently they like it when the NY Times celebrates Ozzie and Harriet no longer being a national archetype, but they are upset when I express a contrary view. Why do they hate Ozzie and Harriet so much? Draw your own conclusions. I say that they despite [sic] the mere concept of a national archetype that extols traditional American values.
The fact is that “Ozzie and Harriet” is a myth. America never really was like that. And it certainly is not now.
But it’s the height of intolerance and oppression to complain that America is no longer like it was 60 or 70 years ago, and try to force people back into that mold.
By the way Schlafly’s home-schooling activist son Andrew is the founder of the virulently homophobic Conservapedia.
A final note: The Eagle Forum this year celebrates its 40th anniversary, with a mere 80,000 members. Wonder why that is…
Hat-tip: Think Progress