If they are American citizens and can vote, they should know English. Why should the candidates depend on translators to communicate their message?
But that's not the issue here. It's a free country, and even if English was to become the official language, there is nothing to stop millions of Hispanic voters from preferring Spanish as their language of choice.
So the last thing a politician or party wants to do is alienate an increasingly powerful bloc of votes by telling them that unless you only use English in the electoral process (debates, polling, voting, etc) then we're not interested in your support.
Voters are consumers too, and if Republican politicians refuse to sell themselves to the Hispanic voters, then they should not be surprised if the voters don't buy from them. Holding a Spanish language debate is simply a good marketing tactic, nothing more.
That's the problem. As the noted Harvard historian, Samuel P. Huntington, observed, "The persistent inflow of Hispanic immigrants threatens to divide the United States into two peoples, two cultures, and two languages. Unlike past immigrant groups, Mexicans and other Latinos have not assimilated into mainstream U.S. culture, forming instead their own political and linguistic enclaves—from Los Angeles to Miami—and rejecting the Anglo-Protestant values that built the American dream. The United States ignores this challenge at its peril.
So the last thing a politician or party wants to do is alienate an increasingly powerful bloc of votes by telling them that unless you only use English in the electoral process (debates, polling, voting, etc) then we're not interested in your support.
You are making my point. Why would this "powerful bloc of voters" object to the sole use of English in the electoral process?
Voters are consumers too, and if Republican politicians refuse to sell themselves to the Hispanic voters, then they should not be surprised if the voters don't buy from them. Holding a Spanish language debate is simply a good marketing tactic, nothing more.
It goes deeper than just marketing. It changes the very nature of this country. I assume that you would prefer than all politicians become fluent in Spanish and the American public for that matter so they can fully communicate with this growing segment of the population. Do you have any objection to Spanish joining English as the official languages of this country?
You just made the supreme mistake of the Baby Boomers.
"It's a free country" -- does not mean that anyone can do anything without limit. It simply means that we have no King, we have no monarchy, we rule ourselves and make our own laws.
And the people who did that spoke English, and their nation was formed around a Constitution - an agreement - written in that language, and the people who spoke it.
Invasion is not a civil right. There is no right for the Chinese people to land in Los Angeles, set up the New Middle Kingdom, and declare Mandarin the official language of government and commerce.
That's treason against the Americans. And war.
And the same rules apply to the citizens of Mexico.
There is no right to colonize and invade the United States. That is not what freedom means.