The Senate and national language

In today’s Charlotte Observer, Washington correspondent Tim Funk points out some hypocrisy. Two Senators in the Carolinas—Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Richard Burr (R-NC)—voted for the amendment making English the national language, but they also have links on their websites to translate everything into Spanish. The amendment says that no federal services or materials would be required in any language but English.

A DeMint spokesman said the following:

"While he is very supportive of making English our official language, he understands some South Carolinian citizens and legal immigrants still speak Spanish as a first language and is happy to provide them with needed help while encouraging them to master English."

If that is the case, then why would he vote for an amendment that expressly forbids them from that help?

This language issue is absurd, based so much on fear, and stoked up by people like Samuel Huntington (as with his book Who Are We?) who believe that Latino immigration is destroying the country.