Here we go again

LITTLE ROCK — IN HIS quest to lower the level of public discourse-believe it or not, it can go even lower-Jon Hubbard wants to know why the attorney general of Arkansas is habla-ing all that Español. The state representative from Jonesboro sounds like one of the types who get irritated when they hear Spanish in a Wal-Mart. That is, he sounds like the folks at Secure Arkansas, who sound anything but secure.

What can it be that so upsets people like that? It’s a beautiful, clear, concise, logical, phonetic language, Spanish. As one descended from the Latin should be. Now and then, channel-surfing, we come across a Spanish-language program and can’t help but pause to listen for a minute or three. Just to review our high school Spanish. It’s similar to the way we’re transfixed whenever someone in the corner of the screen is “speaking” in American Sign Language. It’s visual poetry.

In Spanish, even the commercials are stunning, with enough drama and rolled Rs to outfit three opera companies and a couple of bullfights. ¡Olé! Eventually we’ve got to move on to ESPN for our sports fix. And feel lowered when we do.

So what is it about the sound of Spanish that sets some of us off-the folks who can’t even bear the thought of punching 2 for español? The way some Quebeckers/Quebecois go into a fit at the sound of English/French, depending on which language group’s not theirs. How explain all that? The only explanation that makes any sense to us is some sort of fear of Them. The 50-cent word for it is xenophobia.

Jon Hubbard, the Republican rep from Jonesboro, wants to know why the aforesaid attorney general, Dustin Mc-Daniel, offers a Spanish-language version of the attorney general’s website.

Here’s our guess: Because so many Arkansans speak Spanish.

Isn’t that what public servants are supposed to do, i.e., serve the public? In the 2010 Census, more than 185,000 people in Arkansas identified themselves as Hispanic. Many of them may have better skills in Spanish than English, and if they’re answering a Census, most of them are probably as legit as state lawmakers from Jonesboro, Ark.

Even the folks here without their papers in order should have access to the attorney general’s office. One of the many problems with illegal immigration, and one reason the system needs to be fixed by our lawmakers in Washington, is that so many illegal immigrants live in the shadows, where they are preyed upon by those who’d take advantage of their fear of the authorities.

AS IT happens, when Jon Hubbard, R-Hateful, sent his emails to Dustin McDaniel, the Democratic attorney general of Arkansas, questioning the website in Spanish, he thoughtfully cc’d other pols and the news media. Among other statements and questions, Representative Hubbard posed these: “Is there a state policy that provides special treatment for Hispanics in Arkansas, while no other ethnic groups are given the same special considerations?” Also: “I cannot see any purpose for your pandering to Hispanics in Arkansas, whether it be to those here legally or illegally, unless you think that by doing so you might increase your chances of possibly winning their future vote?”

Special treatment? Pandering? Most Arkies use English in our day-to-day lives, and the attorney general’s main website is in . . . English. So is the AG’s office giving special treatment to the Scots-Irish and other English speakers among us? If so, that’s surely because the AG’s office knows its constituency.And, as mentioned, that constituency also includes many Hispanics. As soon as 185,000 Chinese choose to make Arkansas their new home, the AG’s office needs to start “pandering” to them, too, or what most would just call communicating with them. Something tells us that down in Evangeline Parish, the folks at the parish courthouse in Ville Platte can probably respond toa request made in French, or at least the Cajunized version thereof. America is like that. This new world tends to Americanize so many languages. Even the American that most of us speak isn’t quite the same as the queen’s English, bless her heart and stout soul.

The attorney general’s office can scarcely create a website for every language in the world, but when more than 185,000 people move into a state, it’s time to start talking to them. As in alerting them to consumer scams and keeping them safe from computer crimes, sexual predators, identity theft and all the other dangers out there. Not to mention warning them to get out of the way when one of those 100-percent American tornadoes comes barreling through Arkansas. (A name that’s really French, or at least the French variation of Quapaw.)

Oh, yes, Jon Hubbard also used his email to General Mc-Daniel to question the president’s being a natural-born citizen and therefore his qualifications to be president. So he’s a birther, too.

It figures.

AS FAR as accusing the attorney general of being a politician, well, Dustin McDaniel would probably plead guilty to that minor infraction. And a smart politician he is not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color or, in this instance, national origin. Because a lot of folks whose language Mr. Hubbard can’t seem to stand will vote, or their children and grandchildren certainly will. And don’t you know they’re going to remember which politicians and party were mean to Mama? We sure would. By acting hateful, the GOP has nothing to lose but its future base.

Just exactly when did the Republicans become the Small Tent party? Some of us are old enough to remember when the Republicans were the ones pushing civil rights in Congress, and it was Democrats from these latitudes who were the ones afraid of The Other. And had the filibusters to prove it.

Americans of the Hispanic persuasion are the fastest growing minority in the country. But too many Republicans, instead of welcoming their support, are busy pushing them into the other party. For goodness and politics’ sake, why?

Are those running the Republican Party so happy being the minority party that they want to grow even more minor? Are they happy that Democrats are now in charge of both the presidency and the U.S. Senate? Controlling those also gives the Democrats a pretty good start on controlling another part of the federal government, the judiciary. Specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States. Not to mention Arkansas state government, including a governor and an attorney general you may have heard of.

Jon Hubbard sounds like the kind of pol who’d prefer to have his party stay in the minority-and have the other party run the country and state-rather than have Them speaking another language in “his” country. That way lies permanent minority status. Whittaker Chambers said it best, as he so often and eloquently did. After a miserable electoral performance by the GOP in the congressional elections of 1958, he told his young friend Bill Buckley:

“If the Republican Party cannot get some grip of the actual world we live in, and from it generalize and actively promote a program that means something to masses of people-why, somebody else will. There will be nothing to argue. The voters will simply vote Republicans into singularity. The Republican Party will become like one of those dark little shops which apparently never sell anything. If, for any reason, you go in, you find, at the back, an old man, fingering for his own pleasure, some oddments of cloth. Nobody wants to buy them, which is fine because the old man is not really interested in selling.He just likes to hold and to feel.” And maybe occasionally send emails sure to put off thousands of voters. And people of good will in general.

If you’re trying to keep your party out of power, Representative Hubbard, you’re doing a heckuva job.