Reasons for "En Español" on Hillary, Obama & Richardson websites? Mitt Romney too?

Question

This is not a fluff question to get only Democrats all riled up. I took a look at every candidates sites tonight, on both sides of the false divide. Those four are the only ones with a link like that. To me, that seems to show that they will bow to anybody to get votes. I'm not racist, I know 4 languages, I've lived in and visited other countries, but I'm an American, and I would like to know why. Your thoughts? Your outrage? Your viewpoint?

Why not have every major language up there along the top? Like Chinese, Hindu, French, German, werbeH, etc?

Do you think these candidates will lose more votes than get from such appeasement? When I lived in another country, I was forced to learn the local language in order to get by. Why don't they learn English? Are the communities that large and self sufficient, that they don't need to?

I had a customer whom I tried to speak with today. She and her husband only knew Spanish. One language I don't speak (go figure). It was warranty repair work for complicated equipment, and their 4 year old daughter had to "try" and translate. I couldn't not get the job done correctly even though they smiled and thanked me when I left. They then complained to the service provider we partner with. MY company got in trouble.

It's kind of mean, but If I was McCain, Fred, or any of the Republicans destined to lose (IMO other than Ron), I would do it with style. I would have an "en espanol" link on my official site, and it would link to

http://www.eslgo.com/classes.html

or something similar

Answer 1

Let me get this straight...youre surprised at the vote-whoring in presidential politics? I mean come on, you been hiding under a rock for the last thirty years? Politicians do whatever they have to do to get votes. If Clinton has to blame Bush for her party's failure to fulfill their campaign promise in order to get votes, she'll do it. If the Republicans have to resort to calling Bush a liberal in order to distance themselves from him and get votes, theyll do it. This is nothing new, its just now theres a big Spanish-speaking community that can vote, so the politicians need to whore their votes, and if they have to put a Spanish version of their website up in order to get those votes, theyll do it.

I dont think theyll lose many votes over it. Believe me, they have campaign strategists, planners, PR people, and a plethora of others advising them on what will win them votes and what will lose them votes. If theyre doing this, its because they dont fear a repercussion from it.

I agree that they should be learning English. I lived in Quebec (Canada) for a year, and I spoke French there, like everyone else. And I think if the Hispanic immigrants want to live here, they should at least be able to speak basic English.

I dont care if I have to help out with some of my broken Spanish, but I'm much more inclined to do that if theyre making an effort to learn English. I dont expect perfection, but a little effort would be nice.

Answer 2

I'm glad you approached this intelligently and didn't make it a question to rile people up, but then you have to realize that the second most spoken language in the United States is Spanish. I mean, in the end, it's almost certainly a bid for the votes of the large Mexican-American community in the states, but again, that's a huge amount of voters. Certainly, they could provide the websites in multiple languages, but that would require them hiring people to properly translate the site fully into those languages while keeping meaning and subtleties intact... not just a Babelfish translation. It's a choice to earn votes, certainly, but it's also a clear mater of focused utility. Why translate into German when the majority of German-speaking American citizens are also fluent in English? Around where I live, there are far more Brazillian people than Mexican (or other central/south american peoples that speak Spanish), but I'm not surprised that the these candidates don't have Portuguese as an option for their site because, frankly, it's a minority among voters.
They're obviously going to focus on earning the most votes they can, and Spanish language is the second best language to reach voters in this country as a whole. I don't see an issue with that. Besides that, the Spanish-speaking segment of America has shifted slightly in the past years, becoming more centrist in the scheme of things. While the Republicans enjoyed a lead among them, especially Mexican-Americans, the Democrats are gaining a lot of ground, especially with immigration being such a hot debate subject.

Answer 3

Candidates wanted to get as many votes as they want in order to win. Thus, many candidates adopted both English and Spanish in order to get the sympathy of the Hispanics which is a large block of votes.

VOTE for your choice as US President on my 360 degrees blog and know if Clinton, Obama or Romney will likely win.

Answer 4

You don't think they let all those illegal in because they felt sorry for them do you? Those are future votes been intended from the start they vote for free stuff so politicians go after them

Answer 5

The USA does not have an official language.
The USA is a country of immigrants. Most americans will have no problem retracting their past and finding out where their families came from and then going off back to europe, asia etc to visit.
So why is there such a problem with mexicans? They do the jobs that americans don't want to do, they work harder than some american citizens.
The answer is that people are afraid of change, they get loads of money and then they turn conservative, they know what they have and they don´t want to lose it.
If 20% of your voters are black, you have to try and appeal to these people, if 20% of your voters speak spanish as a first language you have to try and appeal to these people.
It is called democracy. If they just targeted the WASPs (white anglo saxon protestants) then that would not be a democracy.

I find that the US has certain fundamental principles but ignores them now to try and benefit itself.

For example, Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, wanted to set up a cheap airline based in california, but the america government has a rule that says an airline based in its country must be 75% owned by american citizens, branson is british.
Now, the US govt had not problem, through the "world bank" in going to bolivia and saying that they had to privitise their businesses, they did so. With the example of milk, the bolivians sold their milk business and were told it would be better for everyone. The bolivian farmers used to received a certain amount for their milk, even though there was a monoploy by the govt. The milk business was sold to an american company, who had a monopoly and gave less money to the bolivian farmers, took money out of the country, make people poorer, and for what? So the bolivians could have a loan to make their country richer, ie, the american govt on the pretext of helping, screwed the bolivians over, took money out of their country and make it worse.

Either the american government is going to play fair, or it is not, history says it will not.
History also suggests that the individual americans don´t care less if their govt does not play fair, and what you have said points to that.
You want democracy, but you want to have the control over this democracy, you don´t want the others having control. WASPS on top and everyone else kept down.
But democracy is winning little by little, that is why spanish is being used.

Answer 6

I am particular whom I deal with these days and if they advertise "hablamos espanol" I do NOT shop there. If I am on the phone and get "Press 1 for English" I hang up. Maybe political candidates figure they will gain votes but they might lose more than they gain.

Answer 7

I don't see it as a shameless catering for votes. I just think the Democrats are trying to tap into the Latino voter market.

It's the new political reality that Latinos are here to stay, and their language with them. The geographic position of the US assures Latino immigrants who enter the country more convenient opportunities to travel back and forth to the US and their home countries than other immigrant groups from the Eastern Hemisphere.

With this convenience, the immigrants have less need to learn English. Why bother when you can get Spanish newspapers in the US, watch Spanish language television or hop on plane and be in Mexico in ninety minutes?

The US/Mexico border continues to grow more porous despite all the efforts of far right groups. The lure of better economic opportunities is too great, and new immigrants will continue to keep coming.

The Democrats have probably realized this and have adjusted to adapt to this new reality by offering Spanish translations of their candidates' websites.

Answer 8

Because there are many citizens that are more fluent in Spanish than the are in English.

If you ever wanted to see bowing to get votes, you need to look at the republican party. Every election season they rant about banning "gay marriage" and "abortion", but when they had full control of the White House and Congress they failed to give their base what they promised.

Answer 9

This is a really interesting question! ESPECIALLY since you're open-minded enough to speak four languages.

I guess it comes down to whether you really think it's "bowing" to someone "to get votes," or whether they're simply making it easier for as wide a base of voters as possible to see what they're about.

I don't see this as a concession, just an attempt to be understood/pragmatic. The majority of voters in the USA who may not speak English very well will speak Spanish. To me, language is not a power play (I only speak two... neither of which is Spanish). But you're welcome to disagree :-)

Answer 10

Bow to anyone to get votes? By making sure that people who's English isn't as strong as thier Spanish are informed?
Obvisously they do not have the other languages because there is nowhere near the demand.
Why is it a problem? Would they be pandering the blind, doing anything to get thier votes by printing material in braille as well?
How does it hurt you to have a website in Spanish as well?
Many countries have more than one language spoken widely and manage to accomodate that. Why do you hate America so much as to believe it is inferior to those other countries and so cannot tolerate multi-lingualism?