As a follow-up to Rebecca’s post on Florida state senator Leslie Miller’s proposal to teach children Spanish in school from grades K-2, I wanted to comment on an exchange I witnessed between Senator Miller and (shiver) Tucker Carlson on the latter’s cable television show which left me despising Carlson even more. Not just because he’s a Republican but because he came off as a childish idiot. In response to Miller’s question of why we shouldn’t start teaching kids Spanish early and let them decide later if they want to continue:

CARLSON: Well, I’ll tell you why. Look, it sounds like you’re open to voluntary solution, which is certainly better than the compulsory one. But there are a lot of things you’d like your kids to know. You know, you’d love to learn them—how to learn to play the xylophone, or the accordion, or speak Esperanto or, you know, learn a lot about Finland.

He’s comparing learning Spanish, regarded by most as second most important language in the world to Esperanto and the xylophone. (He also said “learn them”. Jeez.)

The rest of the exchange pretty much proves my point (childish idiot) so I’ll let it speak for itself.

CARLSON: And it seems to me an effort to push us toward a bilingual society. I think that’s what this really is. And that’s bad for the country, don’t you think?

MILLER: You think it’s bad to have a bilingual society?

CARLSON: Name me a bilingual society in the world that isn’t filled with strife, people who speak different languages.

MILLER: One of the worst jokes in the world is name someone who can only speak one language, and that’s an American.

CARLSON: Do you speak Spanish?

MILLER: No, I speak very few words.

CARLSON: Wait, wait, wait a second, Mr. Miller. Don’t you think you ought to learn Spanish before you push it on little kids?

MILLER: Sir, what we’re just doing is trying to open up someone’s mind. It’s not about me speaking Spanish; about trying to teach young kids at different languages. We’re not saying it has to be mandatory when they leave. We’re willing to change the Bill. So why do I have to learn to speak Spanish?

CARLSON: I don’t know. If it’s such a good thing, if it’s good enough to push it on kindergartners, I would think it would be good enough for you.

MILLER: I’m 54. I’m not going to go back to school to learn Spanish.

CARLSON: I don’t speak it very well either. So I’m not, you know, pushing a Bill to make other people speak it.

CNN’s got Lou Dobbs. MSNBC’s got Tucker Carlson. If you are going to be a bigot, come up with an argument that would stump at least a 5th grader, instead of reverting to the playground taunts of “If you love it so much why don’t you marry it?!”

Via / MSNBC.com