THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

The other day a Mexican-American leader, complete with his accent, was attacking Americans for their racism. "They treat us," he complained, "As if we were some kind of foreigners."

What this Mexican-American leader was objecting to was conservatives who demand that illegal immigration from Mexico be stopped. He also objected to Americans who insist that Hispanics in America learn English.

Oh, and he was furious that Americans want to deny welfare benefits to illegal immigrants.

The fact is that anyone who wants American Hispanics to speak only Spanish is in fact being a foreigner in the United States.

Any American citizen who takes the side of Spanish-speaking illegal aliens against other Americans is being an alien inside the United States.

If you are a US citizen who wants illegal aliens to get American taxpayer money, you are doing just what this Mexican-American "leader" says: You are in the United States acting like some kind of foreigner.

But no one said that to this Mexican-American "leader." Respectable conservatives are not even allowed to THINK of saying anything about this because President Bush wants to "appeal to minorities."

The only Americans with Spanish names we might ever actually get to vote conservative are the ones who consider themselves Americans, not resident aliens. The only votes we might get are the votes of immigrants who do not want to be foreigners inside America.

But you can't appeal to that group of truly American Hispanic-Americans until you get off the "appealing to minorities" nonsense.

Legal immigrants of every kind would like someone to stand up for them, but conservatives won't do it. A lot of the people who followed the law and went through all the hurdles to get their US citizenship are very, very upset about the millions who just walk in.

But as long as you are appealing to the ones who just walked in, you can't get the votes of those who want to fight back. You can't conserve what a real American wants preserved if you follow the "appeal to minorities" line.

Every election a higher percentage of American whites vote conservative. In the long run conservatives only need a minority of the non-white vote To Go WITH THE WHITE MAJORITY. They can get it, but only if they forget the "appeal to minorities" nonsense and go for the votes that CONSERVATIVES CAN ACTUALLY GET.