The end of "Anglo-conformity"

How to pronounce Sotomayor, part 2. What's this country all about, anyway?

Published May 28, 2009 4:34PM (EDT)

Mark Krikorian, the would-be arbiter of how to pronounce Sotomayor, is delighted at all the blogospheric attention he received Wednesday after going public with his fears of multicultural non-assimilation.

Yet, strangely, despite the fact that everyone knows exactly where Krikorian is coming from, the poor man is somehow operating under the misapprehension that we don't understand his main point, so he restates it, once again:

While in the past there may well have been too much social pressure for what sociologists call Anglo-conformity, now there isn't enough. I think that's a concern that most Americans share at some level, which is the root of the angst over excessive immigration, bilingual education, official English, etc.

I have only one question. If "most Americans share" Mark Krikorian's concern over the lack of social pressure for "Anglo-conformity," would they have elected a man named Barack Obama as president of the United States? To paraphrase the unforgettable Inigo Montoya:  Mr. Krikorian, I do not think this country means what you think it means.


By Andrew Leonard

Andrew Leonard is a staff writer at Salon. On Twitter, @koxinga21.

MORE FROM Andrew Leonard


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

How The World Works Immigration