Rep. Steve King’s “Diversity is not our strength” Tweet and Democrat Politics of Division
“Assimilation has become a dirty word to the multiculturalist Left.”
In one of those odd moments in which a politician accidentally speaks the truth, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in 2010 that multiculturalism had failed. She said that the idea of various cultures living in harmony, “side-by-side” didn’t work, that it had “utterly failed.” She’s since changed her tune, of course, but she wasn’t wrong.
Multiculturalism does not, indeed cannot, create a peaceful and happy socio-cultural climate. By its very nature it is about division and disunity, about separating people of various cultures and encouraging them to stay separate from the rest of society.
The multicultural experiment has been a disastrous failure for many reasons, not the least of which is the fantastical expectation of cultures to live in kumbaya harmony when one of the said culture’s cultural beliefs is that members of other cultures should be immediately tossed off a roof.
The hubris and sense of inherent privilege of leftists who pushed the failed multicultural experiment on the Western world can be summed up quite simply: the left imagined that they would forever remain the leader, the voice of the various cultures, the ruling force who presided over their various multicultural ant farms and directed their thoughts, speech, and voting patterns. They, after all, worked to set up this separate but equal “multicultural” world, and they intended to preside over its many parts, keeping them separate, discouraging open-minded and friendly interaction that might result in a mingling of cultures, in assimilation.
“Diversity” is among the terms they adopted to hide the fact that they didn’t embrace diversity at all. They didn’t want these subgroups intermingling; they needed them to be separate . . . and as angry at and resentful toward the “other” groups as possible. “Diversity” became a political tool of division and fear-mongering.
Interestingly, leftist politicians and thought leaders who see divide-and-conquer “diversity” as a political tool were intelligent enough to ensure that “diversity” carried a different meaning for the unwashed masses. For leftist pols and thought leaders, “diversity” meant division, disunity, disharmony. The great unwashed, however, are intended by these very leftists to understand “diversity” as the exact opposite; the rank-and-file are supposed to hear “diversity” as a unifying cry intended to promote peace and harmony among various groups. And they do. Vehemently. Anyone who isn’t for “diversity” is a xenophobe, Nazi, white supremacist, and etc.
Republicans are horrible at communication and messaging. Horrible. And no, it’s not just the combative leftist media at work here.
Case in point, Representative Steve King (R-IA) tweeted the following and has received an enormous backlash:
Diversity is not our strength. Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban, “Mixing cultures will not lead to a higher quality of life but a lower one.” https://t.co/ZlMXzcc87w
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) December 8, 2017
I saw this and sighed. And shook my head. And face planted on my desk. And then sighed again. What he’s saying is not wrong, but it’s out of touch and clumsy and (yeah, I’ll say it) kind of ignorant as a result. King’s no dummy, but this is red meat for the progressive left who are already indoctrinated with the false idea that “diversity” means a celebration of difference and not, what it actually means for leftist pols and thought leaders, a means of fostering and sustaining division and disunity.
The socio-cultural strength of this cynical ploy is demonstrated by its acceptance by Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). Appearing on Meet the Press, Scott condemns King’s tweet on leftist terms; it’s not even clear that he read the tweet or the article to which it linked.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) on Sunday called Rep. Steve King’s (R-Iowa) comments that diversity is not America’s strength a “ridiculous statement.”
“Very little that I can do about people who speak ignorantly, and you just have to call it for what it is, number one,” Scott said on NBC’s “Meet The Press.”
“Number two, the bottom line is both when Steve King and Tim Scott arrived in this country, we were actually creating diversity because the Native Americans were already here. So that is just a ridiculous statement,” Scott added.
“Diversity is not our strength” is perfectly defensible because America has long been the “melting pot,” where immigrants come to embrace our freedoms and to make their stamp on our culture and society. America is not about diversity and division; it’s about welcoming immigrants and embracing and absorbing parts of their culture while helping them adapt to, embrace, and absorb ours. America is about unity, and ultimately, about assimilation.
So King tries again:
Assimilation has become a dirty word to the multiculturalist Left. Assimilation, not diversity, is our American strength.
— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) December 8, 2017
Better, but the GOP really needs to get it together on leftist semantic minefields like this. We already know that words don’t hold the same meaning to the left that they do for us, but we also need to absorb into our understanding and messaging that words don’t hold the same meaning for Democrat leaders that they hold for their own voters. “Assimilation” is a dirty word on the left not because of what it means but because of what it rejects: Democratic leadership’s “diversity as alienation and division” propaganda.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Nice sniping from the side lines. Nothing constructive; just criticism and whining about the “message”.
What would **YOU** tweet about multiculturalism, Mr anonymous blog poster?
Here’s the link to my tweet: https://twitter.com/fuzislippers/status/939943836620648448
What would I tweet about multiculturalism generally? Easy:
Failed multicultural experiment results in anger, frustration, and resentment on all sides. Wooo!?
Diversity + Proximity + Time = War
Miss Slippers, this statement: “Multiculturalism does not, indeed cannot, create a peaceful and happy socio-cultural climate.” just knocked my socks OFF! It’s so refreshing to hear the bald truth over the Internet….it doesn’t happen that often.
Another lady,”Wife With A Purpose”, said the very same thing. It’s just common sense, IMO. Sadly, common sense isn’t very common in today’s culture.
You are wrong. The multicultural “experiment” was a resounding success. It was designed to do exactly what it di-, Balkinize the country. The biggest mistake that Conservatives and many Republicans make is that try not offend people by identifying liberal-Progressive programs designed to undermine a unified society as some kind of misguided but fundamentally positive “experiment”. The people who lead the Liberal/Progressive movement are not stupid, much as we would like to believe that they are. They study history, just as Conservatives do. They study sociology, just like the Conservatives do. And, they know that a Balkinized society makes it easier to control that society, as the factions can be played off against one another.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, immigrants came to this country and made an attempt to integrate into the dominant culture. They did not abandon their own cultural practices which were not at odds with the prevalent culture in society. And it worked well. The cuisine choices greatly enriched this country. Celebratory practices along with music, literature, folklore and dress made for an appealing tapestry. However, this tapestry was held together by the basic tenets of the American Culture. This all changed in the late 1960s. When the Democrats lost the Civil Rights battle, they turned to a new tactic to control a portion of society. They convinced Black American society that it was special and should have it own unique culture which was in opposition to the mainstream culture in America. The Black culture, in America, transformed itself from one having the same basic values as mainstream White America into a culture opposed to anything mainstream. And, because they would support this self destructive nonsense, the Democrat Party, the same party that fought tooth and nail to deny Black Americans equal rights, ended up gaining the support of nearly thee entire Black community. This was so effective for them, that they expanded to the Hispanic and Muslim communities.
Multiculturalism, if incorporated into the mainstream society is a positive. If used to set up separate, equal cultures in a society, it leads to intercultural conflict which will eventually destroy that society. None of this is happening by accident.
No. He’s one hundred percent right. Don’t apologize when you’re right. The left won’t forgive you and only a coward doesn’t support his own side when they’re in the right.
Let the bow tie pearl clutchers dither. Moderates are useless.
Lack of assimilation is a problem, if you want to stay a __________, remain where you are and be one. Another problem is hyphenated Americans. Are you an American or something else? There is nothing wrong about being proud of your heritage. I am not a Polish-American, I am an American of Polish decent.
Right in front of the un-registering eyes of Europeans there are numerous Muslim no-go zones. Muslims refuse to assimilate since their coming to non-Muslim areas is to convert those areas into new Muslim areas, not to become part of those non-Muslim areas. They derive their strength through numbers, the larger the better. The same tactic is being employed here in the USA.
The progressive concept of “diversity” is based on discrimination of individuals based on their class, including: color, sex, ethnicity, etc.
Political congruence or “=” is a Pro-Choice doctrine to selectively exclude politically unfavorable or unprofitable groups.
Opposition to assimilation requires Americans (“native populations) to assimilate to progressive liberal (i.e. monotonically divergent) ideas that follow prevailing special and peculiar interests, as well as alien cultures, languages, etc.
Character (e.g. principles) matter.
So do Baby Lives (BLM).
Steve is right. Diversity means divisive and divisive means divide and conquer. We are either Americans or not. Hyphenated whatever’s are not Americans. End of story.
“the GOP really needs to get it together on leftist semantic minefields like this”
Why? It’s not as if they’re ever going to say, “The Republican spoke the truth and deserves full credit for it. Nice job!”
Try it. Tell them exactly what they would say themselves and watch them fly into hysterics over you insensitivity or something. Just say what needs to be said and ignore the idiots!
““the GOP really needs to get it together on leftist semantic minefields like this…”
The GOPe will NEVER get it together. Give up all hope on that. A dream like that is akin to believing mcconnell can make it big in porn.
The GOPe needs to be canned and replaced. Period.
“Here’s the funny thing. No matter what we do, liberals are always going to call us the most horrible things conceivable. So why would you ever, ever, allow what they call you to influence your actions and keep you from acting in your own best interest?” – Kurt Schlichter
I recall seeing it happen over the past half-century, the usual semantic switcheroo. It started with America as a multiracial country. Obviously true. Without mass deportation and relocation after the Civil War, that was inevitable. So, make the best of it; stop bitching and make it work. All very American, really.
But then, the sleight-of-hand. “Multicultural” was substituted for “multiracial”; not a really drastic substitution (or so it might seem) and nobody raised much of a fuss. But the two concepts are not equivalent. Multiracialism leads to a functional, modern America … (probably—I’m allowed just a little bit of optimism). Multiculturalism leads to Balkanization … at best. At worst, it leads to endemic warfare.
And the destructive Left will win, so long as its opponents keep surrendering. So STOP SURRENDERING! Surrender won’t make them go away; they’ll just tighten the noose a bit further, and keep up their increasingly shrill and illogical assaults. Triggering? Cultural appropriation? Privilege? All imaginary crimes. And they’ll have no problem synthesizing more, if we let these ones succeed. You can’t run, so you’d better fight.
It’s all about “labelism”. George Bush Sr’s only real contribution to American civilization was putting the concept of “political correctness” front & center in the public consciousness. The perfect shorthand for a pernicious and destructive concept. And the Left hated it, because it summed up their tactics in a nutshell. No elaborate explanations needed; noting that an attack was just the “PC Police” in action was enough to blunt it.
It’s possible to fight back. So do it. STOP SURRENDERING!
“It’s possible to fight back. So do it. STOP SURRENDERING!…”
Agree 100%.
But don’t think the GOPe has ‘surrendered,’ any more than any other despicable collaborators in history. Rather, they’ve sold out.
There is a giant difference.
My son called me from college one day to ask what he should take to a class lunch that would represent his culture. “Your culture?” I asked incredulously. “Your culture is American!” He thought that over, talked with his classmates and they took hotdogs, potato salad, apple pie – you get the drift! His teacher never said a word about their choices!
We have always had some degree of multiculturalism in this country. Places like China town in NYC or San Francisco. But they were considered unique places and were almost like a Six Flags or Coney Island, places to visit but not to live. The misused phrase is multicultural. If this is the US then we have a culture that is unique to the US. It isn’t supposed to be many small cultures that are not representative of our nation and its people. The left is constantly trying to take away the American culture/traditions and replace it with cultures from other nations and then claiming that this is truly a free society. But it isn’t. What do these people who do not adopt our culture offer instead? They bring the diversity of food and clothing but when the day is over they should be Americans and not hyphenated Americans. Why visit Germany or China if they do not have a unique culture that is fun to see and experience? Yet here, we are asked to not have any traditions or culture but be everyone’s culture is to be admired. The Mexicans can wear cinco de mayo shirts and flags but US kids cannot wear the American flag anytime. muslims can wear full body burquas but American kids cannot wear a MAGA hats. Shouldn’t we make new immigrants adopt our ways and not us to theirs?
I may have lost a little respect for Senator Tim Scott, but I do not know the complete story, yet. I figured he would be smart enough to stay off those types of networks that are anti-Republican. The John McCains & Lindsey Grahams perform plenty of appeasement & Republican Party bashing as it is.
Scott is a cultural leftist who manages to vote right a fair amount of time. A useful ally but one that should never be really trusted.
…. The multicultural experiment has been a disastrous failure ….
Beg to differ. Engineered, along with its twin tyranny, “political correctness, expressly to facilitate the destruction of Judeo-Christian/Western/Human-civilization-inspired individual liberty and our consequential prosperity, the Marxist Institute-become-Frankfurt School’s “multiculturalism,” was never “an experiment,” was always a coldly calculated attack — and has been and continues to be a spectacular success.
Brian Richard Allen
Touche!
Democrats seeking their salvation in rebuilding the Tower of Babel.
The NFL commissioner (of all people) inadvertently summed up the problem when he complained about the disrespect shown for the NFL for allowing players to disrespect the national flag and national anthem.
If you promote contempt for Western Civ and tear at its foundations, don’t whine when you come home to find your grass but on fire.
I think it’s Wretchard at Belmont who brings up a similar pattern – the Establishment’s attempt to de-normalize the President of the United States is drowning their own leadership and institutions downstream.
RE: “is drowning their own leadership and institutions downstream” Ergo Holly Wood Burns………and NFL too…
Harvard Political Science Professor Robert D. Putnam wrote about the pernicious effects of social diversity. In most countries it tends to destroy social comity and results in different groups living in “silos” with little (or at least, as little as possible!) interaction. See Chechnya, the former Yugoslavia before it blew up, Israel/Palestine, etc, etc. The “melting pot” can work to assimilate peoples into a more harmonious whole but only if the new peoples are proportionally small in numbers relative to the majority. So, “Diversity is good” is nonsense. The goal is assimilation of peoples into a harmonious whole. So Rep. Steve King is right and right to say it.
“So Rep. Steve King is right and right to say it.”
Yep.
“I saw this and sighed. And shook my head. And face planted on my desk. And then sighed again. What he’s saying is not wrong, but it’s out of touch and clumsy and (yeah, I’ll say it) kind of ignorant as a result.”
I would think that by now, with the election of Trump, you might have figured out that telling the truth and ignoring the commie rants is the winning way.
Take the truth and shove it right up their a*s. It works.
These are very insightful and articulate comments. Thank you all.
Our national motto says it best:
“E Pluribus Unum”
Not the other way around, as the Left Wing Destroyers would have it.
Fuzzy, This was an excellent article. I will probably read it a few more times before I say anything else but Well Done.
Thanks so much, Paul! 🙂 I look forward to your comments.