Opinion: Bird embraces King’s ‘English only’ legacy in Iowa

On March 1, 2002, I was two beers deep into a Friday evening when the call came. Then- Democratic Gov. Tom Vilsack signed the so-called “English only” bill into law.

With his re-election on the line, Vilsack signed a bill supported at the time by 80 percent of Iowans. Vilsack capitulated to then-Republican state Sen. Steve King, who went on the Congress to become a leading advocate of white supremacy. But, hey, Vilsack did get $1.4 million for English language education.

Backers of the bill dismissed fears of opponents by insisting the measure is mostly symbolic. It required all state documents to be presented in English, unless doing so would deny a constitutional right. Everything’s already in English, supporters insisted, and it has nothing to do with being anti-immigrant. Nothing to see here.

In 2004, while being considered as John Kerry’s vice-presidential running mate, Vilsack apologized for signing the law in a speech to the national Democratic Party’s Latino Caucus. He told them his staff insisted vetoing the bill hurt him politically.

“I was seriously willing not to run because I thought it was so bad,” Vilsack told the group.

As for simply being “symbolic,” King went to court to stop the secretary of state’s office from offering voting materials in different languages. A judge ruled for King in 2008. Oddly, the state did not argue the law violated a constitutional right, and it opted against an appeal.

The League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, wasn’t going to repeat that mistake when it filed a lawsuit in 2021 seeking to overturn an injunction barring multilingual voting materials. In June, District Court Judge Scott Rosenberg ruled offering voting materials in different languages is necessary to secure Iowans’ right to vote.

Now comes Republican Attorney General Brenna Bird, who was King’s congressional chief of staff during the 2008 court fight. Instead of letting this long, sad saga finally die, she’s decided to appeal Rosenberg’s decision.

“The Iowa English Language Reaffirmation Act is clear; all official documents are to be written in English — including voter registration forms. We look forward to arguing our case in court to uphold the Act and secure the integrity of our elections,” Bird said in a statement.

One lasting effect of our current era of Republican rule is that the word “integrity” no longer has true meaning. How, exactly, does making it harder for American citizens who need multilingual voting forms improve the integrity of elections? Integrity now just means taking actions Republicans think will help them win.

Republican leaders have stoked ant-immigrant sentiment in this state into a conflagration. Undocumented immigrants, and even legal asylum-seekers, are merely criminals hauling fentanyl into the country. Fear, fear and more fear. Who cares if they’re citizens? These brown invaders don’t deserve the right to vote.

Couple Bird’s appeal with her warnings to large companies and law firms demanding that they stop using diversity, equity and inclusion-based hiring practices and the picture becomes crystal clear, in any language.

King’s political career may be over, but Bird is carrying on his vision for Iowa as an overwhelmingly white state that stays that way. Don’t like it? Leave.

(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

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