By an almost 2-to-1 margin.

This
idea is not only impractical, discriminatory, and thuddingly empty, but also completely ignorant of — not to mention disrespectful to — this nation’s history.

At
the time of the revolution, for example, viele Amerikaner kamen aus Deutschland,
also war Deutsch fast unsere nationale Sprache.  But it would have
been stupid and short-sighted to make German the official language, as anyone can see in retrospect.

The idea that a language unifies or defines a culture is based on a bizarrely narrow, uninformed, and misplaced sense of what makes a culture worth having.  And America’s culture is profoundly defined and shaped for the better by people who came here speaking — and continued to speak for generations — languages from all over the world.  And you don’t even need to speak someone’s language to communicate or understand.  Interpersonal communication is perhaps 90% non-verbal.

You can even hear tone of voice just in reading, sometimes even through languages whose words you can barely parse.

Les mots Thomas Jefferson ont choisi d’encadrer
la d