About That Coke Ad

I was among the many who misted up at the gentle, lyrical “America Is Beautiful” Coca‐​Cola commercial last night, but it turns out to be controversial in some circles. Former U.S. Representative Allen West called it “truly disturbing” and thinks it indicates the nation is on the “road to perdition” because it shows various participants singing portions of the song in languages other than English. He goes on to quote Theodore Roosevelt — a President closely associated with the Progressive movement, and no hero to me — that “we have room for but one language here” in America.


One irony here is that the cause of English‐​language assimilation is doing way, way better today than in the days when bossyboots Progressives like Teddy Roosevelt were banging on about it. It used to be that it would take three or more generations to melt away the language isolation of Finns or Norwegians in the upper midwest, Czechs in Nebraska, Quebecois in upper New England, or Deutschlanders in the parts of Pennsylvania and Maryland where German remained the predominant language long into the nineteenth century. Today, modern popular culture being the force it is, the American‐​born kids of native Bengali or Ukrainian speakers are likely to enjoy perfect fluency in English. 


Meanwhile, a writer at Breitbart is also upset at the ad, which not only uses “several foreign languages” but “also prominently features a gay couple.” Please no one tell him about the 25‐​year “Boston marriage” of Katharine Lee Bates, author of “America the Beautiful.”