The Hispanic Challenge

David Brooks seems to get it right in taking apart Sam Huntington's position about the unique challenge of Hispanic immigrants.

While I don't have a lot of patience for people who argue against assimilation and for bilingual everything, I see no reason to think that Hispanic immigrants can't or won't assimilate anymore than the Germans, Italians, Poles, Irish, Jews, Chinese, or Vietnamese weren't able to – no matter what the Reconquista conspiracy theorists think.

And further, Brooks is right:

Frankly, something's a little off in Huntington's use of the term "Anglo-Protestant" to describe American culture. There is no question that we have all been shaped by the legacies of Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin. But the mentality that binds us is not well described by the words "Anglo" or "Protestant."