The first two yes, but I disagree that the last one is so much of a political wedge. The fact that English is the de-facto official language, but not actually an official language is the source of much headache. Actually designating several languages as officially supported (English for sure, probably Spanish as well. Maybe others like Mandarin & Cantonese but that would make more sense to delegate to the State level) would be beneficial. It would have practical and meaningful effect. Perhaps not to an individual's daily life, but definitely for institutions that need to interact with large segments of the population. I also fail to see why you think this is a right-wing opinion. Liberal states including California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, have made English an official language.
I am of the firm belief that it is government's job to reach out to the people it represents and not the other way around. Designating an official language or set of official languages renders a section of people as disadvantaged outcasts. It is not a crime to not know a language.
Even if we are not talking about impact to an individual from a liberal point of view, this official favoring of languages leads to extinction of smaller languages by means of them not being as useful to future generations as some other mainstream language.
> I am of the firm belief that it is government's job to reach out to the people it represents and not the other way around. Designating an official language or set of official languages renders a section of people as disadvantaged outcasts. It is not a crime to not know a language.
What and Earth makes you think that designating an official language makes it a crime for people not to know that language? Designating official languages is just being transparent about what languages will be used to render services.
> Even if we are not talking about impact to an individual from a liberal point of view, this official favoring of languages leads to extinction of smaller languages by means of them not being as useful to future generations as some other mainstream language.
Language extinction happens as populations become more interconnected, regardless of official languages. They're not going to be as useful regardless. And in fact, official language designation is sometimes employed to keep dying languages alive. North and South Dakota designated some indigenous languages as official languages.
