Despite the grumbling left and right, this wasn't exactly and issueless campaign. It's just that, in terms of national survival, the real issues were never discussed or alluded to.
The establishment has convinced Republicans that these matters are strictly off limits - that to confront reality here would mark them as haters of huddled masses and alienate Hispanic voters.
So the Republican ticket avoided any mention of immigration policy or of English (matters that will have a far greater impact on our future than a modest tax cut), while Democrats quietly continued to undermine national identity.
In 1999, almost 10 percent of the country was foreign-born, double the percentage of 30 years ago.
Without regard to the wishes of the American people, immigration is radically re-making America. If Census Bureau projections are correct, over the next fifty years, two-thirds of net population growth will be due to future immigrants and their descendants.
As 90 percent of today's immigration is non-white, by the middle of the next century every American will be a member of a minority. This is both a multiculturalist's dream and a nationalist's worst nightmare, especially since many of our newcomers seem determined to remain strangers in their adopted land.
But, sensing political opportunity, the Democratic Party pursues policies of national disintegration. In the waning days of this Congress, Bill Clinton is pushing for yet another amnesty for illegal aliens - this for those who have been here since 1986.
Each amnesty encourages the next wave of illegal immigrants, by holding out the hope of future amnesties. The immigrant waves crashing on our shores are eroding the foundations of nationhood, including the language that united us for more than two centuries.
Just before the Democratic National Convention the president put the weight of the federal government behind language Balkanization. Executive Order 13166 mandates that henceforth all federal grant recipients 'take reasonable steps to provide meaningful opportunities for access' for those who refuse to learn English.
Thus, if a hospital accepts federal funds, it is now obligated to hire a staff that is (according to a companion memorandum) 'bilingual in English and other frequently encountered languages, in critical patient contact positions.'
One of liberalism's cherished beliefs is that America not only has an obligation to take in an unlimited number of immigrants, but the latter have a right to the delivery of tax-funded services in the language of their choice.
Three weeks after the executive order was signed, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission finally succeeded in getting a federal court to rule that requiring employees to speak English on the job is a form of discrimination prohibited by the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
The case involved assembly-line workers in Illinois. Only a federal judge could fail to see the utility of having co-workers communicate in the same tongue. The eight ex-employees allegedly victimized by the work rule will split a $192,500 judgment and supervisors have been ordered to undergo training in the new multilingual order.
Last month the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal of a ruling overturning an Alabama referendum requiring that government business be conducted in English.
Citizens of six states have passed similar ballot measures (Florida by 84 percent, California by 73 and Colorado by 61 percent). But the immigration lobby, Democratic Party and its judicial lackeys are determined to deny the American people a say on whether we remain an English-speaking nation.
The public is both passionately pro-English and disdainful of an immigration policy that amounts to slow suicide. In a February 2000 Zogby poll, over 72 percent said immigration should be stopped completely or severely limited and illegal immigrants vigorously prosecuted.
Unfortunately, the majority lacks a political voice on these issues. One party (which has found in immigrants a natural constituency it can mobilize with promises of more government giveaways) is committed to the erosion of national identity. The other is too timid to protest. In consequence, this is another election America lost by default.
[Editor's note Mr. Feder overlooks the fact that Republicans are not just silent on the immigration issue, but many of them lobby for cheap labor.]