An ADC panel focusing on Arab-American voters in the upcoming elections was intentionally controversial and thought-provoking. Martin J. Dunleavy, director of the National Democratic Ethnic Leadership Council, had harsh things to say to Arab Americans that he said he told all hyphenated Americans. His leadership council was formed in 2003 to conduct outreach and education to voters with European and Mediterranean ethnic identities.
According to Dunleavy, hyphenated Americans acted in similar ways when they came to the United States. Most became entrepreneurs, he pointed out: Italian immigrants worked in construction, Irish in politics, Polish-, Russian-, and Greek- and …