I used to think that Pat Buchanan was from the paleo-conservative quadrant of the righty universe . Now I’m not so sure. Buchanan might be a charter member of the “Archeo-conservative” school of thought, where his ideological forebearers pre-date western civilization and his ideas reflect the thinking of intellectual giants like Uther Pendragon and Vortigen – two barbarian Celts who knew what to do with uninvited “foreigners” like Saxons and Picts.
Where paleos are simply bizarre throwbacks to the Robert Taft era of conservatism – isolationist, distrustful of foreigners, big government, and the Democratic party, archeo-conservatives take a right turn at the 1950’s and head straight on back to the 4th century where cities used to build sturdy walls to keep out invaders and the homogeneous nature of society was maintained by simply killing anyone who looked a little different than you or your neighbor.
Of course, Buchanan doesn’t want to kill anyone – I think. But listening to him at times you wonder if in some of his darkest fantasies, he sees himself sort of as a “Shield of God” – Pope Leo holding back Attila the Hun and his barbarian hordes at the Gates of Rome with a bible in one hand and a sword in the other.
He is certainly an extremist. And now we can add “old woman” to his resume thanks to his new book, Day of Reckoning, where he wails that “all is lost” and America is finished:
• Pax Americana, the era of U.S. global dominance, is over. A struggle for global hegemony has begun among the United States, China, a resurgent Russia and radical Islam• Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a product of hubris and of ideology, a secular religion of “democratism,†to which Bush was converted in the days following 9/11
• Torn asunder by a culture war, America has now begun to break down along class, ethnic and racial lines.
• The greatest threat to U.S. sovereignty and independence is the scheme of a global elite to erase America’s borders and merge the USA, Mexico and Canada into a North American Union.
(This is a small sample of Buchanan’s hysterics. Read the blurb at Amazon for a full frontal assault on common sense.)
Every few years, some fruit and nutcase comes forward and boldly proclaims the end of America as we know it and that it’s time to build the bomb shelter or, more prosaically, brush up on your survivalist skills, all the better to ride out the coming race war. Or maybe he thinks liberals are going to collectively grow a pair and drown the rest of us in porn, atheism, and gay rights parades.
Pax Americana” finished? Our era of global dominance over? That might be news to the mullahs in Iran and a few other leaders who don’t lose any sleep over what Russia or China might do to them if they transgress against the world order but lay awake nights wondering if a pack of F-117’s may be on their way to pay them a little visit. The military councils in these countries do not see America as “finished” or “weak” I can guarantee you. They can bluster all they want but their cold hard calculations of power recognize the fact that even with our hands tied in Iraq, we can bring a shattering force to bear against any nation on earth – without using our still superior nuclear arsenal.
Also, we might want to consider the fact that our $13 trillion economy is still 3 times bigger than our closest rival Japan and larger than the next 4 economies combined. We are the 800 pound economic gorilla in the room whose productivity is the envy of the industrialized world.
How this translates into America becoming a third world nation anytime soon simply boggles my mind. You have to deliberately ignore the facts to reach any conclusion other than America maintains a huge advantage economically and militarily over any other nation on earth.
And the idea that America is being torn apart by a “culture war” is ludicrous. There are the forces of secularization and modernization tussling with the forces of traditionalism and religious fundamentalism. There is nothing new in this battle. Substitute “pornography and secular humanism” for “demon rum and race mixing” and you have a snapshot of America a hundred years ago.
In many ways, I sympathize with the right in this struggle in that the denigration of western values and traditions by the forces of secularism and post-modernism have too much influence in our schools and in the culture. But Buchanan, who was one of the coiners of the term “culture war,” (he certainly popularized it), goes too far in portraying these philistines as evil rather than simply wrong. The former Nixon aide is an expert at demonizing his opponents by ascribing sinister motives to their machinations rather than simple wrongheadedness and stupidity – which is bad enough but hardly a reason to start moaning about the end of everything.
And Bush’s push for “democratism” is nothing new in American history. Indeed, the Wilsonian concept of bringing democracy to the heathen has been the one of the major thrusts of American foreign policy for nearly 100 years. And Iraq isn’t the first place the idea has gotten us into trouble. We’ve survived bigger mistakes and come back stronger than ever.
I will not dignify the conspiracy theory about a “North American Union” on this site. The less said about that kind of paranoid delusion, the better.
But Buchanan’s main thrust of his book is apparently that America is finished:
“America is coming apart, decomposing, and…the likelihood of her survival as one nation…is improbable—and impossible if America continues on her current course,” declares Pat Buchanan. “For we are on a path to national suicide.”
It could very well be that the nation state as a political entity is on its way out. Such predictions have been made since I was in books. But what Buchanan and those like him who only see what divides us totally miss are the powerful forces at work in America that keep us united.
Buchanan is rightly worried about the “invasion” of third worlders (mostly Spanish speaking illegals from Mexico and Central America) who are pouring across a border our government refuses to acknowledge much less defend. And there are some worrying signs that many of these illegals are immune to the siren song of the American dream, that they are perfectly content to remain in their “sanctuaries” and maintain a troubling separateness from the rest of America.
But Buchananites always neglect to note that many millions of legal immigrants become enamored with America and the opportunities she offers new arrivals. Those who bother to go through the painstaking effort to come here legally become citizens at just about the same rate as any other immigrant group in American history. They adopt American customs, mixing them as all immigrants in the past have done, with their own. They embrace the American way of life as enthusiastically as any other ethnic group. They work hard, pay taxes, learn English, start businesses, create wealth, and are a great big plus to our society.
Buchanan wants to stop all immigration – legal and illegal – while erecting a Medieval wall to keep out the riff raff.
Buchanan’s loss of faith in America to assimilate newcomers is not justified by history or the facts. There are many steps the government can take to slow the arrival of illegals and force the ones here already to leave voluntarily. But cutting off legal immigration would be a monumental mistake. It would cutting off our nose to spite our face.
The magic of America has always been its ability to absorb newcomers and immerse them into the American compact; work hard, play by the rules, and chances are you too can enjoy the fruits of what this bountiful society has to offer. Put simply, Buchanan doesn’t trust his own country. And I wish to God he would take his loss of faith and not try to foist his Medieval ideas of “homogeneity” on the rest of us in the process of trying to save us.
Yes we have enormous problems – political, economic, cultural. But to get up on a soapbox and announce that the end is nigh is simple hysteria-mongering. It may sell books to his faithful followers and a few curiosity seekers. But is is hardly a basis for political action by either party. Every one of Buchanan’s concerns can and probably will be dealt with eventually. In the meantime, we muddle along, doing our best, trusting that the future will be better than the present as previous generations of Americans did. The fact that they have always been proved right should count for something.
The United States has survived civil war, several horrible depressions, an invasion, two world wars, 120 million immigrants, not to mention various philanderers, crooks, nincompoops, political hacks, and incompetents who served as president. And now we’re supposed to pay any heed to Pat Buchanan’s warnings of imminent destruction just because he thinks the “culture” is being destroyed along with our “homogeneity?”
Get a grip, Pat.
9:23 pm
I was going to comment but culture warriors have kicked in the door and are at this moment rushing up the stairs screaming their bloodcurdling war cry: “Para Espanol, oprima el numero dos.”
I’d fight them, but . . .I . . . I’ve been heteroginized. I’m finished.
9:25 pm
Sorry to hear about your trouble. Perhaps that will teach you to drink only pasturized milk.
10:34 pm
Pat has a grip. Anyone who has any concept of the last 45 years of this countries history and doesn’t see the basic truth in Pat’s book is living in a dream world.
Pat, like the ghosts in A Christmas Carol, is not telling us what will be but what may be.
Trying to minimize the hard facts he presents is not being realistic but fanciful.
He is not crying the sky is falling, he is crying stop playing the ostrich.
10:44 pm
It’s hard to believe this guy once worked for Ronald Reagan. Obviously, none of the Gipper’s optimism rubbed off on ol’ Pat.
8:07 am
Russia is in demographic and military collapse. Europe and China are following closely behind. Our population will reach 450 million by 2100 and then will exceed all of Europe, including Russia. Our economy flourishes and innovates. We are the world center of scientific and engineering invention. Our numerous immigrants, legal and illegal, like us and want to participate in our culture/economy. Even a North American Union would redound to our benefit. No other military power or combination of military powers can defeat us in any kind of warfare. We control the oceans of the world and its airspaces. We control outer space.
Obviously, we are dead and buried.
8:30 am
Rick – Buchanan does go off the deep end on some issues but on others, he’s right on the mark. You say immigrants work hard, pay taxes, play by the rules, only illegal immigrants do none of those things.
Time to answer the tough question. What do you want to do with those who don’t do the three things mentioned above?
Deportation is really the only appropriate punishment. Anything else is just “weasel words” in order to give firm’s their desire for cheaper and cheaper labor and thus increased profits for the few lucky business owners.
English language is another critical issue. Latinos in general but also worsened since so many Latino immigrants are illegal, are reluctant to learn English. It is hurting our school system and as well shows favortism for one particular ethnic group. Anyone who doesn’t think English should be our official language is kidding themself about one day having a break-away Latino region.
SPP/NAU? It is real and happening. Study the creation of the EU and you’ll see amazing parallels to the SPP of today.
8:35 am
Furthermore…It shows great contempt that the elites in DC, on Wall Street and Hollywood believe they know best when it comes to issues such as immigration for a large majority of Americans want not only illegal immigration stopped (or at least greatly reduced) but also want legal immigration reduced for a period of time. Speical interests – farms, hotels, restaurants, etc. want never a ending supply of poor, desperate people to work for them.
Anyone who doesn’t respect the will of the people, by definition can not be a small “d” democrat, nor an American.
12:26 pm
Nessus:
As I write this I’m sitting on my porch hearing the workers building a new house next door. They are speaking Spanish. I have no idea whether they are legal or not. But the same guys built my house. In fact, all the houses I see.
The buyers—myself included—are non-Hispanic. If we’re an elite special interest we’re an awfully large one. The elite special interest of homeowners.
Is there some other bunch of guys dying to build homes here? If so, I haven’t seen them. I look around my neighborhood and I can assure you that none of us is going into the building trades. If you suddenly disappeared all the Mexicans in the building trades in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area, building would stop. And then the anglo builders, and the anglo tradesmen, and the anglo wholesalers and retailers who outfit all these homes would be in a world of hurt.
Unemployment here is already pretty low. Where do we go to get people to build our homes? And don’t give me some vague generalities, I’d like specifics. Where are we going to find literally thousands (millions nationwide) of experienced construction workers once you and Buchanan have had your way?
1:16 pm
Bob – “Even a North American Union would redound to our benefit.” Really now?
Are you business elites gonna even bother to ask the American people if we want to dissolve our nation for the greater good of “free movement of goods, capital and labor”?
How about the Canadians? Do you think they want to give up their sovereignty? Don’t bet on it. The Mexicans? Chronically corrupt Mexico will push for anything to allow it’s peasants to “wander around” in search of work in order to send money back to the narco-nation of Mexico.
Ridiculous propositions you make.
The US is still the technological/engineering leader of the world? Oh really? Where the hell do you live? We have very, very little industrial capability anymore, thanks to the outsourcing of manufacturing. Even computer technology is moving to India. Wake up friend.
7:38 pm
Agree with your assessment of Buchannan as a radical. But kindly explain how he manages to garner so much face-time on cable news. Cable networks love this guy as a color commentator (no pun intended). What am I missing, Rick? How does he pass for a reasoned voice?
7:42 pm
Buchanan has always been the medias favorite cultural conservative. He plays the sound bite game well plus he’s so jolly when people call him a neanderthal that he’s simply irresistable.
9:37 am
Michael – Amazing your condescension, truly amazing. Where I live in the upper mid-West, we are not flooded with “Hispanics” (which has become essentially a code-word for illegal alien Mexicans). Americans build homes, work construction on our roads, work as janitors, maids, mow lawns and young Americans work in restaurants.
I suggest you examine your own beliefs of race and ethnicity as well as whether or not you want the US to remain a nation or just an employment center for the 3rd world? Furthermore, none of you here has answered my question, since roughly speaking, three out of four Americans want illegal immigration stopped and a small majority of Americans want legal immigration reduced for a period, how do you square that with you being a small “d” democrat, if you are one?
In other words, as others have put better than I, illegal Latinos work in jobs where THEY ARE LIVING. Get it? If they were flooding through our southern border, then they wouldn’t be taking those illegal jobs. It’s like visiting Detroit, which is about 90% black, looking around and saying, gee “blacks have almost all the jobs here”. Of course Mr Science, they have all the jobs because they LIVE THERE! Stop the flow across the border and Americans will fill those jobs and some of the jobs will evaporate (as they should) as being nothing but unnecessary and trivial.
3:55 pm
Clearly Buchanan has been wearing his Dennis Kucinich underpants again!
6:31 pm
Nessus:
It has nothing to do with “race.” (Mexican is a nationality, not a race.) It has to do with available labor resources. This is a hi-tech and university area. There is no vast pool of unemployed anglos waiting to attach shingle to roofs. Are you suggesting the college professor who lives to my left, or the financial analyst who lives across the street, or the accountant two houses down, will take up home building? I rather doubt it. Sorry if that sounds elitist to you, but the hard fact is: I’m not going to start nailing boards for a living. Someone will have to nail boards. So, who is that person?
We have nearly full employment in the US. Subtract the Hispanic immigrants you and Buchanan dislike so much, where do we find the workers for jobs that very clearly need doing?
7:42 am
Friday Morning Links…
More thoughts on the Dems as the part of the rich. Dr. SanityVenezuelans flee to NYC. NY SunHow to date at the office. Dr. HelenKeep your laws off my body. Except… Coyote The Dems want a bilingual America. Pure pandering, IMOThe latest on cybercrim…
8:52 am
[...] The Watcher’s Council has announced its picks for the most outstanding posts of the preceding week. The winning Council post was Right Wing Nut House’s post, “Buchanan’s New Book: “Prepare Ye for the Endâ€â€. Second place honors went to my own post, “The Visual Imagery Society”. I voted for Rick’s post so I’m happy with this result and grateful to the Council for its support. [...]
2:58 pm
[...] Buchanan’s New Book: “Prepare Ye for the End†Right Wing Nut House [...]
11:34 pm
Careful. You might upset up ‘old women’.
5:47 pm
Michael, abolish welfare/Medicaid/AFDC and then talk to me about full employment. Oh, and slap on a consumption tax that can’t be evaded by illegals like payroll taxes can. The biggest reason illegals are attractive as a labor force is that the businesses are using government programs as a salary supplement.
11:24 am
So,Iraq was a mistake? Rick,I think you need to get out more and stop wasting time on low-hanging fruit like Buchanan.
7:59 pm
So if America is doomed, what is to be done? Maybe secession is the answer. We tried it before, with disappointing results, but now things are different. Combine California with Baja to the south (Mexico would have to cooperate) and Oregon and Washington to the north and next thing you know we’ve got Califorington with President Terminator to lead us! Pat would not be too pleased. Way too brown, no English to speak of (poor pun, sorry) and Christian only to the extent that Roman Catholics are Christian—-that’s a dig at you, Pat.
8:03 pm
We import Mexicans to labor for us at low wages while we pay Americans welfare so they won’t work at low wages. Yes, those smiling, hardworking, Spanish chattering wetbacks are hard workers. They are footloose and available; while their wives and kids are living in towns and villages with no men, no husbands and fathers. And $4 billion is shipped out of our economy to keep collapse and revolution at bay in theirs. Something is not right about this.
4:17 am
OK, Mexico I can see as a stretch, but hypothetically suppose Canada and the United States merged into a single country tomorrow. Seems to me the result of that would be a much bigger United States geographically, about another 10% population increase (and most of them speak English) plus a lot of oil. I’m sure there’d be problems of one kind or another, but predicting that would be the end of the United States is just laughable. The end of Canada certainly, but the end of the United States? I don’t see it.
8:22 am
Fella name a “Nessus” says “They work where they are living.”
If this is so, howcum them folks from Mexico don’t work in Mexico?
Cause, Mr Nessus, the jobs ain’t there.
Folks don’t “work where they are living” ... they live where they can get work.
An we got generations of immigrants to prove it.
9:33 am
I see Buchanan as an old fashioned Lindberghian anti Semite and nativist.
3:58 pm
Seeing your response, I would have to venture to guess you live in some small town in the Midwest, Mountain West, or New England, (or maybe Deep South) relatively untouched by immigration. I live in a graduate apartment complex that is 70% foreign. Many of the students don’t speak English. They all study physics, maths, etc. When they get their doctorates, almost all will stay here. They will continue to live in their own cubby-hole communities and ignore our existence. This is the reality, and part of the reason we are being torn across ethnic lines. Of course the greater harm is done by the cleaning staff and construction workers hired by the university for God-knows-if-even-legal wages.
3:49 pm
Clever lines, no doubt, but your critique is pathetic. Entertaining, yes, but almost totally devoid of substance. Sadly, it’s all too typical of the lefties: 90% eyewash, 10% substance, 100% lacking in counter-arguments.
The lefty critics know the whole handbook of propaganda techniques – they just push the hot buttons of honest people, always trying to put them on defense for things no person should have to defend. And even if they do get satisfactory answers to that which they criticize, they don’t care to hear it anyway.
You see, truth is not their object. They think truth is fiction (don’t try that logic at home, kiddies). The problem is that the lefties don’t take time to read the substance of what they slam. They couldn’t formulate an intellectually honest critique, let alone a counter-argument, to save their lives.
So, Pat Buchanan got under your skin, eh? If Pat’s word were as wacky as you say, nobody would even buy his book. It should be noted that right-wingers sell books in large numbers … because they are truthful; lefties, on the other hand, just promote them. Postings such as yours are usually a good indicator that a book SHOULD be read. So, on behalf of Pat, thanks for the plug.
2:28 am
Michael Reynolds said: “Sorry if that sounds elitist to you….” Well, no it doesn’t sound elitist, but the question that preceded this remark sounded myopic and stupid.
You asked, “Are you suggesting the college professor who lives to my left, or the financial analyst who lives across the street, or the accountant two houses down, will take up home building?”
Who do you think built almost all the homes in America until approximately 10-15 years ago when Hispanics began to dominate the construction trades? Skilled laborers who entered this country lawfully, many of whom trained their sons to follow in their footsteps. Does experience and craftsmanship matter to you? Does it matter to you that the framer who cannot speak English might also have problems reading a ruler? I’m quite sure it doesn’t matter to you that the guy who had 20 year’s experience and was still only making $18/hour was replaced by a novice willing to work for $8/hour. The week before the novice framer was flipping burgers for $6/hour or maybe washing dishes for $5/hour. Even if the $18/hour guy was willing to take a cut in wages to save his job, he would have a need to become bilingual in order to work with an Hispanic crew, so he might as well get a job at the local 7-11 where at least his ability to speak English is valued.
If you are lucky, that college professor living next door to you might be an economics professor or at least a sociologist, and you should ask him or her why all these layed off construction workers are not reflected on the unemployment rolls. The answers are many and complex, but the bottom line is we have a good many unemployed people in this country whose circumstances don’t qualify them to be entered as a labor statistic. The fact you are unaware this invisible labor pool exists all around you is what leads me to conclude you are myopic. You might also have an elitist attitude, but that would be beside the point.