Why Pat Buchanan is Wrong About the Right (and Everything Else)

http://www.thefence.com/pages/Pontifications/Pontification.asp?PontificationId=569 ^ | 11-29-04 | Aaron Goldstein

[what's up]

Buchanan was good on defending the Swift Boat Vets.

He's not good for much else.

[quidnunc]

Pat Has found a home in the fever swamps of paleoconservative crankery, peddling his demagogy to the 0.41% of the country that lives and dies by the latest NWO conspiracy theory.

There's gold in them there kooks

[notigar]

I thought the book was pretty good. It has some flaws. And this reviewer has some good points. But the larger argument about whether we become more powerful by expansion or retraction of the empire is certainly worth debating.

[Jack Black]

His last book was great. "Death of the West" was all about demographics, and the fact that 'the west' (he includes Japan in his definition) is shrinking due to low birth rates. If anyone else had written it, I think it would have been a top book for intellectual journals and critics to discuss. As it was, he was pretty much ignored because serious people have stopped listening to Pat a while ago.

[nathanbedford]

Hell hath no fury like the Israeli lobby.

[elhombrelibre]

Maybe Pat is on to something. I wonder if anyone else has ever suggested the Jews were behind all of our woes?

[elhombrelibre]

Pat doesn't consider Hispanics part of the West. He lumps them in with the non-civilized. He's very cosmopolitan.

[SJackson]

Yup. In the words of Mark Weber

The intimidating power of the "Jewish lobby" is not a new phenomenon, but has long been an important factor in American life.

I think Pat’s been published in Mark’s rag.

Iraq, simplified.

For reasons which are understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, [they] wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction.

[SJackson]

Maybe Pat is on to something. I wonder if anyone else has ever suggested the Jews were behind all of our woes?... Pat doesn't consider Hispanics part of the West. He lumps them in with the non-civilized. He's very cosmopolitan.

True, he's not original. For all his "Christian Nation" jabbering, I'd think he'd be happy to see Hispanic Catholics moving here.

[notigar]

Who needs to quote Pat, when they have George Washington:

"Real patriots, who may resist the intrigues of the favorite, are liable to become suspected and odious; while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."

[SJackson]

Right, Pat Buchanan is a modern day George Washington, exposing the the odious conspiracies of todays dual-loyalists.

[SJackson]

Who needs to quote Pat, when they have George Washington

BTW, where did I quote Pat?

[notigar]

You didn't. You said weber published him. A big quote, if you will.

[notigar]

Any doubt he'd be labled a "crank" for expressing those views today?

[SJackson]

Any doubt he'd be labled a "crank" for expressing those views today?

Washington? Not at all. You're presuming he'd somehow agree with Pat that the "neo-cons" and their Jewish lobby allies run the country.

[Mamzelle]

Buchanan is only as important as his detractors make him. He serves as "bete noir"-- it amazes me that one pale ole paleo gets so much attn, generates so much ire. I guess it's easier to carry on about Pat than worry about the awful stuff that's really out there... It's that classic Rocky/Bullwinkle joke, "Why are you searching outside for your lost ring? You lost it in the house!" Because the light's better in the front yard.

What the "Israel lobby" ought to concern itself with is the lack of leadership and support it gets from the majority of American Jews, who did their darnedest to get an anti-Israel candidate elected president.

[notigar]

I'm not certain that's what Pat said, I think he believes that the neocons had a significant influence on our most recent foreign policy undertaking: Iraq. A far cry from saying they run the country. What I was saying with regard to Washington is that isolationism itself has a longer pedigree than Pat Buchanan's ideology.

[SJackson]

You didn't. You said weber published him. A big quote, if you will.

Meant the Spotlight. He lifted the gas chamber nonsense from Weber, though Weber credits him for the widespread exposure.

[SJackson]

He's a news yapper, we talk about them everyday here. He's no more important in a political sense than Dan Rather.

As to the "Israel Lobby" what you perceive as lack of leadership and support it is a function of the fact that it doesn't exist. AIPAC could be described that way I suppose, easily as influential as the AARP, the NRA, and the AAA, not to mention multiple unions. The last thing they should be doing is endorsing political parties.