Say what you want about Buchanan, if he had ever won the presidency that border would have been closed to illegal traffic in 6 months, no ands, ifs or buts about it. There would also be interior enforcement.
On those points there is no compromise for conservatives and in fact had it been done as it should have been there'd be no need now to sit around and make deals with the likes of Ted Kennedy because there would be no illegals to "compromise" over.
Had he been elected, he would have accomplished nothing. He would have been exponentially less effective than Carter.
"there is no compromise for conservatives"
Spoken like the Populist that you are.