Posted on 06/20/2008 9:02:50 AM PDT by Huck
The idea came up on a thread today that perhaps it would be a good idea to write to the various conservative websites/publications that currently pay/publish Patrick Buchanan, and let them know that we would like them to stop publishing him.
The thought is that PJB is basically a useful idiot for the left, allowing them to paint conservatives as racists, and tying the right wing to Nazism. He makes us look like irrational haters when we really aren't. He is used by MSNBC and others to make fools of us.
It's not an effort to silence him. He can write any book he likes, but an effort to voice our opposition and disassociate ourselves with him.
I am curious to know what this great forum thinks of this idea. It wasn't my idea. Just something that came up. I thought that if it were something worthwile, perhaps it could be a piece of Freeper activism?
Curious to know what you all think. Sound off.
The crazy uncle is invited & tolerated due to social norms as an unavoidable obligation.
The pastor is chosen and followed deliberately with no sense of obligation.
There’s a difference.
I think what they really mean to say is “repugnant” analyst.
MSM journalists are easily confused.
Don’t we have enough people taking away our freedom of speech?
You destroy Buchanan and then Obama destroys you.
Does that sound like a wise plan to you?
There’s a difference between silencing and ignoring.
What?? First, he's not anyone's uncle. Second, what "social norms" obligate conservatism to tolerate/welcome PJB?
There’s a difference.
No there isn't.
I support Huck in this, and, in fact am slowly composing my emails to this regard. Here is the issue:
1. Pat has gone WAY off the deep end. Today, he published an article claiming that Hitler didn’t REALLY mean to kill all the Jews (despite what he said in the mein kampf, speeches in 1935 on the “Final Solution, etc), but was pushed into it by the evil British.
2. Pat is proped up by the MSM -— MSNBC mainly, but lately Fox News and routinely published by Town Hall, World Net Daily, etc.
3. I have many a Jewish relative who throws Pat Buchanon in my face as to why they don’t trust “conservatives” and Republicans. This is emotional response, and I know him to be a fringe element, but most people just aren’t as informed. Truthfull, the fact that this little Nazi had any position in a Republican administration -— let alone won some primariess -— gives me serious pause about my fellow conservatives and Republicans -— and I know better. He’s just completely creepy.
4. Pat is, IMHO, used for this emotional response by the MSM to keep Jews on the Democratic plantation. The “go to” conservative on shows is this prick Nazi. Ergo, Republicans are Nazis. (Not true, I know, but that is the emotional response.)
5. I propose a letter/email writing campagin to get rid of Pat Buchanon from the Right. He DOES NOT SPEAK FOR REPUBLICANS and Conservatives. He needs to Go Away.
6. Please join Huck and me in this effort.
Thank you
Ditto. He’s not a conservative. He would not have income were it not for the MSM.
I voted for Perot
We all make mistakes. We need to bury this crazy uncle in the backyard.
Who’s taking away anyone’s freedom of speech? It’s a free market. He’s free to write. But a freedom of speech is not an entitlement to be published. Doesn’t the public have freedom of speech?
As long as he is on MSNBC, he cannot do any damage because that has become the cable news channel for MoveOn.org. But on McLauglin and Fox News, he can do some damage.
What I’m suggesting is not censorship at all. It’s self-regulation of conservatism. No one would take away his right to publish. They would simply let their voice be heard that he isn’t welcome in conservative publications. It’s not anything like censorship.
“I think that if you were successful in getting Buchanan off the pages of the press as you suggest, then our arguments about the Leftists trying to silence people with whom they disagree will become a little more difficult to defend.”
I strongly oppose censorship, but Pat is spreading poison, and is used by the MSM to give the conservative movement a bad name.
I don’t care if he has an outlet; I just don’t want Pat Bunchanon to be the face of “conservatism.” He’s not, and we need to make that clear.
But, if a coordinated effort is made, and succeeds in bumping somebody off, then how are we better than the Islamists who had that guy thrown off WMAL?
I'm not concerned that morons might read Buchanan and believe I think that way. They already believe that anyway.
You totally miss or avoid the point. He’s no more our crazy uncle than Rev. Wright is Obama’s. It’s free association, and just as Obama is rightly (har har) criticized for associating with Wright, conservative publications can and perhaps should be criticized for associating with PJB.
“Why do that?”
Because Pat is propped up by the media as the face of conservatism in a transparent effort to make people think conservatives are Nazis.
But since you're throwing him under the bus can you throw his buddy Joe Scarborough with him?
Because it should be judged on the substance. There is nothing wrong in the abstract with complaining and getting someone bumped. If it's in your interests, you're free to go for it. It's a free market. I'm not saying no one should be allowed to publish him. I'm saying conservative publications should be convinced that they are not serving the cause by publishing him, and that we'd be happier with them if they didn't. We're better than the Islamists because the cause we advocate is just and theirs is not.
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