Posted on 01/03/2002 7:56:52 AM PST by sinkspur
Pat Buchanan is aware that potential readers of his new book already either adore him or disdain everything he writes "because I am the one writing it."
So in The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press, $25.95), the ex-presidential candidate and conservative pundit is trying to back up his apocalyptic projections with facts and figures provided by such disparate sources as "Russian leader Mr. Putin, a British archbishop and the United Nations. By drawing on what anyone would have to consider neutral sources, this makes my message far more powerful."
The gist of The Death of the West's messages:
Low birthrates are decimating the population of almost every European country - by 2050, only one-tenth of the world's population (America included) will be of European descent.
The unchecked influx of immigrants into America, legal and otherwise, is gradually handing the nation over to insurgents who come to force their foreign values on us rather than accepting ours.
Political correctness on the part of unwitting Americans plays into the hands of those who intend to obliterate our culture.
The events of Sept. 11 may provide enough of a wake-up call, Buchanan says, to make "the death of the West" only a threat rather than a certainty.
"The book is about a point I've been making for a long time, that the West is dying," Buchanan says during a lengthy phone conversation. "If we don't change how we do things, we'll be gone by the middle of this century, if not before. The horror of Sept. 11, I think, awoke a lot of Americans to new realities. It's a healthy thing to remember there are people out there who want to destroy us."
In Buchanan's opinion, it took terrorist attacks on New York City and the Washington, D.C., area to drive that message home to an American public more intent on hedonism than heroism.
"The '90s were a time of prosperity I've likened to the 1920s," Buchanan says. "The '20s were about money, drinking, jazz. The '90s were money, drugs, rock. The '20s ended with the stock market crash, the Depression, then on to Hitler, Tojo, Stalin. The 1990s ended on Sept. 11. We're at the kind of place Walter Lippmann called 'a plastic moment,' a time when people can change their destiny. I hope this book helps that. I'm not so much predicting these awful things will happen as saying, 'This is what the end is if the numbers remain the same.' "
Not that he holds much hope: "To many American young people, people like me belong to a bad old era. They've been taught that in school, indoctrinated in it. They want to say goodbye to the way our generation did things. This is why I don't think much will be done about the problems we face."
Buchanan acknowledges he's saying things that most Americans would prefer not to hear and that many condemn as racist and inflammatory.
"My response is that it's too late in the day for political correctness," he says. "After Sept. 11, with those acts perpetrated by people we literally welcomed into this country, Americans ought to be aware there is such a thing as too much diversity, too much welcoming. Look: I've said that if you bring 100 Zulu tribesmen into Virginia and 1 million British, the British would be assimilated more comfortably. I base that on those British coming into an American culture based on English law and tradition. And when I said that, something that seems like a simple statement, I've been accused of racism."
Now, Buchanan says, "I could substitute Iranians or Saudis for the Zulu, and people might understand." And, he adds, originally citing the Zulus was in no way racist "because I'm friends with the Zulu ruler. It's just a matter of acknowledging the differences in culture."
Potential immigrants should be judged by one measure, Buchanan adds: "Are they likely to carry on our culture, which makes America a unique country and civilization? Or are they not?"
Population explosions in Islamic, African and Latin American nations are coinciding with a decline in the U.S. birthrate, Buchanan notes, citing U.N. studies. To bolster "American cultural" numbers, Buchanan concludes in The Death of the West, American women should be encouraged via tax breaks to increase the country's population: "A free society cannot force women to have children, but a healthy society can reward those who preserve it by doing so."
Though he doesn't broach the subject in The Death of the West, in conversation Buchanan is willing to also discuss his own future.
"Politically speaking, I ran two times for the Republican nomination," he says. "We came close in '96, and we'd have gotten it instead of [Bob] Dole with one more primary win. In 2000, we tried to create a new party. It didn't work. So my political career is probably over."
But Buchanan has no intention of abandoning public debate.
"I've done my best to say the things I thought necessary, and I intend to keep writing books and to keep speaking out," he says. "I love doing it. I hope the Lord gives me 25 more years. If people don't like me or my message, well, that's not my concern. Political correctness is almost an impenetrable shield of basic realities."
For education and discussion purposes only.
Haven't read it yet, intend to do so, and will be very surprised if it has the racism characterized by the comments I've read here. I'll believe it when I see it.
Too bad the demonism will keep good points from being made about the changes in attitudes on American immigration. Traditionally, immigrants were expected to assimilate, to become Americans. Borders and immigration numbers were controlled to avoid being overwhelmed and destabilized.
Any attempt now to control the flow is met with the tedious but perennially effective charges of "racism." And, of course, any expectation of Americans that new immigrants will cherish their new country is also "racism." Immigrants arrive with a whole list of ancestral grievances, ready to insist on litigation and handouts. Small but significant example--they won't get car insurance, so become an economic menace on our roads. Yet, they fully expect easy drivers' licensing...
Ours is NOT the responsibility to teach hordes of people coming across our borders illegally, anything, but how to leave. Legal immigration is not the problem or the issue.
But if a picture is worth a thousand word, here my friend is American culture at it's zenith. One cannot be a true American if they fail to appreciate American women...
American ideals came from the founders religious beliefs. I wasn't just European people who developed the successes of Western civilization. Surely there are millions of European decendants who are still living in the stone age as in parts of Russia. It was European people with a particluar beleif system that created Western civilization as we know it.
And those principles will work for anyone else who decides to put them into practice.
Seems they feel America owes them something? They must not be too concerned for Americas borders. Maybe they dont consider themselves Americans.
LOL, where were you?!
I must have missed all the articles of Pat Buchanan lobbying Congress to pass Bush's tax cut for children. I would be happy to retract my statements about his silence if you can post any proof supporting your claim.
Is this the way the British describe America's glorious Constitution?
A piece of paper?
A PIECE OF PAPER!
I'll have you know that the bravery and blood of American patriots stand
squarely behind 'that piece of paper.'
You sir, are a disgraceful foreign interloper...
In a previous post, you correctly identified that those from Berkley (CA) most likely aren't "culturally American."
Just how did you arrive at this conclusion?
Well,,,we have a meeting of the minds.
Buchanan would like to ensure domestic tranquility by enforcing our immigration laws.
Yet, whenever this proposition is mentioned, you Fabians howl like stuck pigs.
Why?
I agree.
So then, can we place these Berkleyites you describe in the pile of people called (non) "culturally American"?
Your explanation looks like it was lifted right out of a Democratic political primer.
For the record, California's LEGAL hispanics were so offended by prop 187 that 60% voted in favor of it.
And if you believe the GOP has become more culturally conservative since pro-life, pro-gun, pro-AMERICA Reagan swept 60% of the popular vote in California then you haven't been paying attention.
citizenship
Question 2: How will this "Americaness" be determined? You can be born in America, speak English as a native tongue and have an American passport yet be on "the other side" - witness Berkeley.
LOL! dont worry its already determined regardless of this issue.
Question 3: What happened to the idea that the government should not play a role in social engineering? It didn't work when the leftists tried it, why should Pat be any more successful?
Mothers and families are not social engineering by the govt. A uniform tax break would be the govt's way of getting out of the way.
America and Britain have problems with new immigrants assimilating. But producing a vague scheme with no clear standards that sounds rather like how the Nazis used to reward "productive" mothers is no answer either. Of course the Patsie idiots will still shout "Buchanan Akbar" anyway.
How the nazis awarded productive mothers? Please explain this nazi accusation in greater detail. Thanks ;)
Protecting our borders from illegals is unrealistic?
Do you realize that Americans have walked on the moon, defeated Hitler before you Brits were forced to learn German, crushed the former Soviet Union, developed the Atom bomb, thereby saving millions of lives, scattered the feared Taliban and reduced bin Laden from a global terrorist to a cave dwelling, goat humping dirt bag.
No my dear Ivan, protecting our borders is not 'unrealistic' for Americans...
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