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It's evening in America, Buchanan says, and immigrants are to blame (Buchanan interview)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram | 1/03/2002 | Jeff Guinn (Books Editor)

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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
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Comment #361 Removed by Moderator

To: Okiegolddust
When a people is trustworthy, government will be also

You are approaching this from a very socialistic angle - Rousseau would love you for thinking that man is essentially good. Conservatives know better. That is why society, customs and norms are there to constrain man from acting bestial.

I don't know what you believe but it is not conservatism. It is touchy feely gobbledy gook which has nothing to do with reality. Thinking that any institution based on imperfect men can be "good" is beyond bizarre.

Ivan
362 posted on 01/04/2002 9:59:06 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: Jethro Tull
I am just now reading his book. I am only part way through it, but I can tell you that I now realize why so many with agendas that lack American interest, hate Buchanan and his book.
363 posted on 01/04/2002 9:59:19 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf
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To: PuNcH
I dont see a parallel between Nazi rewards for aryan mothers and a uniform tax break for American mothers.

It's a government administrated and dished out benefit either way. Is that so difficult or has hanging out with the Patsies damaged you permanently?

You are being disingenuous by ignoring what Pat is supposed to mean by "culturally American". You Patsies want to ignore that this does not necessarily mean everyone with an American passport.

Ivan
364 posted on 01/04/2002 10:00:31 AM PST by MadIvan
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Comment #365 Removed by Moderator

Quote from Pat Buchanans Death of the West.

Uncontrolled immigration threatens to deconstruct the nation we grew up in and convert America into a conglomeration of peoples with almost nothing in common-not history, heroes, language, culture, faith, or ancestors. Balkanization beckons.

Bang, right in the ten ring.

366 posted on 01/04/2002 10:13:22 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf
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To: Okiegolddust
Not really - you're confusing nationalism and tribalism which was the dominant form of social organization - let's be specific about definitions here - nationalism is the loyalty to the state as an abstract idea. Tribalism is loyalty to a biological group. The two are often intertwined and in their extreme forms are militaristic and xenophobic, e.g. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

Also while republicanism supported the rise of nationalism that doesn't equate republicanism and nationalism - the two are vastly different concepts which can exist independently of each other.

But let's be practical here - Canada is not a socialist state. Most industries and businesses are in private hands and Canada has a substantial tradition of respect for human rights - I've never said Canada represents my political ideals but if given a choice between living in Canada and say Cuba, any reasonable person knows what choice to make there.

367 posted on 01/04/2002 10:19:54 AM PST by garbanzo
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To: MadIvan
It's a government administrated and dished out benefit either way. Is that so difficult or has hanging out with the Patsies damaged you permanently?

Sorry but there is a difference between the Nazi's discrimination against non-aryans and a uniform tax break for all mothers. One discriminates and the other does not.

You are being disingenuous by ignoring what Pat is supposed to mean by "culturally American". You Patsies want to ignore that this does not necessarily mean everyone with an American passport.

You are reading into what Pat is supposed to mean. Can you back up what you think he is supposed to mean aside from taking words out of context?

368 posted on 01/04/2002 10:29:01 AM PST by PuNcH
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To: Either/Or
I thought I would offer another quote from Mr. Buchanans book.

In 1960 only sixteen million Americans did not trace their ancestors to Europe. Today, the number is *eighty million*. No nation has ever undergone so rapid and radical a transformation. At Portland State in 1998, Mr. Clinton rhapsodized to a cheering student audience about a day when Americans of European descent will be a minority

Clinton: "Today, largely because of immigration, there is no majority race in Hawaii or Houston or New York City. Within five years there will be no majority race in our largest state, California. In a little more than fifty years there will be no majority race in the United States. No other nation in history has gone through demographic change of this magnitude in so short a time."

Buchanan continues. Correction: no nation in history has gone through a demographic change of thsi magnitude in so short a time, and remained the same nation. Mr. Clinton assured us that it will be a better America when we are all minorities and realize true diversity.

369 posted on 01/04/2002 10:30:50 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf
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To: Joe Hadenuf
#363: Hi Joe:

It's amazing how many people who haven't read his book have formed rock solid opinions about it's content.

First, it's the best book he's written to date. I've not seen one argument against his research.

Second, to give it a thunbnail sketch, it's about how Marxism stopped attacking capitolism and began attacking Western culture. No one on this forum who considers themselves intellectual honest, should have a problem with Buchanan's conclusion.

Like true fascist neo-cons, they're attacking the messenger, not the message.

370 posted on 01/04/2002 10:39:40 AM PST by Jethro Tull
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Comment #371 Removed by Moderator

To: garbanzo
#367:"But let's be practical here - Canada is not a socialist state."

No, just important segments of it's economy are.

Take your health care system.

Pure Marx....

372 posted on 01/04/2002 10:43:20 AM PST by Jethro Tull
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To: Jethro Tull
Like true fascist neo-cons, they're attacking the messenger, not the message.

This says it all about those that refuse to see or that harbor agendas that lack Americas interest.

373 posted on 01/04/2002 10:47:10 AM PST by Joe Hadenuf
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To: MadIvan
"Why should I reward his sludge with my hard earned cash?"

Well, for one thing it always helps to have read a book you're discussing.

And besides, did I say for you to buy it?

I believe I said read it.

Have they not public libraries in Mother England?

374 posted on 01/04/2002 10:49:22 AM PST by Jethro Tull
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To: Okiegolddust
British generals...like Monty. Nice attempt at an insult. What other bad parlour tricks do you do, "Slap the Handcuffs on the Mexican"?

You said that government would be good if a people would be good. I'm trying to tell you that people are rarely good, and therefore government is unlikely to be good. Now Pat comes strolling across the park, saying that the government is going to decide who is culturally American or not, and dish out tax credits on that basis. You don't seem to have a problem with government getting these many powers, I do. Because my practical, realistic objections is that there is no good way for a government to do this. This is far from libertarian abstractions, it is a practical objection to the abstract way that you and Pat define things and intend to do things. It's not my fault you are so daft that you have it backwards.

Ivan
375 posted on 01/04/2002 10:52:40 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: Jethro Tull
Have they not public libraries in Mother England?

I live next to one. But they have better things to spend their cash on than books by a failed politician who only garnered .8% of the vote. I am rare among Brits for having heard of him in the first place.

Ivan
376 posted on 01/04/2002 10:53:50 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: Jethro Tull
Like true fascist neo-cons, they're attacking the messenger, not the message.

Oh do get real. I have raised consistent, practical objections into what Buchanan wants to do, and you just want to brush it off because your head is so far up Buchanan's backside you won't ever concede the possibility he might be wrong.

Ivan
377 posted on 01/04/2002 10:54:58 AM PST by MadIvan
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To: garbanzo
If all the countries of the world shared the same democratic values what would be the problem with a global federation of sorts with constitutionally limited powers?

This is too vague and meaningless to be of any value to Americans and their inalienable rights. If you are suggesting that the UN or some new world order is going in the direction of acknowledging inalienable rights I'd really like to see the proof.

The soviet union had a constitution, what they called republicanism, a list of "rights", democracy. -- No God. Nothing inalienable.

378 posted on 01/04/2002 10:56:14 AM PST by PuNcH
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To: MadIvan
I read your post #290 and it took me a bit of time to pass judgment on your questions. The questions that they raised in my mind were: Question #1 Are they inane? or Question #2 Are they irrelavant? In favor of inane is the fact that nearly everyone with IQ above 60 has a fairly good grasp on what an American is. The one group that this may not be true of are the neo-imperialists of the left and right who can't seem to muster more concern for their fellow countymen than they have for nationals of other countries. Of course, when it's time to fight wars for their interests they become superpatriots and have no difficulty in demanding that their fellow citizens defend them.

In favor of irrelavant, is your absurd attempt to denigrate the idea of increasing the parental tax exemption by calling it "social engineering". By your criterion, what action of government is not social engineering? Are you an anarchist?

So after long consideration I could not decide which Question I posed to myself better described your post. It was both inane and irrelavant.

379 posted on 01/04/2002 11:03:35 AM PST by The Irishman
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To: Jethro Tull
I'll have the Bud on the left, thanks.
380 posted on 01/04/2002 11:06:58 AM PST by ZULU
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