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.
Bingo, some just want to shoot the messenger. The fact is, most of us have had enough of this immigration nightmare and border "free for all".
Your view on how to change our immigration policy has nothing to do with what we were talking about. Its too bad that because the policy doesnt meet up with your personal expectations, it evidently doesnt matter that the law and public welfare is completely disregarded.
I'm always amazed at people like you who would self-rightously give away that which does not belong to you in the first place. We have a specific immigration policy and the majority of Americans want something done to stop illegal immigration. The laws and will of the public are being disregarded.
But let me attempt to work your brain a little - would the policy I described be acceptable - Stringent border enforcement coupled with near-universal legal immigration policies provisent on not being a public charge - for you?
You are more than welcome to your opinion but it would be nice if you didnt sidestep the issues we are previously talking about.
But let me attempt to work your brain a little - would the policy I described be acceptable - Stringent border enforcement coupled with near-universal legal immigration policies provisent on not being a public charge - for you?
It would not be acceptable to me. I would much prefer that our country start taking care of itself instead of directly taking in the third world.
Then why even bring it up? I agree that something like this could happen and it could be a great thing if the rest of the world gets on our page. Either way I think it will take a lot longer than 100 years for the equalization process to work its way through to make this kind of new world possible. After all, like you say, the concept of Nation-States itself is still in its infancy in the context of history. It is hard to envision making the leap to world government when we are still struggling to make nation-states work. I'll say this, you truly someone that is way ahead of your time!
The US Constitution isn't about creating a world government. If the rest of the world adopted the US Constitution or something very similar, there wouldn't be immigrants flooding into the US.
The only way Mexico will ever be respected, and Mexicans as a result would be respected is to make their own country a decent one. I don't think Mexico should give up their language and culture just like I don't think the US should ---but if Mexico changed it's political and economic system, it wouldn't be a hellhole everyone wants to leave. At one time Japan was ridiculed and their products were mocked until they actually built themselves up ---and it wasn't by forcing other countries to take their citizens. Now they are competitors of the US and respected for what they can do. There is no excuse for Mexico with it's vast land and resources not to do more for it's people.
We have a winner here...that's the key issue as always - and the way for Mexico to do that is to adopt some of the basic principles embodied in the Constitution, property rights, limited government, and rule of law. It should also be pointed out that these things exist for the middle class in Mexico but not for anyone else.
Ah, now we are getting down to brass tacks. You admit that Western people developed and held their ideals because they where Christians.
This is, of course, only partly true. There are a lot of other factors involved. However, for the time being, let's focus on Christianity since it is a very important one.
Since Western people were able to hold and develop their beliefs, and hence build a great civilization, at least partly because they were Christian, does it not stand to reason that mass immigration of non-Christian people into Western lands coupled with massive decreases in Christians' birth rates (not to mention apostasy rates) threatens Western Civilization?
And those principles will work for anyone else who decides to put them into practice.
Since these principles are fundamentally linked to Christinaity, as you admit, is it not highly unlikely that non-Christians will adopt them and put them into practice?
Of course, there is a lot more behind Western Civilization than Christianity. I encourage you to think about it, and how the other factors behind the creation of "Western Ideals" might be relvent to this debate; I will engage you on this in our next round.
On a tangential point, I don't think you are being quite fair to the Russians. While they never had any great economic achievements, their artistic and scientific contributions to Western Civilization are not to be taken likely. Economic wealth isn't the only thing that makes the West great.
. P.S. It seems you have kicked your habit of talking about skin color. That's good to see.
But many of them are Christian - Mexicans are typically Catholic or Evangelical and Asians are quite often Catholic or Protestant.
garbanzo But many of them are Christian - Mexicans are typically Catholic or Evangelical and Asians are quite often Catholic or Protestant.
I was mainly refering to the situation in Europe, where 90+% of all immigrants are either Muslim or pagan. Recall that Pat is addressing the situation in the whole of Western Christendom, not just the U.S.
It is true nearly all Meztizo immigrants to the US are Christian. What's interesting is the high percentage of Meztizos who lose the faith after arriving, or the large numbers of Catholics who leave Mother Church and become Pentacostals. Immigration is definitely not good for Meztizo souls.
However, as I mentioned in my last post, there is a lot more to Western Civilization than Christianity, and it is these other factors that make mass immigration of Meztizos into the US a threat to Western Civilization. I will discuss these other matters in a later post, after the good Earl has had some time to think about them. (And no, they have nothing do to with skin color).
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