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.
No, it means that he's questioning Buchanan's assumptions. Hitler threw the word "culture" around a lot. Do you hold the same definition of "culture" as Hitler?
Everybody knows what "our culture" is...and if you have to ask, then you wouldn't understand anyway.
Folks like you remind me of Hermann Goering's dictum: "When I hear the word 'culture,' I reach for my gun."
When people are unwilling to define what they mean by "culture" on a public forum, but instead speak in tautologies, it's a sign that they're up to no good.
Unbelievable. In the republican party today tax breaks evidently equal socialism and welfare. The state owns the people but republicans will be nicer than democrats.
Virtually all of the immigrants that I know and have had regular dealings with are very proficient in English and have a deep respect for our institutions and heritage. Their children are Americans in every sense of the word. Of course they are typically professionals or small business people, but they have added much to the country. We would be a poorer place without them.
As to the other side of the immigration picture, the unskilled and uneducated, I don’t see their Americanism and commitment to our culture as being any worse than that our very own native-born underclass. Neither group is adding to the general welfare of the nation, and our own underclass is a much larger factor than the immigrant underclass. That is a problem with our education and social systems. We have allowed each to be taken over by petty bureaucrats who are more interested in job security than in fulfilling their mission.
A agree with you on 'whose money it is.' My point is that Buchanans proposal, taking into account all the non-white people in America, would go to many groups that would hurt his goals of a whiter America.
That's not too much to ask, now is it?
Why don't you give us your definition of "Marxist" and we will begin there to examine any idiosyncrasies involved.
Elementary debating tactic: answer a question with another question to avoid answering the question put to you.
BTW, I'm waiting for the list of names of the members of this administration who belong to Marxist organizations and the source of your information.
Lenora Fulani.
No, their skin color does not matter, but the extent of their assimilation does. Do they know the meaning of the 4th of July?, Thanksgiving?, Veteran's Day?. Do they know what happened at Bull Run, Yorktown, Harper's Ferry?
Or do they only know or care about their own history, traditions and culture?
Many studies indicate that too many modern immigrants don't have a clue about America's history, and that they can successfully live insulated lives within a cultural barrio of their own choosing; neither learning English or caring about the history of the country that gives them the freedom to do so.
Still worse are those, such as some Muslims, who come to feed off what a democratic Republic offers, while planning its overthrow.
I don't like Buchanan, but we must face the reality of what too much immigration, too fast, has done to our country.
The Democrats know, and they will exploit and encourage it until there is no more Republican party to speak of, or, for that matter, no Republic to speak of.
Lenora Fulani.
ROTFLMAO! Perfect example :-))
Roscoe, warn a person before you do this. I came close to spraying coffee on the computer screen.
Buchanan isn't postulating an overall tax cut; he is postulating a tax cut IN RETURN FOR ENGAGING IN SPECIFIC BEHAVIORS.
That is a classic socialist tactic.
Buchanan is more American than most all of the corrupt congress and senate put together. LOL.
And Buchanan is the only one with enough guts to address our massive, out of control immigration "free for all" while the rest of our so-called leaders and politicians stand treasonously silent while our nation is invaded by millions every year.
THE ONLY REASON BUCHANAN IS ATTACKED IS BECAUSE HE IS THE ONLY ONE WITH ENOUGH GUTS TO SPEAK OUT.
Thats why he must be silenced. He shines the light on the DC toilet that will eventually drive this nation into a ditch.
Its truly pathetic.
LOL! Mothering is not just approved behavior it IS the universal way that children come into the world. Moms are different.
I'm sure republican and democrat PC's are wanting to change how the human being reproduces or maybe delegate the right of reproduction to the state only.
He tried to cash in on the issue, unsuccessfully.
By your logic, historical facts can be dismissed if they do not fit your preconception of the present.
The main problem I see that will prevent this, is not so much the immigrant, but rather the political panderers that seek to manipulate the immigrant for the politico's benefit. But it doesn't end there. We are seeing a population shift in this nation that is unparalleled in this nation's history. It would be easy to say that we have always had immigration and that it has been good. I fully support normal immigration. We do not have normal immigration taking place. The immigration that is taking place isn't completely uncontrolled. If you'll notice hardly any European citizens are coming. Every sector of the world's populace other than Europe is. Quotas only seem to apply with Europeans. Every excuse known to man is used to excuse illegal Mexicans coming here. And refugee status has been expanded to the point that towns across America are being changed overnight by an influx of one after another nation's citizens being relocated there.
I share your feelings about unrestricted immigration and the necessity of English to be spoken in the public square and marketplace. And I support action to be
taken to correct these things. But I fail to see the importance of race in the preservation of Western culture.
Do you or do you not accept that the Democrats pander to people based on race? Do you or do you not believe that those that vote for Democrats because they seem to support their freebies, help to further the leftist agenda? And do you or do you not accept that the Republican party is being forced to compete for those voters, thus creating an atmosphere where they also pander to them? Do you feel that this creates an atmosphere that is positive or negative for our political, educational environment, or even our culture?
If legal immigrants come to America, start businesses, raise families and drive their kids to little league or dance class in their SUV's, it does not matter to me if they
are from white Bosnia or brown India.
And if these were the only dynamics at work, I wouldn't disagree with you. Still, can you think of any other race on the planet that is being demanded to relinquish their majority status other than the United States and European nations? Name one.
If it's good for Caucasian nations, it must be good for others. Wouldn't you think? What African nation is being demanded to import Caucasians? Is Mexico?
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