The Neocons & Nixon's Southern Strategy ( Pat Buchanan slams Kristol )

washingtondispatch ^ | 12/29/2002 | Pat Buchanan

[TLBSHOW]

The Neocons & Nixon's Southern Strategy

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child.

Lear's reflection upon ingratitude comes to mind as one reads of the squabble among neoconservatives over who among them was first to stick his nail file in the back of Trent Lott.

Charles Krauthammer enters a claim for the Kristol-Bennett crowd, while Jonah Goldberg of National Review and cashiered Bush speech-writer David Frum insist they, too, played supporting roles.

Whether Lott may have been innocent of any hate crime, or whether they might have had a moral duty to step in to stop a lynching of one of their own -- even had Lott blundered -- seem to be thoughts that never once intruded upon these tiny minds. Yet their collusion in ruining Lott, their relish in the pats on the head they are receiving from the Left, confirm the suspicion. Neoconservatives are the useful idiots of the liberal establishment.

With Lott gone, Bill Kristol is now collaborating with The New York Times in its rewrite of the history of the 1960s, a decade of liberal debacles, to credit racism for the Republicans' success.

"Lott is really virtually the last of the products of Richard Nixon's 'Southern Strategy' to be in major positions of power in the Congress," Kristol assures the Times. "With his leaving you will have cleared out people who ... have a somewhat compromised image to the country as a whole."

Now, as a co-architect of the Nixon strategy that gave the GOP a lock on the White House for a quarter century, let me say that Kristol's opportunism is matched only by his ignorance. Richard Nixon kicked off his historic comeback in 1966 with a column on the South (by this writer) that declared we would build our Republican Party on a foundation of states rights, human rights, small government and a strong national defense, and leave it to the "party of Maddox, Mahoney and Wallace to squeeze the last ounces of political juice out of the rotting fruit of racial injustice."

In that '66 campaign, Nixon -- who had been thanked personally by Dr. King for his help in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957 -- endorsed all Republicans, except members of the John Birch Society.

In 1968, Nixon chose Spiro Agnew for V.P. Why? Agnew had routed George ("You're home is your castle!") Mahoney for governor of Maryland but had also criticized civil-rights leaders who failed to condemn the riots that erupted after the assassination of King. The Agnew of 1968 was both pro-civil rights and pro-law and order.

When the '68 campaign began, Nixon was at 42 percent, Humphrey at 29 percent, Wallace at 22 percent. When it ended, Nixon and Humphrey were tied at 43 percent, with Wallace at 13 percent. The 9 percent of the national vote that had been peeled off from Wallace had gone to Humphrey.

Between 1969 and 1974, Nixon, who believed that blacks had gotten a raw deal in America and wanted to extend a helping hand:

-- raised the civil rights enforcement budget 800 percent;

-- doubled the budget for black colleges;

-- appointed more blacks to federal posts and high positions than any president, including LBJ;

-- adopted the Philadelphia Plan mandating quotas for blacks in unions, and for black scholars in colleges and universities;

-- invented "Black Capitalism" (the Office of Minority Business Enterprise), raised U.S. purchases from black businesses from $9 million to $153 million, increased small business loans to minorities 1,000 percent, increased U.S. deposits in minority-owned banks 4000 percent;

-- raised the share of Southern schools that were desegregated from 10 percent to 70 percent. Wrote the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1975, "It has only been since 1968 that substantial reduction of racial segregation has taken place in the South."

The charge that we built our Republican coalition on race is a lie. Nixon routed the Left because it had shown itself incompetent to win or end a war into which it had plunged the United States and too befuddled or cowardly to denounce the rioters burning our cities or the brats rampaging on our campuses.

Nixon led America out of a dismal decade and was rewarded with a 49-state landslide. By one estimate, he carried 18 percent of the black vote in 1972 and 25 percent in the South. No Republican has since matched that. To see Kristol colluding with the Times to rewrite that history to make liberals heroes and Republicans villains tells us more about him than about the era.

And where were the necons, when Goldwaterites and Nixonites were building the New Majority? Going all the way with LBJ.

[Question_Assumptions]

With a slightly changed focus, this would be an excellent article for black publications. If the Republican party wants the black vote, they need to show (A) what Republicans have done for blacks and (B) what Democrats haven't done for blacks.

[Honestfreedom]

You would never know that the Nixon presidency was a disaster. Nixon was no better than Clinton, a guy who would do or say anything to win. Buchanan is giving him kudos for starting quotas. I thought conservatives oppose quotas.

[TLBSHOW]

I have always liked Pat.

In 1985, Buchanan was appointed White House Director of Communications. During that year, he had this to say in an interview in his White House office. "I'm here because Reagan's my man, and this is my cause. The goal is to help make Ronald Reagan a great president, so that when he leaves here people will say, this was the silver age of the conservative revolution." He resigned in March of 1987.

A major player in the renaissance of the conserative movement, Pat Buchanan will continue to play an important part in American politics. He is highly opinionated, staunchly conservative, and unusually insightful. He is a man not afraid to speak his mind.


FROM A BIO ABOUT PAT

[LADY J]

"If the Republican party wants the black vote, they need to show (A) what Republicans have done for blacks and (B) what Democrats haven't done for blacks."

Where are the spokesmen being out in front and saying these things that need to be said?

If the Republicans start pandering to the minorities instead of coming forward with the truth - they may gain a small percent of the black vote - but they will lose a lot more of the white vote.

[Young Rhino]

I thought conservatives oppose quotas.

Patsy has embraced quotas since he learned to love them in the textile industry when campaign contributions came from that source. He moved to the auto industry (trying to lure those Reagan democrats who are union members). Too bad it was discovered that he was driving a nice Mercedes while preaching the virtues of domestic cars. Patsy occasionally has the right message (not this time)...but he is always the wrong messenger.

[Lancey Howard]

To see Kristol colluding with the Times to rewrite that history to make liberals heroes and Republicans villains tells us more about him than about the era.

This is absolutely no surprise at all.
Bill Kristol and David Brock are peas in a pod. Virtually the same person.

[TLBSHOW]

"If the Republican party wants the black vote, they need to show (A) what Republicans have done for blacks and (B) what Democrats haven't done for blacks."

BUMP

I Believe in 2004 Republicans will gain the black vote and just for the reason you said. And we need to repeat the facts from now and until we are blue in the face.

[aristeides]

When was Ronald Reagan's 11th Commandment abolished?

[aristeides]

He is a man not afraid to speak his mind.

Unfortunately, in these days of PC, that's become dangerous.

[Lancey Howard]

The voting blocks that vote against the GOP are those who disagree with the premise that the Gov't is the root of all evil.

That's an intersting way to put it.
So it would seem, from a quick perusal of the famous county-by-county blue/red post election map, that those who "disagree with the premise that Gov't is the root of all evil" tend to be located in the nation's parasite nests (cities).

Get a clue - - Democrat "voting blocks" consist of parasitic pissants who support cowardly big-government confiscation of more and more from America's traditional families in order that Democrat politicians can use that money to buy the votes of the government-addicted junkies they have created by giving them more and more "free stuff".

[MadelineZapeezda]

Bump for Pat for bringing this info to the forefront for discussion, some of which I was not aware of.

[jwalsh07]

-- adopted the Philadelphia Plan mandating quotas for blacks in unions,

I know quite a bit about unions and the mandating of quota's to integrate them.

Those were ugly times in New York, not to my knowledge a part of the Southern strategy.

At that point in time the unions were adamantly opposed to quota's in New York because racism and segregation abounded.

Ethnicity ruled the day and the unions. Membership in a union was not merit based, it was based on who you knew and who your brother or cousin was.

All the members of my ethnic group were Irishmen and steamfitters or iron workers. Good men who had all served their country well in World War 2 but men of their times and in those times having black folk mandated into your union was fought against tooth and nail.

They were wrong about that but they were good men none the less and as time passed and they worked with black men on the steel 80 stories up, their views changed. They would never pass muster with the PC crowd but then again neither would I.

Nixon was right in what he did but those times have passed and today the way to a better America is not through quota's but through equal treatment under the law for all.

[TLBSHOW]

Neoconservatives are the useful idiots of the liberal establishment.


PAT BUCHANAN

[Ohioan]

It is becoming more and more apparent that Kristol is a publicity craving dysron, without a clue as to moral concepts, or the bases for traditional value systems. That said, I have two other comments:

(1) Pat is completely correct as to the historic comments that he makes--i.e. his history is correct.

(2) Those comments clearly show that Nixon was not a Conservative, but a moderate and, indeed, a "Liberal" on racial issues. Just in the comments on the Maryland campaign, you have the essential difference between a Conservative position and a liberal position. That "you're home is your castle," campaign by a Conservative Democrat was clearly the more Conservative position--both in 1968 and in 2002. Freedom has always consisted in the right to make your personal choices in your own affairs--rather than the politically popular choices.

But all of that said, one must applaud Pat's effort. He has clearly nailed a phoney. Bill Kristol is clearly not a Conservative; clearly not gifted with any insight as to how his antics will appear to observers, Left or Right; and as worthless to both Republican and Conservative interests, as he is useful to the Left.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Torie]

It is true that the Southern strategy was not racist of segregationist, but it attracted some of those types. Not all of course, because many still had New Deal beliefs with respect to economics. By the way, the dumping of Lott was not just a Neocon thing. The Neocon's are influential, but not that influential.

[Walkin Man]

Yet their collusion in ruining Lott, their relish in the pats on the head they are receiving from the Left, confirm the suspicion. Neoconservatives are the useful idiots of the liberal establishment.

I don't always agree with Pat but in this case he is totally correct, IMHO.

[hosepipe]

[ Nixon led America out of a dismal decade and was rewarded with a 49-state landslide. By one estimate, he carried 18 percent of the black vote in 1972 and 25 percent in the South. No Republican has since matched that ]

sOooo, to get the black VOTE you need to GIVE THEM something....
A nasty truth here, could it be that, thats the American political reality, but not only for blacks..... and all the IF'in and prognosticating is mental masterbation ?

Democracies always self-destruct when the non-productive majority realizes that it can vote itself handouts from the productive minority by electing the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury

Like it OR not.... YOU are witnessing this and are probably participating IN IT, YES YOU. Even if you are not participating you are witnessing it. Pity too, the founders of this Republic made plans for the remedy for just sort of a senario as this. But theres not enough people left hung enough to carry out the remedy. As far as I can see.

I.E. the surest way to commit political suicide is to propose that Social Security is NOT Constitutional or propose means testing at least. The Federal Goverment teat is far bigger than most think and the breast enlargement doctors are in BOTH PARTYS... including the current "conservative" administration.... Is Bush better than Al Gore.?.."NO"

Bush is for enlarging ONLY one breast.....