Pat Buchanan Biography

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Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938) is an American politician, author, syndicated columnist, and broadcaster. He ran in the 2000 presidential election on the Reform Party ticket. He also sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996.

Buchanan was a senior advisor to three American presidents, Nixon, Ford and Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He also co-founded The American Conservative magazine and launched The American Cause, a paleoconservative foundation. He has been published in many publications, including Human Events, National Review, The Nation and Rolling Stone. On American television, he is currently a political analyst on the MSNBC cable network and a regular on The McLaughlin Group.

A spokesperson has said Buchanan is not running in the 2008 presidential race,http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=89 although a "Draft Buchanan" campaign wants him to run in Republican primaries.http://draftbuchanan2008.com/

Personal life

Buchanan was born on November 2, 1938, in Washington, D.C. to William Baldwin Buchanan, a partner in an accounting firm, and his wife, Catherine Elizabeth Crum Buchanan, a nurse and a homemaker. Buchanan had six brothers (Brian, Henry, James, John, Thomas, and William Jr.) and two sisters (Kathleen and Bay). One sister, Bay Buchanan, served as U.S. Treasurer under Ronald Reagan. Buchanan is one-half German, one-quarter Scots Irish, and one-quarter Irish.

Buchanan received a Roman Catholic baptism and has remained in the church throughout his life. He has also spent most of his education at Roman Catholic institutions. He attended Blessed Sacrament School, the Jesuit-run Gonzaga College High School, and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Buchanan graduated cum laude from Georgetown with degrees in English and Philosophy in 1961.

Buchanan served in ROTC while studying at Georgetown and received his draft notice in 1960. However, a District of Columbia draft board declared him 4-F, rejecting him from military service due to reactive arthritis. Five years later, he told a group of antiwar protesters, "All of you are here on a pass because of your (student) deferments." After Georgetown, Buchanan earned a master's degree in journalism from Columbia in 1962.

In 1971, Buchanan married Shelley Ann Scarney, Nixon's secretary and a White House staffer. They have no children.

Professional career

St. Louis Globe-Democrat

When Buchanan joined the St. Louis Globe-Democrat at age 23, he became the paper's youngest editorial writer. He had written his master's project at Columbia on the expanding trade between Canada and Cuba. Canada-Cuba trade had tripled in 1961, the first year of the United States embargo against Cuba. The Globe-Democrat published a rewrite of the paper under the eight-column banner "Canada sells to Red Cuba - And Prospers". According to his memoir Right from the Beginning, this article was a milestone in his career, occurring just eight weeks after he started at the paper. Buchanan now opposes the embargo, saying it only strengthens the communist regime. In 1964, the Globe-Democrat promoted Buchanan to assistant editorial page editor. That year, Buchanan supported Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign. The Globe-Democrat did not endorse Goldwater, however, and Buchanan speculated about a clandestine agreement between the paper and President Johnson. Buchanan later recalled: "The conservative movement has always advanced from its defeats. . . I can't think of a single conservative who was sorry about the Goldwater campaign."

Nixon years

Buchanan was an early supporter of Richard Nixon's political comeback. In 1965, he served as an executive assistant in the Nixon, Mudge, Rose, Guthrie, Alexander, and Mitchell law offices in New York City. The next year, he was the first person hired as an advisor to Nixon's presidential campaign; he worked primarily as an opposition researcher. He was soon nicknamed "Mr. Inside" for his speeches aimed at dedicated supporters.

Buchanan traveled with Nixon throughout the campaigns of 1966 and 1968, as well as a tour of Western Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in the immediate aftermath of the Six-Day War. When Nixon took the Oval Office in 1969, Buchanan worked as a White House advisor and as a speechwriter to both Nixon and the vice president, Spiro Agnew. Buchanan was influential in the White House, where he coined the phrase silent majority and helped shape the strategy that drew millions of Democrats to Nixon; in a typical 1972 memo he suggested that the White House "should move to re-capture the anti-Establishment tradition or theme in American politics". His daily duties included developing political strategy, publishing the President's Daily News Summary, and preparing briefing books for news conferences. He accompanied Nixon on his 1972 trip to China and the 1974 summit in Moscow, Yalta, and Minsk. He also suggested that his boss label opponent George McGovern as an extremist and burn the White House tapes.

Buchanan remained as a special assistant to the president through the final days of the Watergate Scandal. He was not accused of wrongdoing, though some mistakenly suspected him as Deep Throat. When the actual identity of the press leak was revealed in 2005 as FBI Associate Director Mark Felt, Buchanan called Felt "sneaky", "dishonest", and "criminal". On September 26, 1973, Buchanan appeared before the Senate Watergate Committee, due to his role in the Nixon campaign's "Attack Group". He told the panel: "The mandate that the American people gave to this president and his administration cannot and will not be frustrated or repealed or overthrown as a consequence of the incumbent tragedy". When Nixon resigned in 1974, Buchanan briefly stayed on as special assistant under incoming President Gerald Ford. Chief of Staff Alexander Haig approved Buchanan's appointment as ambassador to South Africa, but Ford refused it.

Buchanan later referred to Watergate as "the lost opportunity to move against the political forces frustrating the expressed national will" and remarked: "To effect a political counterrevolution in the capital ... there is no substitute for a principled and dedicated man of the Right in the Oval Office." Long after his resignation, Nixon defended Buchanan, calling him a confidant and saying he was neither an anti-Semite nor a "hater", but a "decent, patriotic American". Nixon said that his old assistant had "some strong views", such as his "isolationist" foreign policy, with which he disagreed. While the former president did not think Buchanan should become president, he said the commentator "should be heard".1992 Nixon Interview - Part 2, Bush's Foreign Policy, CNN, April 23, 1994 and Larry King Live Transcript #1102 (R-#469), CNN, April 23, 1994.

CNN

After leaving the White House, Buchanan returned to his column and began regular appearances as a broadcast host and commentator. He co-hosted the Buchanan-Braden Program, a three-hour daily radio show with liberal columnist Tom Braden, and also delivered daily commentaries on NBC radio from 1978 to 1984. Buchanan started his TV career as a regular on The McLaughlin Group and CNN's Crossfire (inspired by Buchanan-Braden) and The Capital Gang, making him nationally recognizable. His several stints on Crossfire occurred between 1982 and 1999; his sparring partners included Braden, Michael Kinsley and Bill Press.

Reagan years

Buchanan returned to the White House in 1985, serving until 1987 as White House Communications Director for the Ronald Reagan administration. He was known for coining the phrase I'm a contra too, originally a line in one of Reagan's speeches intended to indicate opposition to Nicaragua's Sandinista government and support for the rebels fighting against it. Buchanan supported Reagan's laying a wreath at a military cemetery in Bitburg, West Germany where SS members were buried. He also accompanied the president at the 1986 Reykjavik Summit with Mikhail Gorbachev.

During this period, Buchanan expressed concern about what some called the "Reagan Revolution". In a 1986 speech to the National Religious Broadcasters, he said: "Whether President Reagan has charted a new course that will set our compass for decades -- or whether history will see him as the conservative interruption in a process of inexorable national decline -- is yet to be determined." A year later, he remarked that "the greatest vacuum in American politics is to the right of Ronald Reagan". Bay Buchanan started a "Buchanan for President" movement in June 1986, while her brother still worked for Reagan. She said the conservative movement needed a leader, but Buchanan was initially ambivalent. He returned to his column and Crossfire after leaving the White House. He sat out the 1988 race out of respect for Jack Kemp, who would later become his adversary.

1992 campaign

In 1990, Buchanan published a newsletter called Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right; it sent subscribers a bumper sticker that read, "Read Our Lips! No new taxes."Charlotte Hays column, The Washington Times July 27, 1990. In 1992, Buchanan began the first of his three presidential campaigns, running on a platform of economic nationalism, immigration reduction, and social conservatism, including opposition to multiculturalism, abortion, and gay rights. He unsuccessfully challenged the incumbent, President George H. W. Bush, for the Republican Party presidential nomination, garnering some 3 million votes in state primary elections. Buchanan won 38 percent of the seminal New Hampshire primary, seriously challenging Bush, whose popularity was waning. Buchanan explained his reason for running thus: "If the country wants to go in a liberal direction, if the country wants to go in the direction of [Democrats] George Mitchell and Tom Foley, it doesn't bother me as long as I've made the best case I can. What I can't stand are the back-room deals. They're all in on it, the insider game, the establishment game -- this is what we're running against."

Buchanan later threw his support behind Bush, and delivered a keynote address at the 1992 Republican National Convention, since dubbed the culture war speech. In it, he strongly attacked Bill and Hillary Clinton, saying:

Buchanan's comments stirred controversy. Leftist columnist Molly Ivins quipped that the speech "probably sounded better in the original German". Some Bush supporters criticized his talk of culture war and his negative depictions of the economy. Yet Bush also received his greatest single increase in the polls on the night Buchanan delivered the speech on live, prime-time television. (See also culture war below.)

Off the campaign trail

In between campaigns, Buchanan returned to his column and Crossfire. In 1993, after his first presidential campaign, he founded The American Cause, a paleoconservative educational foundation, to promote the principles of federalism, traditional values, and anti-intervention. Bay Buchanan serves as the Vienna, Virginia-based foundation's president and Pat is its chairman.

On July 5, 1993, Buchanan returned to radio as host of Buchanan and Company, a three-hour talk show for Mutual Broadcasting System. It pitted him against liberal co-hosts, including Barry Lynn, Bob Beckel, and Chris Matthews, in a time slot opposite Rush Limbaugh's show. Buchanan left the program on March 20, 1995, to launch his 1996 campaign.

1996 campaign

Buchanan again sought the Republican nomination in 1996 while voicing his opposition to NAFTA. Buchanan won an upset victory in the New Hampshire primary in February, defeating Senator Bob Dole by about 3,000 votes. At a rally in Nashua, he said, "We shocked them in Alaska. Stunned them in Louisiana. Stunned them in Iowa. They are in a terminal panic. They hear the shouts of the peasants from over the hill. All the knights and barons will be riding into the castle pulling up the drawbridge in a minute. All the peasants are coming with pitchforks. We're going to take this over the top."http://www.iht.com/bin/print_ipub.php?file=/articles/1996/02/20/camp.t_11.php While campaigning, Buchanan energized his supporters with the slogan "The peasants are coming with pitchforks", occasionally appearing with a prop pitchfork, thus earning him the nickname "Pitchfork Pat".

Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, served as Buchanan's presidential campaign co-chairman. In February, the liberal Center for Public Integrity issued a report that claimed he appeared at two meetings organized by white supremacist and militia leaders. Pratt denied any tie to racism, calling the report a smear aimed at hurting Buchanan before the New Hampshire primary."I believe him," Buchanan told the Manchester Union Leader. Yet "to answer these charges", Pratt took a leave of absence "so as not to have distraction in the campaign".Buchanan Aide Leaves Campaign Amid Charges "The Union Leader", February 16, 1996.

Dole defeated Buchanan by large margins in the subsequent Super Tuesday primaries. Buchanan suspended his campaign in March, having collected 21 percent of the total votes in Republican state primaries. Buchanan threatened to run as the U.S. Taxpayers Party (now Constitution Party) candidate if Dole were to choose a pro-choice running mate. Dole chose Jack Kemp and they received Buchanan's endorsement. After the 1996 campaign, Buchanan again returned to his column and Crossfire. He also began a series of paleoconservative books with 1998's The Great Betrayal.

2000 campaign

In October 1999 Buchanan sought the presidential nomination of the Reform Party, announcing his departure from the Republican Party, which he disparaged (along with the Democrats) as a "beltway party". The Reform Party was bitterly divided between nominating Buchanan and nominating John Hagelin, an Iowa physicist whose platform was based on transcendental meditation. Many party members expressed discomfort with Buchanan's strong rhetoric and supposed involvement with "dirty tricks" in the Nixon administration. Party founder Ross Perot did not endorse a candidate, but former running-mate Pat Choate endorsed Buchanan.

Supporters of Hagelin charged that the results of the party's open primary, which favored Buchanan by a wide margin, were "tainted". The Reform Party divisions led to dual conventions being held simultaneously in separate areas of the Long Beach Convention Center complex. Both conventions' delegates ignored the primary ballots and voted to nominate their presidential candidates from the floor, similar to the way the Democratic and Republican parties putatively nominate presidential candidates at their national conventions. One convention nominated Buchanan while the other backed Hagelin, magnifying a split in the party with two camps each claiming to be the legitimate Reform Party and offering different candidates.

Ultimately, Buchanan won the nomination when the Federal Elections Commission ruled that he would receive ballot status as the Reform candidate, as well as about $12.6 million dollars in federal campaign funds secured by Perot's showing in the 1996 election. In his acceptance speech, Buchanan proposed U.S. withdrawal from the United Nations and expelling the U.N. out of New York, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Housing and Urban Development, taxes on inheritance and capital gains, and affirmative action programs. Buchanan chose Ezola B. Foster, an African-American activist and retired teacher from Los Angeles, as his running mate.

In the 2000 general election, Buchanan finished fourth with 449,895 votes, 0.4 percent of the popular vote. (Hagelin garnered 0.1 percent as the Natural Law candidate.) In Palm Beach County, Florida, Buchanan received 3,407 votes -- which some saw as inconsistent with Palm Beach County's liberal leanings, its large Jewish population and his showing in the rest of the state. He is suspected to have gained thousands of inadvertent votes as a result of the county's now-infamous "butterfly ballot". Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer stated that "Palm Beach county is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there". However, Reform Party officials strongly disagreed, estimating the number of supporters in the county at between 400 and 500. Appearing on The Today Show, Buchanan said: "When I took one look at that ballot on Election Night. . . it's very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted for Al Gore."

Buchanan resisted overtures from the Reform Party to take an active role within the party following the 2000 election, though he did attend their 2001 convention to offer his gratitude for their prior support. He identified himself as a political independent in the next few years, choosing not to align himself with what he viewed as the neo-conservative Republican party leadership. Prior to the 2004 election, Buchanan announced that he once again identified himself as a Republican, had no interest in ever running for president again, and said he would vote for George W. Bush's re-election.http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20040909-115705-2949r.htm

MSNBC

After the 2000 race, Buchanan's column resumed, although CNN decided not to take him back.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/30/AR2006043001185.html From July 15, 2002 to November 26, 2003, MSNBC aired Buchanan and Press, a longer variation of the Crossfire format that reunited Buchanan with liberal Bill Press. Billed as "the smartest hour on television", it featured the duo interviewing guests and sparring about the top news stories. As the Iraq War loomed, Buchanan and Press toned down their rivalry, as they both opposed the invasion. Press claims they were the first cable hosts to discuss the planned attack.http://www.billpress.com/television.html MSNBC Editor-in-Chief Jerry Nackman once jokingly lamented this unusual situation, saying, "So the point is why does only Fox [News Channel] get this? At least, we work at the perfect place, the place that's fiercely independent. We try to have balance by putting you two guys together and then this Stockholm syndrome love fest set in between the two of you, and we no longer even have robust debate.Buchanan and Press, November 19, 2002 broadcast."

Just hours after his own talk show debuted, Buchanan was a guest on the premiere of MSNBC's ill-fated Donahue program. They debated the separation of church and state. Buchanan called Phil Donahue "dictatorial"Full quote:"Cut it out, Phil. What you want done is, I say no Jewish kid can be put in a Nativity play. What you want done is no Nativity play, no Pledge of Allegiance, no Bible in school, no Ten Commandments. You are dictatorial, Phil. You're a dictatorial liberal and you don't even know it." and teased that the host got his job through affirmative action.http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A98320

After MSNBC President Eric Sorenson canceled Buchanan and Press, Buchanan stayed at MSNBC as a political analyst. He regularly appears on the network's talk shows. He also occasionally fills in on the nightly show Scarborough Country.

The American Conservative

In 2002, Buchanan joined with former New York Post editorial page editor Scott McConnell and financier Taki Theodoracopulos to start a new magazine featuring paleoconservative viewpoints on the economy, immigration and foreign policy. The first American Conservative issue was dated October 7, 2002. Paid circulation in April, 2004, was 12,600.http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BOR/is_3_19/ai_n5994063 Buchanan is currently listed as Editor Emeritus on the masthead.

2008

Buchanan spokeswoman Linda Muller said on September 7, 2006 that "PJB is not running" in the 2008 presidential race.http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=89 A Connecticut-based "Draft Buchanan" campaign, however, wants him on the Republican primary ballot. Chairman Paul Streitz claims Buchanan can win in New Hampshire by 30,000 votes.Pat Buchanan Effort Launched In New Jersey, The Hotline, September 18, 2006.

Republican politics

Buchanan calls himself a traditional conservative, in contrast to today's neoconservatives or the old Rockefeller Republicans. While his views have evolved over a 45-year career, he typically expresses strong contrarian convictions on many subjects. Buchanan says that his contrarian opinions have caused him to be called "an anti-Semite, a homophobe, a racist, a sexist, a nativist, a protectionist, an isolationist, a social fascist and a beer-hall conservative" and that he accepts none of those labels.AP wire story: Buchanan's Positions ... In His Own Words Charleston Gazette March 03, 1996.

Some of Buchanan's contemporary positions reflect the influence of the paleoconservative magazine Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture.see Paul Gottfried's Paleoconservatism article in "American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia" (ISI:2006) Many of his views, particularly those advocating a smaller federal government, echo those of the Old Right Republicans of the first half of the 20th century.[1] For example, Buchanan supports abolishing many government agencies, such as the Department of Education[2] and the Bureau of Land Management[3]. "We do not consider 'Big Government conservatism' a philosophy," Buchanan said in 2005. "We consider it a heresy."[4]

Following his return from the Reform Party, Buchanan currently maintains a rocky relationship with the Republican Party and its leadership. He says he believes the party has largely abandoned its traditional conservative principles for neoconservatism and compromise. On MSNBC before the 2006 State of the Union Address, he characterized President Bush as a "Great Society" Republican. "He is Woodrow Wilson in foreign policy, FDR in trade policy, he's LBJ on immigration, but he's Reagan on judges," he said.[5]

Buchanan reluctantly endorsed Bush's 2004 reelection, writing in The American Conservative that although he strongly disagrees with him on numerous issues, "Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty, and values. Kerry is right on nothing." He says both parties are now barely distinguishable. "The Republican Party in Washington D.C. today are the sort of people we went into politics to run out of town," he told a public radio interviewer.[6]

Roman Catholicism

Buchanan supports the traditionalist movement within Roman Catholicism and his religious and secular views often intermingle: For example, in speaking against multiculturalism in 1993, he said that "our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free."[7] He also argues that the West approaches a grim future for rejecting Christian teachings.[8][9] He says that society faces "a permanent downhill run" if politicians do not "defend the moral order rooted in the Old and New Testament and Natural Law" -- and that this matters more than "economic or political" problems.[10]

The commentator charges the New York Times with liberal bias against Catholic conservatives.
[11]
[12] He claims that John Kerry and many other Catholics, who claim freedom of conscience over abortion and homosexual unions, are scandalous heretics, [13] and that "The church is in crisis today not because it failed to adjust its teaching and practices to the sexual revolution, but because it tried both to be true to its teachings and to keep in step with an immoral age, which is an impossibility. The way for the church to restore its lost moral authority is to retrace its steps."http://www.theamericancause.org/patanticatholicism.htm

Buchanan also called Pope John Paul II the most politically incorrect man on Earth, lauding his views on abortion, homosexuality, and extra-marital sex. He also says that post-Vatican II liberalism hurt Mass attendance and reduced the numbers of priests and nuns.[14] He later praised his successor, Benedict XVI, as uncompromising on Catholic doctrines, including divorce, contraception and women's ordination.[15]

He also defended fellow Catholic Mel Gibson's film Passion of the Christ, praising the film from an artistic standpoint and caliming that "Because of the over-the-top attacks on Gibson, millions who see 'The Passion' will also come to see the slur of 'anti-Semite!' for what it has all too often become, an attempt to smear, silence, intimidate, ostracize and blacklist."http://www.theamericancause.org/patgibson.htm He defends Pope Pius XII against charges that he failed to speak out against Nazi atrocities, calling the claim "a blood libel that is Hitlerite in dimension."[16] He says the Nazis hated the pontiff[17], while their victims (and the 1940s New York Times) praised him.[18] He says Pius XII reigned over "a time of explosive growth in the church" [19] and supports proposals to have him declared a saint.[20]

Social conservatism

Culture war

Pat Buchanan says that America is divided by a culture war. He calls it a conflict over the power to define society's definition of right and wrong.[21] Fronts include environmentalism, feminism, abortion, gay rights, freedom of religion, women in combat, display of the Confederate Flag, recognition of Christmas and taxpayer-funded art.[22][23][24]
He also said that the controversy given this idea of culture wars was itself evidence of polarization.

When Buchanan ran for president in 1996, he promised to fight for the conservative side of the culture war, saying, "I will use the bully pulpit of the Presidency of the United States, to the full extent of my power and ability, to defend American traditions and the values of faith, family, and country, from any and all directions. And, together, we will chase the purveyors of sex and violence back beneath the rocks whence they came."[25] In a 2004 column, he wrote, "Who is in your face here? Who started this? Who is on the offensive? Who is pushing the envelope? The answer is obvious. A radical Left aided by a cultural elite that detests Christianity and finds Christian moral tenets reactionary and repressive is hell-bent on pushing its amoral values and imposing its ideology on our nation. The unwisdom of what the Hollywood and the Left are about should be transparent to all."[26]

Abortion

Buchanan opposes legalized abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, on the grounds that human life begins at conception. â??I donâ??t care about the circumstances of a childâ??s conception," he says, "You want to execute somebody in the case of rape, execute the rapist and let the unborn child live.â??[27] He calls RU-486 a human pesticide[28]. He says there is a correlation between violence in society and the legal availability of abortions, comparing legalization to the downfall of Weimar Germany. As a result, he opposes Planned Parenthood, UNFPA and fetal-tissue research. Buchanan wants Congress to hold hearings on when life begins and confer "personhood" on the unborn. He wrote,

In the 23 years since Roe v. Wade, technology has developed enormously. We have imaging machines and sonograms that can show developing life. We have biologists, ethicists and doctors who can explain that life begins at conception and that the unborn child is viable earlier and earlier. All this must be explained to the American people. To reach hearts, we must first teach. Some hearts that are closed and cold will open. We will reach them. It has worked before.[29]

Euthanasia

Buchanan believes that the right to die does not exist, calls euthanasia a crime against humanity and compares it to the culture of the pre-Christian Roman Empire.[30] For example, he claims that Florida murdered Terri Schiavo and starved the comatose woman to death. He argues that practices like this will physically destroy Western civilization.[31] "In coming decades," he predicts, "involuntary euthanasia will be commonplace in Europe, and Gen-Xers' battles to stay alive into old age will be treated with the same cold contempt as they treated the silent screams of the unborn. Millions will be put to sleep like aged and incontinent household pets. Since the 1960s, the radical young have pleaded for a world free of the strictures of the old Christian morality. They are close to getting what they have demanded... and my sense is that they will not like what they get."[32]

Pornography

Buchanan says pornography is a symptom of society's displacement of Christianity. He argues that capitalism's power should not extend to such material. He referred to hardcore pornography as â??the sort of squalid, grungy stuff that, not long ago, would have had the men who produced and distributed it sent to prison for years, after being denounced from the bench as perverts.â??[33]

School prayer

Buchanan supports passing a constitutional amendment to allow state-sanctioned prayer in public schools. He complains that Christianity and the Ten Commandments were "expelled" from public education.[34] He also says that Congress should restrict the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court to block decisions against it.[35] He argues that Court decisions, such as those that eliminated staff-sanctioned prayer helped lead to the downfall of American public education.[36] In his autobiography he suggested, "A National Day of Prayer, conducted inside the classrooms of America's public schools, by Christian teachers, in open defiance of Supreme Court edicts, would send a message of political strengths the Secular City could not ignore."

In announcing his 1996 presidential campaign, he said,
Today, in too many of our schools our children are being robbed of their innocence. Their minds are being poisoned against their Judeo-Christian heritage, against America's heroes and against American history, against the values of faith and family and country. Eternal truths that do not change from the Old and New Testament have been expelled from our public schools, and our children are being indoctrinated in moral relativism, and the propaganda of an anti-Western ideology.[37]

Gay rights and AIDS

Buchanan has said that "[h]omosexuality is not a civil right,", calls it unhealthy and described gay male sex practices as "not only immoral, but filthy." Further, Buchanan has said that public acceptance of homosexuality inevitably leads to societal decay and the collapse of the family.[38] In his autobiography, he wrote, "Someone's values are going to prevail. Why not ours? Whose country is it, anyway? Whose moral code says we may interfere with a man's right to be a practicing bigot, but must respect and protect his right to be a practicing sodomite?" In a 1990 interview, he said he was "the first national columnist to demand why the government wasnâ??t dealing with this national epidemic," and stood by his view that AIDS is a consequence of immoral sex.[39] Referring to AIDS in 1993, he said that gays "declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution" and urged New York City Mayor Ed Koch and New York State Gov. Mario Cuomo cancel the Gay Pride Parade or else "be held personally responsible for the spread of the AIDS plague." Despite these sentiments, Buchanan did not reject gays as political supporters.[40] Notably, he developed professional ties with openly gay paleolibertarian Justin Raimondo, due to their common Old Right anti-war views.

Feminism

Buchanan also takes positions against feminism. For example, in a 1983 syndicated column, he wrote that women are "simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism." In 2000, he said that his sister Bay felt this statement went too far.

In Right from the Beginning, Buchanan wrote: "The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers; they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer." He does not believe in allowing women to serve in combat in the military. In Death of the West, he wrote that early campaigners for women's rights such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton held social views distinctly different from those of second-wave feminists of the 1960s, and implicates the latter as one of the main phenomena responsible for imperiling Western civilization. Buchanan, Pat. Death of the West.

Intelligent design

Buchanan says that parents have the right to decide whether or not their children are taught Darwinism in school.[41] He calls Darwinism a dogmatic faith system that cannot withstand the burden of proof.[42] He endorses the intelligent design critique of evolutionary theory, and insists that "Science itself points to intelligent design. For most of man's existence, we did not understand the laws of gravity, the laws of physics, the laws of chemistry. But applying those laws today, we can send a rocket millions of miles and strike a distant planet, predicting impact to the minute. But does not the existence of these natural laws imply the existence of a lawmaker?"[43]

Guns

Buchanan, like many Republicans, argues that U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment protects private ownership of handguns. He denies that gun ownership and violence are linked . He also says that gun owners have the responsibility to keep weapons away from children. He explained his views during his 2000 presidential campaign:
The Second Amendment guarantees the individual right to own, possess, and use personal firearms, and as President I will ensure that this right is not compromised. Convicted felons should forfeit their right to own firearms, but sportsmen, hunters, & law-abiding Americans should be allowed to use guns for pleasure or personal or family safety. Private ownership of guns gives citizens of this free republic the means to protect life, liberty and property -- and I will fully & faithfully protect that right.[44]

Buchanan also endorsed armed resistance to urban unrest, saying, "There is one root cause that is common to all riots: rioters. When such people -- as they did early in May -- attack a bus carrying terrified commuters, they do not need to hear a lot of bullhocky about 'communicating' and 'dialogue.' They need to hear through a local bullhorn the three little words that say it all: 'Lock and load!'"newsletter dated May, 1991, quoted in AP wire story: Buchanan's Positions ... In His Own Words Charleston Gazette March 03, 1996.

Drugs

Buchanan supports the war on drugs and opposes marijuana legalization. He says marijuana use is not a victimless crime[45]. On the other hand, he has said that medical marijuana use should be a matter between patient and doctor. "If a doctor indicated to his patient that this was the only way to alleviate certain painful symptoms," Buchanan told the Charlotte Observer. "I would defer to the doctor's judgment."[46]

He also denies ever using illegal drugs.[47] He once answered a New York Daily News reporter's question, "No to cocaine. No to marijuana. And a question mark over Jack Daniels."[48]

National identity

Immigration reform

See also the immigration reform section under paleoconservatism.

Assimilation and security

Buchanan criticizes large-scale immigration, both legal and illegal, especially coming across the border with Mexico. He supports increased border security and opposes President Bush's proposed amnesty program for immigrants who are currently here illegally.[49] He argues that many immigrants today do not seek to assimilate into American society.

He also claims many Mexican immigrants have a revanchist view on territories lost to the United States in the Mexican-American War and that their high birthrates threaten the social cohesion of certain parts of the country. In State of Emergency, he warned that the American Southwest could "become a giant Kosovo", still part of the United States, but Mexican in "language, ethnicity, history and culture". In 1992, he said: "if we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?"Is Buchanan Courting Bias? The Washington Post, February 29, 1992. He also says that an open Mexican border invites the drug trade, which he does not consider a victimless crime.[50]

Buchanan says immigrants pose a potential security risk and that porous borders puts America at risk for another terrorist attack. In Where the Right Went Wrong he noted that "the Communist Chinese government has the secret loyalty of millions of 'overseas Chinese' from Singapore to San Francisco." He also opposes Muslim immigration to the United States and Europe.[51]

Demographic change

His book The Death of the West expressed concern at the declining numbers of non-Hispanic whites in America, arguing that few nations have ever held together without an ethnic majority. In a 2002 speech, he said, "In the next 50 years, the Third World will grow by the equivalent of 30 to 40 new Mexicos. If you go to the end of the century, the white and European population is down to about three percent. This is what I call the death of the West. I see the nations dying when the populations die. I see the civilization dying. It is under attack in our own countries, from our own people."[52] Buchanan believes that if these demographic trends continue, young Americans will spend their golden years in a "third world America", which will reduce the nation to a conglomeration of peoples with nothing in common. He believes this can be credited to the 1965 Immigration Act and the cultural revolution of the 1960s. He also claims that past immigration was "European", while 90 percent of new immigrants are Asian, African, and Latin American and that they are not "melting and reforming". [53]

In State of Emergency, he suggests that immigrants generally assimilate more easily into American culture if they come from European cultures and writes, "Any man or any woman, of any color or creed, can be a good American. We know that from our history. But when it comes to the ability to assimilate into a nation like the United States, all nationalities, creeds, and cultures are not equal. To say that is ideology speaking, not judgment born out of experience." During an interview promoting the book, Buchanan said he did not prefer only white immigrants, yet lamented changes in United States demography. "What I would like is â?? I'd like the country I grew up in," he said, "It was a good country. I lived in Washington, D.C., -- 400,000 black folks, 400,000 white folks, in a country 89 or 90 percent white. I like that country."[54] These arguments routinely face insinuations of racism. For example, comedian Bill Maher mocked the Emergency book on CNN, saying, "if you're Mexican-American, you're going to love Pat Buchanan's new book. It's called I Hate Brown People[55]."

Platform

In State of Emergency, Buchanan proposes the following immigration policy:

• A ten-year moratorium on all legal immigration at a level between 150,000 and 250,000 per year.
  
• A 2000-mile double-line security fence between the United States and Mexico.
  
• A federally legislated end to all social welfare benefits for illegal aliens, except for emergency medical services.
  
• A crackdown on major businesses that chronically hire illegal aliens and the elimination of deductibility for all wages paid to illegals.
  
• A U.S. law to "restate the true meaning of the 14th Amendment" and denial of automatic citizenship to "anchor babies" born to illegal aliens.
  
• A policy allowing immigrants to bring in only wives and non-adult children.
  
• An end to dual citizenship in United States.
  
• A deportation program beginning with all aliens convicted of felonies and every gang member who is not a citizen of the United States.[56]
  

Race relations

Buchanan says he supports "equal justice under law," opposing both discrimination against blacks and "reverse discrimination" against whites.Is Buchanan Courting Bias? The Washington Post, February 29, 1992. Buchanan sees affirmative action as discrimination and is a critic of the NAACP and others he sees as distancing blacks from "the American mainstream". He has often accused Republicans of pandering to such organizations in recent years out of fear of being called racist.[57] He does not see anything wrong with blacks and whites preferring to associate with those of their own race, so long as it is done respectfully and doesn't divide America (which he feels the racial politics of today are doing)[58].

A recurring theme in his work is that various types of nationalism, cultural loyalties, and blood ties shape world events more strongly than economic issues or political ideologies. This is a major theme of State of Emergency, in which he writes, "Race matters. Ethnicity matters. History matters. Faith matters. Nationality matters. While they are not everything, they are not nothing. Multiculturalism be damned, this is what history teaches us."

Some observers said the 2000 Reform Party campaign reflected desire to spread his message beyond his white base, while his views had not changed.[59] Buchanan's running-mate was African American Ezola Foster. He also attacked President Clinton for profiting from blacks' votes, yet relegating blacks to political "Section Eight housing - secondary cabinet positions which have no influence in the inner core of an administration."[60]

Civil rights

Buchanan also claims that while he did not oppose all aims of the Civil Rights Movement, he deplored what he saw as its more left-leaning politics. Though he does not approve of treatment of blacks that took place before the desegregation, Buchanan prefers the social and cultural views of most of black America prior to the baby boom generation. In his 2001 book Death of the West Buchanan shows a more positive opinion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but assails African-Americans who do not consider themselves a part of American culture and Western civilization.

In his 2006 book State of Emergency, Buchanan writes that he believes giving African-Americans equal rights and repealing the Jim Crow laws were the right decisions on the government's part, but quotas and "forced busing for racial balance" were not. He maintains that Richard Nixon's Southern Strategy was a good idea, and dedicates an entire chapter called "The Suicide of the G.O.P." to his view that the Republican Party's new strategy to court minority votes at the expense of its white base will spell doom for the Republican Party.

Race, crime, and ethnicity

Buchanan's book State of Emergency details his take on the importance of race, statistics dealing with race, crime and education, and America's history concerning race. In the book, Buchanan praises the anti-immigration positions of black leaders like Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, his favorite black American leader [61], and W.E.B. DuBois, particularly praising Washington's pleas with industrialists to hire black workers instead of immigrants. He attacks modern day African-American leaders (along with today's labor and business leaders) for not taking the same position. The book's view of the African-American community in general is critical in some instances and supportive in others, often taking the contemporary black community to task for the country's high crime rates but also portraying blacks as victims of illegal immigration and at times taking a sympathetic historical view of black Americans.

America did not listen [to Booker T. Washington's concerns]. Millions of jobs in burgeoning industries went to immigrants who poured into the United States between 1890 and 1920. These men and women enriched our country. But they also moved ahead of and shouldered aside black men and women whose families had been here for generations and even centuries. Not until immigration had been dramatically cut in the Coolidge era, and World War II created an all-consuming demand for industrial workers, were black Americans brought by the hundreds of thousands north to the manufacturing cities of America. And when they were, a black middle class was created upon which the civil rights movement was built. When immigration stopped, Black America advanced, as Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and A. Philip Randolph said it would.[p.231]

American Civil War

Buchanan expounds that the American Civil War was not fought over slavery alone and has ridiculed opponents of the display of Confederate flags in state capitals. In a 1993 column, he wrote, "The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance. How long is this endless groveling before every cry of 'racism' going to continue before the whole country collectively throws up?"

In State of Emergency Buchanan argues that the war was caused primarily by irreconcilable cultural differences between the North and the South at the time. He states that "slavery and the tariff were but the battleground quarrel behind which was a burning Southern desire to be free of all the North had come to represent." Buchanan cites this as an example of how culture is more important than political ideologies, because "[t]he South was attached to the same principles of government. But that did not prevent the South from fighting four bloody years to be free of a Union headed by Abraham Lincoln."

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Buchanan has been a critic of Martin Luther King, Jr. since his days at the Globe-Democrat.[62] He once heard King speak at a Baptist church in north St. Louis in 1962.Stephen Braun, "A Trial By Fire In The '60s," Los Angeles Times, December 18, 1995. He claims the civil rights leader smeared the 1964 Goldwater presidential campaign, accusing it of "dangerous signs of Hitlerism".[63] During the 1980s, along with other Republicans, he opposed making King's birthday a national holiday. In 1969, Buchanan urged Nixon not to visit King's widow, Coretta Scott King, because he felt, "It would outrage many, many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue, and perhaps worse. ... It does not seem to be in the interests of national unity for the president to lend his national prestige to the argument that this divisive figure is a modern saint."memo dated April 1, 1969, quoted in AP wire story: Buchanan's Positions ... In His Own Words Charleston Gazette March 03, 1996.

Buchanan discussed his comments in a 2000 public radio interview, saying King was a divisive figure -- and that he had met him and witnessed his civil rights demonstrations.
[I said that in] a memo in 1969 whether we should recognize the day or go down and see Mrs. King, and I suggested we not see Mrs. King. I said, â??Martin Luther King was one of the most divisive men. Some see him as the messiah of the nation, others think heâ??s a dreadful person. He is a divisive figure.â?? Look, I knew Martin Luther King. I am the only candidate who was at the march on Washington. I was in the Lincoln Memorial. I was in Mississippi covering the civil rights demonstrations...Like every great movement, the civil rights movement had things that were attractive and things that were not. And for my history, friends, we make no apologies.[64]

Death of the West displays a more positive view of King and State of Emergency quotes him with approval, but Buchanan still disagrees with many positions attributed to King. For example, Buchanan says colorblindness is ultimately impossible and disputes the view that race is not an issue, dismissing such ideas as utopian and unrealistic. In State of Emergency, he writes: "We will never escape the prison of race. It will forever poison our politics."

Global affairs

National sovereignty

Buchanan argues that the United States' ability to control its own affairs is under siege due to free trade ideology, globalism, globalization and other issues, discussed below. He once remarked, "we love the old republic, and when we hear phrases like 'new world order,' we release the safety catches on our revolvers."quoted in BUCHANAN FEEDS CLASS WAR IN THE INFORMATION AGE Los Angeles Times October 31, 1999

For example, Buchanan once suggested that the U.S. remove the United Nations headquarters from New York City and send in the Marines to â??help packâ??. He supports withdrawal from the Kyoto Treaty, the Rome Treaty and most of the IMF. He also suggests that foreign aid be rolled back and that all US troops pull out of Europe. [65] In The Great Betrayal, he wrote, "Like a shipwrecked, exhausted Gulliver on the beach of Lilliput, America is to be tied down with threads, strand by strand, until it cannot move when it awakens. Piece by piece, our sovereignty is being surrendered."[66]

Trade

Buchanan proposes economic nationalism based on the principles of the American School. He says that "the country comes before the economy; and the economy exists for the people."[67] A critic of free trade, he supports repealing NAFTA and raising tariffs on imported goods to provide tax relief to domestic industry. Arguing that "you need imports to pay the taxes," he sees tariffs as a vehicle for allowing for tax relief for domestically made products, making them more competitive.

Buchanan does not view tariffs as something that should be set so high as to ensure the foreign product will not be bought (and the tariff hence uncollected), but something that should be adjusted to maximize tax flow. In 2004, he wrote, "Tariffs raise the prices of goods. True. But all taxes -- tariffs, incomes taxes, sales taxes, property taxes -- are factored into the final price of the goods we buy. When a nation puts a tariff on foreign goods coming into the country, it is able to cut taxes on goods produced inside the country. This is the way to give U.S. manufacturers and workers a 'home-field advantage.'"Buchanan, Pat. "Where the right went wrong.

Buchanan opposes placing economic sanctions on foreign countries, saying they only harm the impoverished and weak while giving tyrants a convenient scapegoat. He has consistently rejected as immoral and self-defeating the idea of imposing sanctions on Arab and

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