I was reading Pat Buchanan’s latest over on WorldNetDaily. It seems that again, Pat has invoked the ire of some on on the Liberal Left; and rightly so. Pat always writes his articles in the same format. A incendiary title, a thought provoking beginning, historical context in the middle and finally his real point and/or assertion at the end.
In his latest missive, he writes the following for his assertion:
Moreover, the alienation and radicalization of white America began long before Obama arrived. He acknowledged as much when he explained Middle Pennsylvanians to puzzled progressives in that closed-door meeting in San Francisco.
Referring to the white working-class voters in the industrial towns decimated by job losses, Obama said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Yet, we had seen these folks before. They were Perotistas in 1992, opposed NAFTA in 1993 and blocked the Bush-Kennedy McCain amnesty in 2007.
In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV.
They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.
They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.
They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.
They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.
America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.
Now, let me clear, this is not an attempt to defend Pat’s (and no, that is not me… I wish I had Pat Buchanan’s money!) assertion. I simply will offer the the following: Factually, Pat is correct; America is no longer a Anglo-Saxon Nation anymore, America is a culturally diverse nation. It always has been, as long as I have been alive. Now, as for his assertion, that America ever was the “White Man’s” America, or as if they ever owned it —- is factually wrong on its face and smacks of a racist mentality. To explain further, Pat Buchanan is a Paleo-Conservative or someone of the “Old Right”. The difference between Paleo-Conservative and a Libertarian can be distilled down to one simple word: Protectionism. Pat Buchanan is a protectionist; Pat yearns for the days, back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, when America was at war and the industrial revolution was in full swing and everything was being built here in America. Some, but not all, of the Paleo-Conservative right; yearn for the days, back before the depression and FDR’s new deal. Before all of the Governmental controls were put into place.
The problem with Pat Buchanan’s and all of the Paleo-Conservatives ideals is this; they are not rooted in modern day reality. In other words, the Paleo-Conservatives are living in the past. Their isolationist mentality is one of pre-World War II. In other words, times have changed. Some for the good, and some for the bad. It is a fact of reality. We are now a Globalist Nation, with a Economy that is global as well, we just cannot go back to the way things used to be. It is a sad fact of reality, but it is the truth. Again, this is not a defense of Pat’s article. It is more of explanation as to why Pat wrote what he did; I truly do not believe that Pat is a racist, I think he is simply writing in the vein of a protectionist.
However, let me also offer this; While I do agree with Pat’s take on economics, which is basically the Austrian School. I highly disagree with his take on World War II, Hitler and such. Some of that nonsense that he writes, quite frankly, makes me squirm. I tend to believe that he is a Hitler Apologist. That I cannot and will not defend.