Pat Buchanan, straight-up racist.

Meanwhile, Michael Barone gets a link from Instapundit and a beat-down from Sadly, No! for this howler-filled column about the enemies (cue scary music) "within our midst." C'mon, Barone, does anyone actually think "Hitler had his way, we have ours -- who's to say who is right?"; if all societies had slaves, but we are the only society to abolish slavery, where did all the other slaves go?; etc.

Why do people listen to these guys?

Comments

[Lex]

Dunno, but one of the regular commenters at my work gig believes every single Democrat in Congress would cheer at the prospect of more American deaths due to terrorism. He even went to the trouble of listing all the Democrats to prove (ahem) his point.

[David Wharton]

"C'mon, Barone, does anyone actually think 'Hitler had his way, we have ours -- who's to say who is right?'"

In my experience, yes. A lot of college freshmen think and say this very thing.

Most of them abandon that kind of silly relativism before long (although unfortunately some of them end up adopting a more nihilistic but academically fashionable quasi-relativism later on in their college careers), but someone is teaching them this nonsense.

I'm pretty sure it isn't their parents.

[Fec Stench]

I was listening to Boortz on 101.1 today and he had Buchanan on. It's coming out that BushCo has failed to do any enforcement during his admin.

W., Jeb and I love the Latinos. Viva la Reconquista!

[David Boyd]

It's always dangerous to extrapolate demographic trends because you don't know how behaviors or circumstances will change (I remember we were all in danger of starving last decade because of the increasing numbers of us), but assuming PB is correct and whites are being outbred to the extent that we'll soon be a minority in America, it's all good. Really. We're about as indispensable as all those important men in graveyards. The world will go on and it will become freer and more democratic or it won't.

[Fred Gregory]

R-Nold send up the white flag. Give them back Cali-Fore-Nee-Ya.

[Jim Capo]

Ed, you can be justified in your distaste for Buchanan's reasoning but would you care to comment on how you believe the tactics he suggests are in any substantial way different than those used by the Chinese, Japanese or Israelis to preserve their "unique" cultures?

P.S. I suspect the Tibetans would behave similarly if they had the option.

note to David: We have kids growing up in an environment where too many of their decisions are made for them: who to associate with, what to think and even when to play soccer. Coming of age in the era of total supervision/surveillance does not produce favorable results.

[Joe Killian]

Jim:

I think the idea is that, as Americans, we're not supposed to hold ourselves to the standards of countries like China, Japan or Israel (though I would argue their situation is different and exception enough to warrant their exclusion from this sort of list).

America is, fundamentally, supposed to be about the opposite of the ideas Buchanan is laying out. Which, I might add, are eerily similar to things I read in white supremecist literature in sociology classes. If he's not sleeping next to a copy of The Turner Diaries then he's doing an excellent impression of a guy who is.

[Mr. Sun]

Why not keep our focus on the principles, and not the groups. Which, of course, is the principle.

[John Hood]

Ed:

People listen to these guys because these guys -- well, Barone, I'm not going to defend Pat -- make interesting and thoughtful points that provoke discussion. Sometimes that discussion is productive and itself thoughful. Sometimes, as was the case with that risible "Sadly No” commentary you linked, it is juvenile, illogical, and pointless. The chicken-hawk argument again? Good Lord. Automatic "F" from my debate professor, I guarantee it.

I think you could legitimately question Barone's use of the Hitler example -- not that there aren't proponents of moral equivalence who invoke the America/Nazi comparison, because I meet them every now and then, but because they aren't representative of the broader problem of moral equivalence. As for the slavery point, this is simply history. Western civilization engaged in slavery as have virtually all civilizations and cultures on Earth. Western civilization later engaged in widespread military, economic, and missionary activities designed to stamp out the slave trade. It look a long time. The effort is still not over, judging by evidence of formal chattel slavery still in the Islamic world and the pervasiveness of slavery-by-other-names in other parts of the world.

[David Boyd]

We have kids growing up in an environment where too many of their decisions are made for them: who to associate with, what to think and even when to play soccer. Coming of age in the era of total supervision/surveillance does not produce favorable results.

Ain't no doubt, Jim. That's why it's dumb to lament the passing of the white race. There are plenty of white socialists and white ninnies. I'd much rather hang out with a Mexican capitalist.

[PotatoStew]

Buchanan needs to read this. The apparent difference between cultures (and hence, sometimes races) isn't about genetics. It's about geography.

[John Hood]

There are plenty of white socialists and white ninnies. I'd much rather hang out with a Mexican capitalist.

David, I may have to steal this and put it on a bumper sticker!

[Ed Cone]

One of the weakest -- and most widely deployed -- rhetorical devices out there is the hypothetical I-bet-some-other-guy-would-do-this trick, used here by Buchanan to say that if a Chinese writer claimed genetic superiority for the Chinese people, nobody would make a fuss.

Not only is it irrelevant, since we are talking about a white supremacist who actually did say what he said, but it would be just as racist and wrong if a Chinese person said it -- and I imagine there would be an uproar, including columns about it by Pat Buchanan.

[Samuel Spagnola]

I don't think an opinion can be formed based solely on these excerpts. I haven't read the book, but I think Buchanan's point is not about race, but culture. If a large number of Chinese moved to Jerusalem, refused to learn the language, were Buddhists, had a different view of the law, different customs, and soon outnumbered the Jews in Israel, would Israel still be the same nation? I don't think so.

What Buchanan has suggested in the past is that there is a unique Western culture (not just a white one- and he has made this point before- black Americans have lived and assimilated into the same unique culture for centuries) that is under attack. Previous generations of immigrants of other races and nationalities wanted to assimilate into American culture and did assimilate into American culture. Buchanan does not believe the current crop of illegal aliens has any desire to do so, in fact he believes they will replace the dominant culture.

The Chinese references he pointed out is merely to illustrate that Americans must get beyond racial guilt before they will seriously attack the problem of illegal immigration. He believes it is racial guilt when we refuse to acknowledge the achievements of Western society, but have no problem acknowledging the achievements of other societies and races. Nobody wants to address the problem out of fear of being called a bigot- that's exactly what happened, isn't it?

I don't think Buchanan is worried about the color of America changing, but the culture.

But I haven't read the book. What I know about his opinion on this subject is from interviews he has done recently.

[Jeffrey Sykes]

Many could argue that we white folks assimilated to Mexican/Spanish culture west of the Mississippi. Ever heard of El Paso, Santa Fe or Mesa Verde?

As with the middle east, the artificial border between US/Mexico means nothing to the free flow of people, commerce and ideas. As capitalist we should smile upon the free flow of people, commerce and ideas.

Saw a Vernon sign in Wentworth this weekend. "Secure the Border. Vernon Robinson for Congress" Was posted on the property of the National Guard Armory.

The issue is a straw man, if I understand that term correctly. I understand about laws and enforcing laws. I'm all for that. But the majority of these folks come here for the same reason our ancestors came here: prosperity.

We can't stop that thirst with Apace helicopters and fences along the border without creeping closer to posse comitatus. Do we really want the world to see us closing off the American Dream with armed forces?

Jefferson said the tree of liberty has to be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants. We cannot wall off America and retain liberty. That is what Osama wants, is to transform our culture by our reaction to fear.

This is a rant, and I apologize, but we cannot become xenophobes and adopt Prussian militarism and remain what Madison, Adams, Franklin, et al, intended.

What type of face is this to present to the world?

[Jim Capo]

To the chagrin of Mr. B, I do not think our government subsidized researchers are going to discover that whiteness and the pechant for liberty share the same gene. And, I too would much rather hang out with a Mexican capitalist than a white socialist ninnie.

However, the problem is that our elites would also much rather hang out with their counterpart "Mexican" elites... Elites who share some of Buchanan's views on race, which explains the reason the construction crews down the street from my house in no way resemble the oligarchs of Mexico like Vicente Foxx.

Hello. The middle class in the US (regardless of skin tone) is being wiped out. We are only hanging on by the grace of lenders in places like China, Japan and Saudia Arabia.

[Samuel Spagnola]

CBS goes racist, divides groups along racial/ethnic lines:

"At the start of the reality show's 13th edition, "Survivor: Cook Islands," 20 contestants will be organized into four tribes divided along ethnic lines -- black, white, Hispanic and Asian, CBS announced Wednesday."

Full link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,210042,00.html