Posted on 08/21/2006 9:08:47 AM PDT by churchillbuff
Unapologetically conservative and unfailingly provocative, Pat Buchanan has been firing from the right for most of the past four decades. In his new book, State of Emergency--out this week--the politician and omnipresent pundit confronts what he calls the immigrant "invasion and conquest of America." Buchanan, 67, talked with TIME's Jeff Chu about American identity, why conservatives will lose the culture wars and the rewards of being a cat lover.
The U.S. is in a state of emergency?
If we do not get control of our borders and stop this greatest invasion in history, I see the dissolution of the U.S. and the loss of the American Southwest--culturally and linguistically, not politically--to Mexico. It could become a part of Mexico in the way that Kosovo is now a part of Albania.
You liken the immigrant wave to the Visigoths who sacked Rome. Is that fair?
I'm predicting that America will no longer be one nation but more like the Roman Empire--a conglomerate of races and cultures held together by a regime. The country I grew up in was culturally united, even if it was racially divided. We spoke the same language, had the same faith, laughed at the same comedians. We were one nationality. We're ceasing to be that when you have hundreds of thousands of people who want to retain their own culture, their own language, their own loyalty. What do we have in common that makes us fellow Americans? Is it simply citizenship? Or is it blood, soil, history and heroes?
Your '92 Republican Convention speech put another culture war on the agenda. Who's winning?
It's not a battle of right and left but right and wrong. What do we believe about abortion? What do we believe about gay rights? The left has triumphed in seizing the heights of culture--the media, Hollywood, the academic community--and it's fiercely competitive in the political realm. I don't think someone of Bill Clinton's views could have been elected in, say, 1972. And we wouldn't be debating gay marriage in the 1970s. People would have said, "Are you insane?"
Do you think legal gay marriage is inevitable?
Traditionalists still have the upper hand, but there's no doubt which way the trend is going. And it is not going the conservative way.
Can conservatives win the culture wars?
Those of us on the right have been losing ground since the 1970s and '80s. Can we ultimately win? I think you would need a reconversion of the country to a traditionalist, Christian point of view--and I don't see that coming.
You ran for President three times, most recently in 2000. Will you again?
The American people have spoken on that issue. But I loved campaigning. Everywhere you go, people are saying, "Go, Pat, go!" It's like the NFL play-offs, and you're captain of one of the teams. But as [British politician] Enoch Powell once said, "All political lives end in failure."
How would you rate President Bush?
On some things--the Supreme Court, tax cuts--I give him an A-plus. On foreign policy, I give him an incomplete. If it doesn't improve, it's going to be failure. I don't believe interventionism is the way to deal with rising Islamic revolution. We're seen in the Middle East as an imperial power propping up corrupt regimes and giving Israel the wherewithal to do what they did to Lebanon. The President is widely reviled.
You sound a bit like Cindy Sheehan!
Anybody that knows Pat Buchanan knows we're not dealing with Cindy Sheehan here. [Laughs]
I was surprised to read that the animal-rights group PETA gave you an award last year.
I think it was most improved player! I've always been a cat fan, and my magazine ran a couple of articles saying, "Let's stop cruelty to animals." I've always been disgusted by that, even though I'm not a vegetarian.
I confess I always think Pat Buchanan seems to take things so seriously. What do you do for a laugh?
I read the newspapers. There's so much silliness and nonsense going on.
If any freeper says Pat's wrong - that's a freeper who hasn't visited Los Angeles in the last 5 years. LA is Tijuana North. Coming to your city next. But ignore it - and keep on lambasting Pat. Your children and grandchildren will thank you for defending Bush's open borders policy (NOT)
Pat Buchanan is still a nut.
It figures, Neville, that you'd jump on the Pat Buchanan bandwagon. Anything to advance your hate Bush agenda.
"I was supporting the Teddy Kennedy/George Bush open border policy because it was unpatriotic to criticize Bush."
"So Grandpa, I have you to blame for the death of the Republican Party because massive Mexican and Central American immigration gave the Democrats a permanent majoriy, and I have you to blame for Mexican-style Socialism took root in the U.S.?"
"Be quiet, child - or me and some of my freeper friends will call you a Nazi, the way we smeared Buchanan back when he was criticizing Bush""
The large cities of America have always been substantially populated by immigrants. Granted, Mexicans do pose a unique threat that the other nationalities: their homeland is on our border. However, I chuckle at the fact a Roman Catholic is complaining about the dissentigration of our culture. Fifty years ago, the Protestants of "North European Reformation culture" worried about the influence that the Roman Catholic immigrants from southern and eastern Europe would have on our nation.
Already in my city of Aurora, CO. The North Aurora schools are now 60% to 80% Hispanic (figures from greatschools.com). The public schools are bursting at the seams.
An antisemitic, racist moron who hates anyone who isn't of white European, Protestant ancestry.
You "chuckle" about Pat's warnings. So does Ted Kennedy. Ted is chuckling with glee - because the massive immigration from Mexico, Central and South America spells the death of the Republican Party. If you don't believe me, look at California. Used to be the GOP's base for presidential elections. Now its immigration central - and a "lock" for the Democrats.
"I was supporting the Teddy Kennedy/George Bush open border policy because it was unpatriotic to criticize Bush."
Why? Because he puts America's interest first?
MacArthur Park is in the Ramparts Police Division, one of the poorest areas in LA, probably. I was dressed in business casual and obviously lily white, but I got smiles and headnods from the locals - whereas in a poor neighborhood of native-born African Americans I usually get sullen stares and the occasional jibe.
The streets were bustling with thousands of Spanish speakers and crowded with dozens of small businesses.
I noticed a mural painted on the wall of a hot-sheet motel two blocks from the park.
The mural depicted a young man of Mexican heritage in BDUs kissing the girl he had obviously left behind when he went into combat.
The only flag I saw in that picture was the US flag, and the whole scene as depicted was an unironic, completely sentimaental celebration of courage and triumphant return.
I hope my children and grandchildren live in a vital community where people paint murals celebrating the return of our victorious troops rather than live in a depopulated, demoralized, self-hating dead end of a place like some communties I've seen on the Eastern seaboard - communties where patriotism is a dirty word and you're more likely to see two men antiquing together than a man and wife out for an evening walk with their five young children.
Just because he thinks they are identical does not mean all of us are stupid enough to follow along.
I don't like Buchanan but he's dead-on about illegal immigration. If we don't seal the borders and adopt English as our language, this country is screwed.
But you and the rest of the Buchanan bashers can keep putting your heads in the sands.
But if having a racist loon as your spokesman floats your boat, have at it.
LOL.....The only thing that's a "lock" for the dems is CUT N RUN
Fine. I love Latino people. As a rule (and it's hazardous to stereotype about anyone) they're just as you say. But they also vote heavily Democratic. And their political influence is turning California into a socialist, Mexican-style state. If you want that for America, keep cheering Bush's open-border policy, because we're going to get Mexican-, Californi-style socialism from sea to sea, as a result. (That's why Bush's policy is happily supported by Teddy Kennedy)
Well, Pat is a Catholic, but your point is still valid.
Hard to believe but some LA suburbs are even worse with local government controlled by Mexican proxies.
Visit all of the West and Midwest and see what you come up with!
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