From a well known RWer...And you know what?

[twitomy]

Most here would agree with 2/3rds of what he is saying:

About the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, the pessimists have been proven right.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world's gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade.

The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job.


Between one-fourth and one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared in 10 years, the fruits of a free-trade ideology that has proven anything but free for this country. Our future is being outsourced -- to China.

While the median income of American families was stagnant, the national debt doubled.

The dollar lost half its value against the euro. Once the most self-sufficient republic in history, which produced 96 percent of all it consumed, the U.S.A. is almost as dependent on foreign nations today for manufactured goods, and the loans to pay for them, as we were in the early years of the republic.

What the British were to us then, China is today.

Beijing holds the mortgage and grows impatient as we endlessly borrow on equity and refuse to begin paying it down. The possibility exists of an eventual run on the dollar or even a U.S. debt default.

Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.

We sold ourselves a lot of snake oil about the Global Economy, interdependence, free trade and "it doesn't make any difference where goods are produced." The George W. Bush Republicans ran up the deficit with tax cuts, two wars and a splurge in social spending to rival the guns-and-butter of the Great Society.

Abandoning its role as the fellow who comes and takes away the punch bowl when the party's getting good, the Fed kept the money flowing fast and free, creating the tech bubble that burst in Y2K and the stock and housing bubble that burst at decade's end.

To pull us back from the cliff's edge, over which we were headed a year ago, the Fed doubled the money supply, while the administration ran up deficit spending to the highest level since World War II.

Unlike World War II, however, there is no end in sight to these deficits.

The stock market, which flat-lined over the decade, had to surge 50 percent in 2009 to retrieve the worst losses since the Depression.

Everyone, it seems, except for Washington bureaucrats and Wall Street, for whom the bonuses never seem to stop, has been hammered by the sinking home values and shrinking portfolios.

After Sept. 11, the nation was united behind a president as it had not been since Pearl Harbor. But instead of focusing on the enemies who did this to us, we took Osama bin Laden's bait and plunged into a war in Iraq that bled and divided us, alienated Europe and the Arab world, and destroyed the Republican Party's reputation as the reliable custodian of national security and foreign policy.

The party paid -- with the loss of both houses in 2006 and the presidency in 2008 -- but the nation has not stopped paying.

With nearly 200,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and another 30,000 more on the way, al-Qaida is now in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, while the huge U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq serves as its recruiting poster.

Again, it is not a malevolent fate that has done this to us. We did it to ourselves. We believed all that hubristic blather about our being the "greatest empire since Rome," the "indispensable nation" and "unipolar power" advancing to "benevolent global hegemony" in a series of "cakewalk" wars to "end tyranny in our world."

After a decade of self-delusion and self-indulgence, we must stop deceiving ourselves. As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, the "can-do" nation that won World War II in Europe and the Pacific in less than four years, that put a man on the moon in the same decade JFK said we would, is history.

We have a government that cannot balance its books, defend its borders or win its wars. And what is it now doing? Drafting another entitlement program as we are informed that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds have unfunded liabilities in the trillions.

At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the question is not whether we will preside over the creation of a New World Order, but whether America's decline is irreversible



Pat Buchannon

[Sebastian Doyle]

1. Pat Buchanan may be a bigoted assclown

but he's been one of the few "conservative" voices making any kind of sense at all in the past decade.

[still_one]

3. Maybe you should read the full context of what comes out of that racist SOB. I'm sure hitler said

things that made sense to people too

what a crock

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2553

On African-Americans

After Sen. Carol Moseley Braun blocked a federal patent for a Confederate flag insignia, Buchanan wrote that she was "putting on an act" by associating the Confederacy with slavery: "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," Buchanan asserted. "How long is this endless groveling before every cry of 'racism' going to continue before the whole country collectively throws up?" (syndicated column, 7/28/93)

On race relations in the late 1940s and early 1950s: "There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The 'negroes' of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, bars, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours." (Right from the Beginning, Buchanan's 1988 autobiography, p. 131)

Buchanan, who opposed virtually every civil rights law and court decision of the last 30 years, published FBI smears of Martin Luther King Jr. as his own editorials in the St. Louis Globe Democrat in the mid-1960s. "We were among Hoover's conduits to the American people," he boasted (Right from the Beginning, p. 283).

White House adviser Buchanan urged President Nixon in an April 1969 memo not to visit "the Widow King" on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, warning that a visit would "outrage many, many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue and perhaps worse.... Others consider him the Devil incarnate. Dr. King is one of the most divisive men in contemporary history." (New York Daily News, 10/1/90)

In a memo to President Nixon, Buchanan suggested that "integration of blacks and whites -- but even more so, poor and well-to-do -- is less likely to result in accommodation than it is in perpetual friction, as the incapable are placed consciously by government side by side with the capable." (Washington Post, 1/5/92)

In another memo from Buchanan to Nixon: "There is a legitimate grievance in my view of white working-class people that every time, on every issue, that the black militants loud-mouth it, we come up with more money.... If we can give 50 Phantoms to the Jews, and a multi-billion dollar welfare program for the blacks...why not help the Catholics save their collapsing school system." (Boston Globe, 1/4/92)

Buchanan has repeatedly insisted that President Reagan did so much for African-Americans that civil rights groups have no reason to exist: "George Bush should have told the that black America has grown up; that the NAACP should close up shop, that its members should go home and reflect on JFK's admonition: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but rather ask what you can do for your country.'" (syndicated column, 7/26/88)

In a column sympathetic to ex-Klansman David Duke, Buchanan chided the Republican Party for overreacting to Duke and his Nazi "costume": "Take a hard look at Duke's portfolio of winning issues and expropriate those not in conflict with GOP principles, reverse discrimination against white folks." (syndicated column, 2/25/89)

Trying to justify apartheid in South Africa, he denounced the notion that "white rule of a black majority is inherently wrong. Where did we get that idea? The Founding Fathers did not believe this." (syndicated column, 2/7/90) He referred admiringly to the apartheid regime as the "Boer Republic": "Why are Americans collaborating in a U.N. conspiracy to ruin her with sanctions?" (syndicated column, 9/17/89)

On Immigrants and People of Color

"There is nothing wrong with us sitting down and arguing that issue that we are a European country." (Newsday, 11/15/92)

Buchanan on affirmative action: "How, then, can the feds justify favoring sons of Hispanics over sons of white Americans who fought in World War II or Vietnam?" (syndicated column, 1/23/95)

In a September 1993 speech to the Christian Coalition, Buchanan described multiculturalism as "an across-the-board assault on our Anglo-American heritage."

"If we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them up in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?" ("This Week With David Brinkley," 1/8/91)

On Jews

Buchanan referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory." (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 10/20/90)

During the Gulf crisis: "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States." (McLaughlin Group, 8/26/90)

In a 1977 column, Buchanan said that despite Hitler's anti-Semitic and genocidal tendencies, he was "an individual of great courage.... Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." (Guardian, 1/14/92)

Writing of "group fantasies of martyrdom," Buchanan challenged the historical record that thousands of Jews were gassed to death by diesel exhaust at Treblinka: "Diesel engines do not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody." (New Republic, 10/22/90) Buchanan's columns have run in the Liberty Lobby's Spotlight, the German-American National PAC newsletter and other publications that claim Nazi death camps are a Zionist concoction.

Buchanan called for closing the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations, which prosecuted Nazi war criminals, because it was "running down 70-year-old camp guards." (New York Times, 4/21/87)

Buchanan was vehement in pushing President Reagan -- despite protests -- to visit Germany's Bitburg cemetery, where Nazi SS troops were buried. At a White House meeting, Buchanan reportedly reminded Jewish leaders that they were "Americans first" -- and repeatedly scrawled the phrase "Succumbing to the pressure of the Jews" in his notebook. Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's line that the SS troops buried at Bitburg were "victims just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." (New York Times, 5/16/85; New Republic, 1/22/96)

After Cardinal O'Connor criticized anti-Semitism during the controversy over construction of a convent near Auschwitz, Buchanan wrote: "If U.S. Jewry takes the clucking appeasement of the Catholic cardinalate as indicative of our submission, it is mistaken. When Cardinal O'Connor of New York seeks to soothe the always irate Elie Wiesel by reassuring him 'there are many Catholics who are anti-Semitic'...he speaks for himself. Be not afraid, Your Eminence; just step aside, there are bishops and priests ready to assume the role of defender of the faith." (New Republic, 10/22/90)

The Buchanan '96 campaign's World Wide Web site included an article blaming the death of White House aide Vincent Foster on the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad -- and alleging that Foster and Hillary Clinton were Mossad spies. (The campaign removed the article after its existence was reported by a Jewish on-line news service; Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 2/21/96.)

In his September 1993 speech to the Christian Coalition, Buchanan declared: "Our culture is superior. Our culture is superior because our religion is Christianity and that is the truth that makes men free." (ADL Report, 1994)

On Gays

In a 1972 memo to Richard Nixon, Buchanan referred to one of George McGovern's leading financial contributors as a "screaming fairy." (Newsday, 2/8/89) Buchanan has repeatedly used the term "sodomites," and has referred to gays as "the pederast proletariat." (Washington Post, 2/9/92)

"Homosexuality involves sexual acts most men consider not only immoral, but filthy. The reason public men rarely say aloud what most say privately is they are fearful of being branded 'bigots' by an intolerant liberal orthodoxy that holds, against all evidence and experience, that homosexuality is a normal, healthy lifestyle." (syndicated column, 9/3/89)

In a 1977 column urging a "thrashing" of gay groups, Buchanan wrote: "Homosexuality is not a civil right. Its rise almost always is accompanied, as in the Weimar Republic, with a decay of society and a collapse of its basic cinder block, the family." (New Republic, 3/30/92)

"Gay rights activists seek to substitute, for laws rooted in Judeo-Christian morality, laws rooted in the secular humanist belief that all consensual sexual acts are morally equal. That belief is anti-biblical and amoral; to codify it into law is to codify a lie." (Buchanan column in Wall Street Journal, 1/21/93)

On AIDS, Buchanan wrote in 1983: "The poor homosexuals -- they have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution (AIDS)." (Los Angeles Times, 11/28/86) Later that year, he demanded that New York City Ed Koch and New York Gov. Mario Cuomo cancel the Gay Pride Parade or else "be held personally responsible for the spread of the AIDS plague." "With 80,000 dead of AIDS, our promiscuous homosexuals appear literally hell-bent on Satanism and suicide," Buchanan wrote in 1990 (syndicated column, 10/17/90). In the 1992 campaign, he declared: "AIDS is nature's retribution for violating the laws of nature." (Seattle Times, 7/31/93)

On Women

"Rail as they will about 'discrimination,' 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." (syndicated column, 11/22/83)

"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." (Right from the Beginning, p. 149)

"If a woman has come to believe that divorce is the answer to every difficult marriage, that career comes before children ... no democratic government can impose another set of values upon her." (Right from the Beginning, p. 341)

On Democracy

Attacking what he considers the "democratist temptation, the worship of democracy as a form of governance," Buchanan commented: "Like all idolatries, democratism substitutes a false god for the real, a love of process for a love of country." (Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right, newsletter, Spring/90)

In a January, 1991 column, Buchanan suggested that "quasi-dictatorial rule" might be the solution to the problems of big municipalities and the federal fiscal crisis: "If the people are corrupt, the more democracy, the worse the government." (Washington Times, 1/9/91) He has written disparagingly of the "one man, one vote Earl Warren system."

In Right from the Beginning, Buchanan refers to Spanish dictator Francisco Franco as a "Catholic savior." He called Franco, along with Chile's Gen. Pinochet, "soldier-patriots." (syndicated column 9/17/89) Both men overthrew democracy in their countries.

Buchanan devotes a chapter of his autobiography -- "As We Remember Joe" -- to defending Senator Joe McCarthy. He advocated that Nixon "burn the tapes" during Watergate, and he criticized Reagan for failing to pardon Oliver North over Iran-Contra.

Buchanan, shortly before he announced he was running for president in 1995: "You just wait until 1996, then you'll see a real right-wing tyrant." (The Nation, 6/26/95)

[twitomy]

12. Definatly some squirelly thinking...

And I am in no way defending these views (except the cultural one. Yes I do think modern western civ is superior to several others)

It just struck me when I read this OP that his points echoed many things heard here. Thats all.

[still_one]

2. Convient quotes from a bigot, an isolastionist, and sexist. This is the person

like ron paul who believed we had no buisness getting into World War II

It is so nice for an asshole like buchanan or paul to sit back and spew their so-called populous verbage, which hides a much more insidious agenda

The only thing they can do is critisize, and the only solution they have are isolationism

[provis99]

4. well, I agree with everything Buchanan says here.

I'll give the man credos when he's right, and curse him when he's wrong. He's right here.

[theoldman]

5. I agree with Pat on most of his comments.

I do not admire the man but will give the devil his due.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

6. I agree with almost everything he said except the part

where he says WE did it to ourselves. What WE Kemosabie? All of the WE's I know were breaking their backs trying to earn a living and keep food on our tables and a roof over our heads. The Robber Barons on Wall Street and in Washington did this to us. They won't be happy until we return to a Feudal state.

Eventually, they will push us too far and we will once again start sharpening the blades on the Guillotines but were not there yet.

[OHdem10]

8. No matter how you view Pat personally and as an individual,

in other words erase personal feelings you have toward
Pat, and I think we could agree with his points listed
in the original post.

I give him credit for standing up and speaking the truth
on these issues. Pat worked really hard to do everything
he could to defeat Nafta. He went to different states encouraging
people to call their Congressmen.

We need as many people from both sides pointing out the truth
regarding the State of our Nation right now.

[twitomy]

10. Yeah on the social issue he sure is bona fide right wing...

but on the economic/fiscal issues, he sings his own tune.

In a lot of ways he seems more "populist" than RW..

[twitomy]

13. I'm with you

Its time for "the enemy of enemy is my friend" I said it before I know; but a lot of grass roots RW are pissed about a lot of the same things the grass roots left is pissed about. The leader who can somehow get both sides pushing the same direction could be onto something. Kinda how the Soviets and USA teamed up to fight the Nazis. Of course back to hating each other once thats done LOL! But I am afraid the well is too poisoned for that to ever happen.

[showpan]

7. I couldn't disagree more

We did not do this to ourselves, we just let it happen. The neocons used trade agreements as a tool to break up the working class in order to create a New World Order. Our collapse has been carefully packaged and sold and many in this country have bought into it. Can we reverse this, I believe we can, but not without further sacrifice.

[pscot]

9. Buchannon may be a bigot, but he's not stupid

He was no fan of the Bushies or their wars, and he's been around the block. I don't agree with everything he says in this article, but he makes some good points. I think it all comesdown to the old guns vs butter argument. He seems to think we're going to overspend on butter.

[Enthusiast]

11. Pat Buchannon has zero credibilty.

That is all.

[bertman]

14. We DID NOT do it to ourselves. WHICH Washington bureaucrats' bonuses never stop??

What bait did Osama bin Laden use to get US to plunge us into a new war in Iraq? So an entitlement program for ALL Americans as opposed to JUST the Military-Industrial-Corporate Complex couldn't be funded by reducing military spending?

Other than those points, I think I agree with Pat.

But he's still an asshole par excellence.

[katkat]

15. Pat's right about this

At some point, no matter where you are on the political spectrum, you realize we're in a hell of a mess and the government is broken.

[TexasObserver]

16. That's a fairly accurate assessment, no matter who wrote it.

One of the biggest casualties of the first decade of this century has been the ability of progressives to talk intelligently about issues, without resorting to the kind of carping that is so common to the right. If someone says something that makes sense, it makes sense no matter who wrote it. And if they write something idiotic, it matters not who wrote it. When Pat Buchanan is right about something, he's right, irrespective of all the obnoxious things he's said for decades. We should be able to assess those words on their own merit. Unfortunately, some who claim to be progressive really aren't, so they react only to the name of the source.

Sometimes someone like Buchanan is right. This happens, and denying it is to deny logic and history.

These comments in the OP could have come from Russ Feingold. We should weigh the comments based upon their cogency, not their authorship. The inability to do so labels one as intellectually weak.

We, as a country, did do it to ourselves, by standing by while the Bush administration destroyed in 8 years the country's economic and political standing in the world, aided and abetted by complicit Democrats. Democrats repeatedly caved in to the GOP on important issues in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and they're still doing it, even as the majority. The public wants to end the war and get health care, but they get more war and inadequate health care. If our party doesn't get it together and deliver on some promises the next 8 months, we could lose so many seats in November that we cannot effect any significant changes.

We cannot undo the 2001-2008 foibles, but we can damn sure do better than the party delivered in 2009, and if we don't, we will get our butts kicked in 2010 and 2012 elections.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

17. "We" didn't do anything

it's those who run things that did all this. If you are an average, working, not wealthy, run of the mill person, as most of this country is, you get jerked around by all these types of people.
Think about it.......... 'Free trade', 'terrorism', 'Vietnam', 'communism', 'freedom' and on and on it goes. All buzzwords to disguise the fact there are players operating at levels far above ours that are manipulating and influencing events and people to accomplish their goals.
And those in the media carried the water for those in power, to sell this stuff to us.
We are left to react and survive as best we can. The average American has no voice and anytime someone comes close to being that voice, they are removed from the playing field..... :cry: :mad: