Pat Buchanan calls for a third party

[ochazuke]

See his article at theamericancause.org

He says both Bush and the Dems are driving down the wages of working Americans by forcing them to compete with cheap overseas labor.

It sounds like he's gearing up for a third-party challenge. That's doubtful, but at least it shows that conservatives are not monolithic and the left-right split that has developed in America over the past 40 years can be re-cast.

[Cleita]

1. Well, he ran on the Reform Party ticket in the last

election and was the spoiler for Gore in Palm Beach, so maybe this time he'll get it right and siphon votes off of Bush, hopefully. Frankly, I don't know why he bothers to run. He only appeals to a narrow minority.

[mouse7]

2. I wouldn't call him a "spoiler" exactly

More like the manipulated beneficiary.

We all know even Buchanan declared he didn't deserve the Palm Beach Co. votes.

However, a campaign appearance by him there in 2004 should be entertaining to watch.

[Syrinx]

3. I have *some* respect for Patrick J. Buchanan

I know sometimes his rhetoric can sound xenophobic, but he's basically an America-first type of guy, and an isolationist. I agree with a lot of what he says, and violently disagree with him many other times. But I think he's basically an honest guy, and I like him a lot better than most conservative talking-heads I can think of. Here's hoping he runs.

[Gore1FL]

5. I agree

I disagree with him most of the time, but he is consistent in belief and action.

Anyone who has thought out ideals and acts on them patriotically is a inehrently good person -- (even if I do think they are wrong!)

[jfxgillis]

6. Author of the BEST put-down of Bush in 2000, bar none:

"I've written more books than he's ever read."

Sadly, true.

[Syrinx]

7. that's funny!

Guess I missed that one.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Occasionally...

Pat gets something right, in spite of himself. Having said that, it's starting to look like he is treating presidential elections like a revenue stream that appears in his life every four years.

[Orrin_73]

8. By participating in elections

Pat gets the maximum exposure to the majority of America, so he can sell his books and make shows on major networks.


kucinich.us

deanforamerica.com
clark04.com
sharpton2004.org

Tom DeLay:"I challenge anyone to live on my salary" <$158,000 a year>

[kalian]

9. Well...it was Pat who said....

that the democratic and republican parties were virtually "xerox"
copies of one another... I knew he hit the nail on the head with
that statement.

[rapier]

10. notes

Buchanan is now a professional presidential candidate. He makes a living at it. He is officially a gadfly now.

He has always had an ideosyncratic side to his 'conservatism' which is a throwback to the isolationism that used to dominate the right till 1948, when they got religion and discovered it was a lot more fun, and profitable to try and run the entire world.

Pat also takes big parts of the old populist bible here concerning exporting jobs etc. etc. etc. I am speaking here of the populist right, as distinct from the left, which sprang from the same source but ended up in different places. Well the populist left is gone and the right is occupied by the likes of Tim McVie. This isn't a recasting of the political continum as much as just a remphasis of old themes.

The critique that wages are falling due to competition with overseas labor is undeniable. The part about the parties "forcing" this is a bit fuzzy. It would take a book to describe wage and income disparities thruout the world and finding political answers would be harder.

Part of his populism is something very appealing to many of us; a distrust of corporate power. As nice as that sounds don't forget he is also a leading voice in the "fear the brown hoards" , "white people are Gods people" sort of thing. Again, a foundation of rightest populism. The kind that drove Nazism.

That even here some might look to the Buchanan's of the right for responses to the giant political/economic forces now in place is a sad commentary on the state of our discourse. It seems the only answer to the swing to the soft facism of corporate facism is the hard facism of the nativists.