Politics The Voice of (t)Reason
posted by on October 12 at 8:03 AM
Pop quiz, hotshot: Who said this?
Many in Congress deeply regret having voted President Bush a blank check for war in October 2002. And they are frustrated at their inability to compel him to begin bringing the troops home.Why, then, is Congress pushing for a new confrontation, with Iran, which could involve us in a war with a nation four times the size of Iraq?
U.S. air strikes on the Quds Force in Iran would bring retaliation, and escalation to U.S. strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This would solidify the mullahs and could lead to Iran’s distributing surface-to-air missiles to agents and proxies in the Middle East, the unleashing of Shia attacks against our allies and a hellish situation for our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention attacks on Gulf tankers, $200-a-barrel oil, a worldwide recession and a 2,000-point plunge in the Dow.
Iran cannot want a war with the United States. If it did, it could have had that war any time in the last 30 years. But Iran did not start any war in those three decades.If we are going to war, Congress, not George Bush, should take us into it. Isn’t that how the Constitution reads?
Was it La La Land limousine liberal Arianna Huffington or communist America-hating traitor Cindy Sheehan who DARED to say it?
Was it YOU??
Well, que sorpresa, it was in fact proud culture warrior Pat Buchanan. You may remember Herr Buchanan as the former Nixon speechwriter whose little address to the 1992 Republican Party National Convention scared the pants off America to the point that we all voted for Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton so that he could touch our naughty parts and make us feel better.
Pat’s politics have tremendous appeal to that large segment of the American voting public whose right arms are permanently locked at an out-stretched 45-degree angle. You know, the kind of lovely folks from the Republican Party of Personal Responsibility® who have the courage to blame the Jews, Hispanics, homosexuals, blacks and women for all of their problems.
Dude, seriously, how extremist does your Party have to be that Pat “Sieg Heil” Buchanan is now the voice of caution and moderation?
Pat's always been an isolationist and was against the first Gulf War. This statement is completely consistent for him.
Still, if Pat Buchanan is against invading Iran, I almost feel like I should be for it. The notion that it was even possible to agree with Pat Buchanan about anything makes my head explode. I'm so confused.
As Matt says, this is a consistent position for Buchanan. I absolutely detest the majority of his positions politically, but I respect him for the fact that he actually believes what he says (unlike most conservative pundits), and can usually defend those positions with reasonable arguments. Watch the McLauglin Group sometime and you'll see the difference between him and Tony Blankley. Blankley will follow the party line every single time.
I've had a few of these "Yeahbuhwhaaa?" moments with Mr. B. I was listening to NPR late one night on my way home and they had this guy on talking really eloquently about the rise of corporate governance and the disconnect between how free trade markets itself and what it really means for the "boots on the ground in the labor force both here and in the third world and I was like, "Damn, this is a clever muthafucka, who is this?"
Next thing I know, "Thanks for speaking with us Pat Buchanan!" WTF!? I felt like I needed to take a shower. However, it just goes to show that everybody is more complicated that they might seem on first glance.
If you could suck all the venomous culture wars shit out of Pat, he might not be a bad guy, and I'll take a smart person that I totally disagree with over some idiot political pitbull any day.
If you're surprised by Pat Buchanan, you haven't been paying attention.
He's right about Iran but for the wrong reasons. And his support for anti-globalist, anti-WTO bollocks is further proof of how misguided and inane that movement is. You don't want Pat on your side. There are other arguments to make.
politics is a clock with ass-sucking globalist centrists like hillary clinton at the top, dennis kucinish at 9, president chimpy at 3, and isolationists like buchanan & socialists like chomsky surprisingly close to each other at the bottom, like 5:30 & 6:30.
Quite true, what each of you have had to say on this fascinating topic. Each in your own way has illuminated many many important aspects of Mr. Buchanan and the complexities of our endlessly compelling world.
i wasn't confussed until the clock analogy. are you saying that politics rotate through the various views over time, or was it merely an illustration for the similiarities of candiates on a given issue?
i do know that it's, like, 10:05 AM right now.
At least one reason why Buchanan opposed the Iraq war is that he believes that brown people don't deserve democracy or liberty. While I opposed the Iraq war as well, it was absolutely not for that reason. Pat is still a jackass.
Ah, Speed references. Always a promising start.
Hunter Thompson and Pat Buchanan were friends.
you know, take consensus wherever you can find it. it's the polarized idiocy of this nation that's gotten us where we are. i've had a conversations with people who didn't want to make the "saves tax dollars" argument to right wingers about ending the death penalty because it was "the wrong reason." fuck that. if it gets you closer to your goal, then it's the thing to do. it's not a compromise to meet people halfway, or to hammer out agreements with asshats--it's called progress.
i meant "it's not a compromise of your integrity."
"The conservative movement has been hijacked and turned into a globalist, interventionist, open borders ideology, which is not the conservative movement I grew up with." (Pat in NYT, 9/8/02).
Pat has been entirely consistent in this criticism of Bush's neo-conservatism. His magazine, American Conservative, was an early opponent of Bush's "free speech zones" even when most Democrats completely ignored the issue. He's one of the few conservatives with a hint of old-fashioned libertarian left in him.
Still an asshole though.
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