Pat Buchanan celebrated his 87th birthday on November 2, and this makes it a fitting occasion to assess this remarkable figure in American politics. Pat is a hero because he spoke truth to power, politically challenged the corrupt US Uniparty system when he ran for president three times, defended the sovereignty of America, and warned us about the collapse of Western Civilization.
As Kevin Robertsand Riley Moore say, “In 1963, when President John F. Kennedy gave the Presidential Medal of Freedom its name, he said that ‘in a period when the national government must call upon an increasing portion of the talents and energies of its citizens, it is clearly appropriate to provide ways to recognize and reward the work of persons, within and without the government, who contribute significantly to the quality of American life.’
“Today, our country is in even greater need of such virtuous citizens—of heroic men and women who can serve as examples of what it means to defend the republic, renew our culture, and reclaim America’s destiny. That’s why we are calling on President Donald Trump to grant the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor, to one of the most prophetic voices of conservatism: Patrick J. Buchanan.
“Pat Buchanan is a towering figure in American statesmanship. Six decades of public service—from his early days as a young speechwriter for Richard Nixon to his hard-charging campaigns for the presidency—would alone qualify him for the nation’s highest honor.
“But what sets Buchanan apart, what makes him uniquely deserving of this recognition, is that he is one of the great pioneers of what we now call America First conservatism. He foresaw, long before others, nearly every political crisis and cultural challenge that animates the country today.
“When the political class was busy declaring ‘the end of history’ in the 1990s, Buchanan was warning that mass migration would erode our national identity, that reckless interventions abroad would sap our strength.
“Looking back now, his speeches read like prophecy. His famous ‘Culture War’ address to the 1992 Republican National Convention—derided by elites at the time—warned of the relentless advance of the Left’s social agenda: abortion on demand, the degradation of religious liberty, women in combat units, and the redefinition of the family.
Awarding Pat Buchanan the Presidential Medal of Freedom would not just honor a man—though doing so would be long overdue. It would also send an unmistakable message that the era of conservative timidity is over, that the movement which once censored and sidelined its boldest voices is gone for good.
“From now on, we will not apologize for loving this country. We will not apologize for defending its sovereignty, its borders, its families, its faith. And from now on, we will celebrate—not shun—the great Americans who paved the way for our renewal.
“Pat Buchanan belongs among the conservative movement’s greatest heroes. President Donald Trump should award him the Medal of Freedom. And every American who loves this country should stand and cheer when he does.”
You might object to my praise for Pat Buchanan in this way. Doesn’t he favor high tariffs and other deviations from the free market? Can supporters of the free market still favor him? In answer to that, it should be clear that although he does favor some economic policies we disagree with, he is by no means an enemy of a free economy. On the contrary, he denounced Barack Obama for his socialistic policies. Here is what he said in 2009: “In his campaign and inaugural address, Barack Obama cast himself as a moderate man seeking common ground with conservatives. Yet, his budget calls for the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy, a sweeping redistribution of power and wealth to government and Democratic constituencies. It is a declaration of war on the Right. The real Obama has stood up and lived up to his ranking as the most left-wing member of the United States Senate. Barack has no mandate for this. He was even behind McCain when the decisive event that gave him the presidency occurred — the September collapse of Lehman Brothers and the market crash. Republicans are under no obligation to render bipartisan support to this statist coup d’état. For what is going down is a leftist power grab that is anathema to their principles and philosophy. Where the U.S. government usually consumes 21 percent of gross domestic product, this Obama budget spends 28 percent in 2009 and runs a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.7 percent of GDP. That is four times the largest deficit of George W. Bush and twice as large a share of the economy as any deficit run since World War II. Add that 28 percent of GDP spent by the U.S. government to the 12 percent spent by states, counties and cities, and government will consume 40 percent of the economy in 2009. We are not ‘headed down the road to socialism.’ We are there.”
Let’s see what Murray Rothbard said about the “purity” issue: “We can already hear the small Modal voices bellyaching: But Buchanan’s not a purist, e.g., he’s weak on free trade: To this we say: Come off it! To call for purity in a Libertarian Party candidate makes sense; the whole point of a libertarian political party is to expound a consistent doctrine. But to expect libertarian purity in a real-world candidate comes close to imbecility. On television and in his column, Pat has expressed forceful views on hundreds if not thousands of political, social, and cultural topics. Do we agree with every one of them? Of course not, and so what? That misses the point. The point is that Pat Buchanan is strongly infused with libertarian principle, and that he is as close as any real-world candidate couId possibly come to paleo-libertarianism. Ali of us should be proud and delighted to work as hard as we can for a Buchanan presidency. We have a dream: and perhaps someday it will come to pass. (Hell, if M.L. King can have a dream, why can’t we?) Our dream is that one day, we Buchananites can present Mr. and Mrs. America, and all the liberal and conservative and centrist elites, with a dramatic choice. We can, in the scintillating terms of Tom Wolfe, ‘Mau-Mau the Flak Catchers,’ except usually it’s leftists Mau-Mauing liberals.”
We have left the most essential point for last. For Rothbard, war was the most important political issue, and Pat Buchanan has always supported peace. As Rothbard said, “The libertarian’s basic attitude toward war must then be: it is legitimate to use violence against criminals in defense of one’s rights of person and property; it is completely impermissible to violate the rights of other innocent people. War, then, is only proper when the exercise of violence is rigorously limited to the individual criminals. We may judge for ourselves how many wars or conflicts in history have met this criterion.” Pat Buchanan opposes the Ukraine war, a nuclear confrontation with Russia, which could easily destroy the world, and a confrontation with China. And of course, and most famously, he opposes American involvement in the Middle East, He is against the Iraq War, sanctions and attacks on Iran. and aid to Israel or any other country in that region. He has not hesitated to condemn the neocon warmongers, becoming the target of their obloquy and hate. Let’s do everything we can to celebrate this American hero and join him in his opposition to war.
