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Campaign 2000: Patrick J. Buchanan
As Nader is the liberal alternative in the 2000 race, so Pat Buchanan is the arch-conservative choice. Buchanan's appeal lies mainly with those whose livelihood has been hurt by globalization, but the intellectual roots of his policy are long and distinguished. Where the conflict between a foreign policy based upon the national interest and one based upon moral considerations has defined the century, Buchanan signifies the resurgence of a third school of American thinking. His policies are more in keeping with the America of Thomas Jefferson. Buchanan wants America to be the shining city on the hill, not the benevolent hegemon both Bush and Gore implicitly endorse.
Buchanan's speeches are full of rhetoric decrying American imperialism. Urging audiences to "adopt a measure of humility about how much we know about what is best for other peoples and cultures," he criticizes recent administrations for turning the United States into a "superpower sheriff, the Wyatt Earp of the West" in order to "discipline evil-doers, wherever our ‘values' are threatened." This policy, which he calls "America's Brezhnev Doctrine," is a threat to American security, Buchanan says, inviting us to become involved in foreign wars and provoking other nations to action against us.
The silent, deadly remedy
One tool of current policy which no other candidate has discussed to the extent Buchanan has is the use of sanctions. As Buchanan put it,
"Woodrow Wilson called sanctions the ‘powerful silent deadly remedy.' Today, they may fairly be called America's silent weapons of mass destruction whose victims are almost always the weak, the sick, the women and the young."
Buchanan points to Iraq as an example of how sanctions policy can be counterproductive. Can the parents of half a million Iraqi children dead due to the embargo ever be able to forgive the United States?, he asks rhetorically. Pointing out that sanctions also tend to unite countries behind dicators rather than inspiring revolutions, Buchanan states that one of his first acts as president will be to end all sanctions on the sale of civilian goods to Cuba, North Korea, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and "all the other targeted nations of U.S. sanctions policy." No other candidate has made so sweeping a declaration; in fact, few mainstream foreign policy thinkers have seriously considered the idea.
America's Great Wall
One cannot discuss Pat Buchanan's foreign policy without mentioning his immigration policies. Buchanan's position on the issue, far from the neo-Nazism protrayed in "Doonesbury," are well-written and uncommonly erudite. While he has his share of horror stories about the effects of immigration, Bush and Gore use similar stories to convince people of the problems of Medicare.
In fact, his justification for sealing the borders to illegal immigration is the preservation of American culture and territorial integrity, not Ku Klux Klan-style appeals to white superiority (in fact, one can hardly imagine a hardline racist choosing a black woman as a running mate). If it were French Canadians streaming into Michigan instead of Mexicans into the Southwet, Buchanan would probably recommend the same policies. But his overblown rhetoric on the topic in years past (including his promise to build a Great Wall on the southern border) has reduced a serious policy proposal to the level of mere caricature.
Conclusion
Like Nader, Buchanan has a snowball's chance of winning the Oval Office. His policies would be fine -- if this were the election of 1900, or 1852. Today, a superpower cannot afford to conduct itself based upon Buchanan's admittedly isoloationist policies. If the United States were to withdraw from the world and conduct a combative policy with the international community, then global stability would be at risk, much as it was when the Senate refused to ratify the League of Nations. Thus, while Buchanan diagnoses the problems of American policy correctly, his prescriptions may be worse than the disease. |
Campaign2000 Buchanan
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