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| Affiliation | Republican |
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| <- |
2016-01-01 |
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| Name | Patrick J. "Pat" Buchanan |
| Address |
McLean, Virginia , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | [Link] |
| Born |
November 02, 1938
(85 years)
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| Contributor | Classical Liberal |
| Last Modifed | RBH
Jan 29, 2020 08:16pm |
| Tags |
Caucasian - German - Irish - Scottish - Catholic - Straight -
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| Info | Patrick Joseph Buchanan, usually known as Pat Buchanan, is a conservative journalist and television political commentator from the United States. In 2000, he ran for President of the United States on the Reform Party ticket. He has previously run for President on Republican Party tickets, although he has never received that party's nomination.
Buchanan was born in Washington, D.C. and educated in Roman Catholic schools before attending Georgetown University where he graduated with a degree in English and Philosophy in 1961. He then attended the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City where he earned a Master's Degree in Journalism in 1962. That same year he became an editorial writer for the St. Louis Globe Democrat newspaper.
Buchanan was an early supporter of Richard Nixon's political comeback, from 1966 on acting as advisor to Nixon's campaigns and accompanying Nixon to the White House in the role of advisor until 1974. He briefly continued in this role with Nixon's successor Gerald Ford. Buchanan has been mentioned as one possibility for the identity of "Deep Throat" in the Watergate scandal.
After leaving political office, Pat Buchanan became a syndicated political columnist and began his regular appearances as a commentator on various national television news shows, including The McLaughlin Group and Crossfire.
Buchanan returned to the White House in 1985, serving as White House Communications Director during the Ronald Reagan administration until 1987.
In 1992 he unsuccessfully challenged George H. W. Bush for the Republican Party Presidential nomination, garnering some 3 million votes in primaries. He again tried for the Republican nomination in 1996, finishing second behind Bob Dole. In 2000 he successfully gained the nomination of the Reform Party, although his nomination was tainted with allegations of unethical tactics and challenges from the John Hagelin camp in many states. He finished fourth with 0.4% of the popular vote (Hagelin garnered 0.1%). Buchanan's nomination as Reform's leader was very controversial within the party, as many of the party's supporters, among other reasons, did not see Buchanan's image as a Nixon Watergate scandal "plumber" as consistent with the party's mission statement, championed by the party's founder and previous leader, Ross Perot.
Buchanan has written five books on his political and religious views.
He and liberal Bill Press cohosted Buchanan & Press on American cable channel MSNBC until it was cancelled in November 2003. Buchanan is still with MSNBC as an analyst and he occasionally fills in for Joe Scarborough on the nightly show "Scarborough Country".
Although considered to be a staunch right-wing conservative, Buchanan believes the Republicans have largely abandoned their conservative principles, and are instead embracing bland, inoffensive positions on most of the major issues. Many of his positions are in line with conservative U.S. Republicans of the first half of the 20th century, but have become uncommon in the Republican mainstream in recent generations.
Buchanan is an open isolationist, is in favor of severely restricting immigration into the United States, and of repealing NAFTA and raising tariffs on imported goods to protect domestic industry. He is also a harsh critic of American foreign policy and believes that most of America's international actions starting with World War 2 have been unjustified, being largely motivated by imperialist desires. Buchanan's belief that the German Nazi regime was not a threat to American interests or national safety have made some of his critics accuse him of being an apologist for the fascist state. Buchanan has a record of anti-Semitic comments. William Bennett has described Pat as "flirting with fascism" and Alan Keyes accused Buchanan staffers of appealing to racist and anti-Semitic voters. He has said that the Holocaust was barbaric and a tragedy; he also has been known to flirt with Holocaust Revisionism. In a March 17, 1990 column, he claimed that the diesel engines used to suffocate inmates at Treblinka could "not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody." Buchanan believes that the Nazi regime in Germany and the Soviet regime in Russia would have in time annihilated each other, and thus America's contribution was not necessary, and may have in fact even been counter-productive.
Because of the way his views differ from those of "mainstream" conservatives, Buchanan is often described as a paleoconservative, referring to himself as a "traditional conservative".
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