Pat Buchanan

Pat Buchanan (born November 2, 1938), is an American author, syndicated columnist, and television commentator. In 2000, he ran for President of the United States on the Reform Party ticket. He had twice unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president. He has written several books on his political and religious views.

Controversy

Statements about Women

In a 1983 syndicated column, Buchanan wrote, "Rail as they will about 'discrimination,' women are simply not endowed by nature with the same measures of single-minded ambition and the will to succeed in the fiercely competitive world of Western capitalism."

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In Right from the Beginning, his autobiography, Buchanan wrote that "The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer." He also wrote, "If a woman has come to believe that divorce is the answer to every difficult marriage, that career comes before children ... no democratic government can impose another set of values upon her."

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Statements about Segregation and the Civil War

As a member of the Nixon administration, Buchanan urged President Richard Nixon not to visit Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. He said that a visit would "outrage many, many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue and perhaps worse.... Others consider him the Devil incarnate. Dr. King is one of the most divisive men in contemporary history." Buchanan's defenders argue that his comments must be considered in the context of Buchanan being a consultant, and that they are not necessarily his beliefs.

Related Topics:
Nixon administration - Richard Nixon - Coretta Scott King - Civil rights - Martin Luther King

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Buchanan believes that the U.S. Civil War was not fought over slavery, and has ridiculed opponents of the display of confederate flags in state capitals.

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:The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance. How long is this endless groveling before every cry of 'racism' going to continue before the whole country collectively throws up?

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Buchanan also defended Apartheid South Africa, asking, "Why are Americans collaborating in a U.N. conspiracy to ruin her with sanctions?"

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Buchanan's defenders counter charges of racism by pointing out that Buchanan's running-mate in his 2000 presidential bid was African-American, and that he had reportedly offered the spot to Alan Keyes, another African-American conservative. Buchanan, in an interview conducted with him by Norman Mailer in GQ magazine, also stated that Jesse Jackson is a close friend of his.

Related Topics:
Alan Keyes - Norman Mailer - GQ - Jesse Jackson

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Statements about Israel, Hitler, the Holocaust, and Accused Nazis

Buchanan once referred to Capitol Hill as "Israeli-occupied territory" in a column. During the run-up to the first Gulf War, Buchanan said "There are only two groups that are beating the drums for war in the Middle East -- the Israeli defense ministry and its 'amen corner' in the United States."

Related Topics:
Capitol Hill - Gulf War

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On Buchanan's 1996 campaign site was an article blaming the death of White House aide Vincent Foster on the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad. The article also alleged that Foster and Hillary Clinton were Mossad spies. The campaign later removed the article.

Related Topics:
Vincent Foster - Hillary Clinton - Mossad

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In a frequently quoted 1977 column, Buchanan wrote,

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:"Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic to the core, a man who without compunction could commit murder and genocide, he was also an individual of great courage, a soldier's soldier in the Great War, a political organizer of the first rank, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him ... Hitler's success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path."

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Buchanan has also called Spanish dictator Francisco Franco a "Catholic savior", and compared the alleged Jenin massacre to Auschwitz.

Related Topics:
Francisco Franco - Jenin massacre - Auschwitz

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In the Reagan White House, Buchanan pushed for Reagan to visit a German military cemetery at Bitburg, over the objections of some Jewish groups. Buchanan was credited with crafting Ronald Reagan's statement: "These were the villains, as we know, that conducted the persecutions and all. But there are 2,000 graves there, and most of those, the average age is about 18. I think that there's nothing wrong with visiting that cemetery where those young men are victims of Nazism also, even though they were fighting in the German uniform, drafted into service to carry out the hateful wishes of the Nazis. They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps." Buchanan says they were Reagan's extemporaneous remarks in response to a question.

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Buchanan vocally asserted the innocence of some Americans accused of being Nazi war criminals, most famously retired Cleveland autoworker John (born Ivan) Demjanjuk, comparing his trial to the Salem witch trials. In a 1990 New York Post column defending Demjanjuk, Buchanan claimed that the diesel engine, which is sometimes said to have been used to kill victims at Treblinka could "not emit enough carbon monoxide to kill anybody." When asked for his source, Buchanan cited an article about children surviving the fumes of idling diesel engines while trapped in a tunnel. The article came from the Newsletter of the German American Information and Education Association, an antisemitic and Holocaust-denying publicationhttp://www.holocaust-history.org/~jamie/buchanan/. While diesel engines can produce dangerous amounts of CO in confined spaces and with restricted air intake, it is not entirely clear which type of engine was used in Treblinka. It is quite possible that a gasoline engine was used or that the engines were modified to produce excess CO. It is estimated that engine exhaust gas chambers were used to suffocate at least 1.5 million people (mostly Jews) at the Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibór, and Chelmno death camps. (See The Holocaust for more information)

Related Topics:
Nazi - War criminals - John (born Ivan) Demjanjuk - Salem witch trials - New York Post - Diesel engine - Treblinka - German American Information and Education Association - Belzec - Sobibór - Chelmno - The Holocaust

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Buchanan also used another argument, lifted straight from Holocaust deniers' literature:

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"...'Holocaust Survivor Syndrome' involves "group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics." Reportedly, half the 20,000 survivor testimonies in Jerusalem are considered 'unreliable'..."

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Buchanan is referring to alleged comment of Shmuel Krakowski, who has been misquoted.http://www.nizkor.org/features/techniques-of-denial/krakowski-01.html

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Demjanjuk was convicted by an Israeli court. His conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court of Israel on the grounds of mistaken identity.

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In explaining his defense of Americans accused of war crimes, Buchanan has written:

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:"Now, why did I take up the causes of these men? Because I believed they were innocent, or I believed they had not been given a fair chance to prove their innocence. And because no one else would. While I have paid a high price for having done so, I have never regretted it. It was the best journalism I ever did."

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Statements about Canada

Buchanan has a history of unflattering references to Canada. On October 31, 2002, Buchanan denounced Canadians as anti-American, described the country as a haven for terrorists, and applied the label "Soviet Canuckistan" on his MSNBC television show. His comments followed a warning issued by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs stating that Canadians born in Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Syria should be cautious while travelling to the United States, prompted by a U.S. law requiring photos and fingerprints of anyone born in those countries and visiting the U.S., as well as the case of Maher Arar.

Related Topics:
Canada - October 31 - 2002 - Anti-American - Terrorist - Soviet Canuckistan - MSNBC - Television show - Department of Foreign Affairs - Iraq - Iran - Libya - Sudan - Syria - United States - Fingerprints - Maher Arar

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Following Buchanan's comment, many Canadians proudly adopted "Soviet Canuckistan" as an ironic, humorous self-reference. At the same time, some Canadians (primarily Albertans) adopted the term to express dislike for the Canadian political system and leadership.

Related Topics:
Soviet Canuckistan - Ironic - Albertans

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In 1990, he stated that if Canada were to break apart due to the failure of the Meech Lake constitutional accord, "America would pick up the pieces." In 1992, he stated that "for most Americans, Canada is sort of like a case of latent arthritis. We really don't think about it, unless it acts up."

Related Topics:
1990 - Meech Lake - 1992

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Buchanan's interest in Canada dates back to his "major paper" at Columbia University. The subject of the paper was the expanding trade between Canada and Cuba. It had tripled in 1961, the first year of the United States embargo against Cuba. Buchanan was able to publish a rewrite in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat under the eight-column banner "Canada sells to Red Cuba - And Prospers." This was a milestone in his early career as a business editor and occurred just eight weeks after he started at the paper, according to his memoir, Right from the Beginning.

Related Topics:
Columbia University - Cuba - United States embargo against Cuba

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Statements opposing Free Trade

Arguing that "you need imports to pay the taxes", Buchanan sees tariffs as a vehicle for allowing for tax relief for domestically made products, making them more competitive. He does not view tariffs as something that should be set so high as to ensure the foreign product will not be bought (and the tariff hence uncollected), but something that should be adjusted to maximize tax flow. As he writes in his 2004 book "Where the Right Went Wrong", "Tariffs raise the prices of goods. True. But all taxes--tariffs, income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes--are factored into the final price of the goods we buy. When a nation puts a tariff on foreign goods coming into the country, it is able to cut taxes on goods produced inside the country. This is the way to give U.S. manufacturers and workers a 'home-field advantage.'"

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