Nationalists Were Wrong in 1992, They are Wrong Today

In the days before the internet I would actually write down thoughts, not to be shared with the world, but to capture them for later consideration. Here is one of those journal entries from March 1992 that seems to have some meaning today:

"There are conservatives (such as Pat Buchanan) who have the attitude that it's 'us against them,' whether 'us' is the U.S., working people, WASPs, etc. They simply want to hold onto what 'we' have and screw the rest. On the other hand, there are conservatives who feel that all can benefit through conservative principles. This approach is promoted by people such as Jack Kemp through 'Empowerment.' I definitely subscribe to the latter."

I would argue that today's Republican Party has been taken over by the Pat Buchanan wing, as personified by Steve Bannon and Donald Trump. Thus, why I find myself so opposed to it and the president. I have never been a believer in the us vs. them, zero-sum narrative upon which they base their entire approach to governing.

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Updates

September 8, 2022

This NY Times op-ed on September 8, 2022 makes the case that Pat Buchanan Didn’t Plan on It, but He Paved the Way for Trump. 

November 20, 2023

Yesterday, David French wrote a column in the NY Times warning of the hateful anti-semitism unleashed by the right in the wake of Israel's response to the Hamas terror attacks last month. In it, he references Pat Buchanan's role in this shift in right wing ideology:

"Buchanan is no minor figure. As Nicole Hemmer wrote in 2022, his presidential campaigns in the 1990s forecast the present moment in Republican politics. The party “traded Reaganism for Buchananism,” she contended. The evidence that she was correct grows by the day.

"Everything about the New Right mind-set told us that this devolution was inevitable. It scorns character, decency and civility in the public square, often turning cruelty into a virtue. This was a necessary precondition for the entire enterprise. Decent people can be misguided, certainly, but they are not consumed with hate. Decent people do not indulge bigots.

"The New Right rejects the norms and values of what it calls the uniparty or the cathedral: the center-left and center-right American elite. And one of those values is a steadfast opposition to racism and prejudice. The rejection first manifests itself in the form of just asking questions, then it veers into direct challenge of conventional norms, followed by a descent into true darkness.

"Hostility unmoored from character quickly turns conspiratorial, and the world of conspiracy theories is where antisemites live and thrive."

We are on a dangerous path, where hate and intolerance not only become acceptable, they are presented as measures of virtue and patriotism. We've seen this story before and it rarely ends well. This is precisely why I wrote this in 2016, calling that year's presidential race a "right side of history election."