I saw a PBS interview with Pat Buchanan last night and he actually made a few reasonable points. I also sat for a while at the local bookstore and flipped through his book and felt the same way for parts of it. Other than his racist attitudes, he represents some ideas that might be good issues to try and win over some traditional Republicans with.
First of all, he made the point very clearly and coherently that, in his words, "[The Arab world] doesn't hate our freedoms, they hate our policies." I was surprised to hear him put it so bluntly that American interventionism in the Middle East is responsible for the rise of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world. He also criticised Bush for not building international consensus and a true coalition against Iraq. Not only did it alienate traditional allies, but left the US almost completely on the hook for the human and financial costs of the war
He goes on to talk about how America should come home now that the Cold War is over. I think this is an idea that could have a lot of resonance too, the idea that America needs to keep the military strong but doesn't need to be so aggressive with it. Whatever happened to that peace dividend? The military-industrial complex is as powerful as ever but now that many of these huge companies aren't even employing Americans, maybe they and the Pentagon's bloated budget could finally be taken on.
Some of Buchanan's messages on economic matters are issues that make sense as well, such as his opposition to international trade agreements like the WTO and NAFTA and the loss of sovereignty that they bring about. Couldn't agree more.
In addition, the pro-business attitude towards immigration is an issue that can be exploited. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-immigrant, but the current policies on immigration are causing a great deal of harm to workers. Illegal immigrants are allowed to be brought in and paid minimum wage (or less) for jobs that used to pay a decent wage. Look at the book Fast Food Nation for an example of this in the meatpacking industry. Cracking down on illegal immigration is an issue that would benefit working people. You hear often hear people say "they take jobs that Americans don't want" and I think that's a phrase that could be thrown in the face of cheap-wage conservatives. It's not that people don't want jobs like janitorial work, they just don't want to be paid minimum wage for it. I realize it could seem like pandering to racists ]but it's an issue worth taking on. Incidentally, I love the idea of giving conservatives the label of supporting cheap wages. Look at the jobs being created in many fields. Replacing a $50,000/year unionized factory job with a $15,000/year job at Micky D's is not real job creation.
Of course, Buchanan goes off the rails when he starts attacking Mexican immigrants simply for being Mexican, going so far as to call California "Mexifornia" I believe. Are we surprised though?
In all, I didn't think I would ever agree with ANYTHING Pat Buchanan said, but it was a nice reminder that there are issues that even a paleo-conservative like Buchanan can share with Democrats.