Contrary to any belief, Richard Nixon was a born loser. The pug-ugly Son of a bitch was, in his eyes, destined for greatness, but his defeats in 1960 and in the 1962 race for Governor of California, and his close win over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 were indicators that the man from Yorba Linda, California was due to go down into the scrap heap of history. His biggest strength was to divide America into heroes and bums. To awaken the sleeping giant known as "the silent majority." The mostly White, middle-class group that loved America like you love a son who's addicted to drugs. I bring President Nixon up because one of his most ardent apologists, Pat Buchanan, is making a comeback, and he's partying like it's 1968.
The differences between Barack Obama's speech on race and Pat Buchanan's 1992 Culture war speech at the Republican National Convention are so obvious that it doesn't even warrant further anaylsis.
But, just for the hell of it, let's do that.
As a Latino male, I identified with one aspect of Obama's speech. The part where he talked about his white grandmother. My mother is a huge Hillary supporter and has this crazy theory that if Obama becomes President that he'll only do for the blacks. That because he is black, he doesn't understand the important issues of Latinos.
I disagree with that statement. To me, it's never been about race or gender, but about Generations. I'm a strong believer in what Thomas Jefferson once said that every generation is entitled to their own political revolution. It might offend some people when I say this, but I'm not concerned whether or not Mr. Obama understands the issues that are important to me, a 27-year-old latino male. I'm more interested on whether he understands the issues that are VERY IMPORTANT to this generation. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. McCain, has given every indication that they don't care about the young in this country. To them, the young are meant to die in a stupid and immoral war. The young are meant to be ridicule for allegedly not knowing the value of hard work, while Mr. McCain and Mrs. Clinton run their campaigns on a sense of entitlement.
Senator Obama's speech was a breath of fresh air, because for the first time in my life, a politician actually spoke to the American people like if we were adults and not retards. Candidates from the DLC have perfected the art of speaking to the people like if they were stupid. But not Mr. Obama. He tackled the taboo of race with intelligence, yet came across as very earnest and conversational.
On the other hand, Pat Buchanan's 1992 culture war speech at the Republican National Convention was pathetic. Watching him make his speech, one would think that homosexuals were poisoning children's minds and that anyone criticzing Ronald Reagan was akin to saying Goddamn America. The most frightening aspect of his speech was that it took place in 1992, and people actually took him seriously.
The reaction from Conservatives to Obama's speech was typical. Their biggest problem was that Obama didn't toss Rev. Wright under the bus and run him over like if he was roadkill. Yet, their hypocrisy is so evident that even the son of a prominent Right-wing evangelical said that when his father advocated the overthrow of the United States Government that he was invited to the White House by both President Ford and Reagan.
But not to be outdone by his fellow Right-wing nutjobs, Pat Buchanan composed an essay that makes his culture war speech look tame. In the essay, Buchanan says:
"What is wrong with Barack’s prognosis and Barack’s cure?
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."[..]
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream."
If anyone who's been doing the hustling it's those individuals on the Right who've been fostering white resentment for the last 40 years. The architects of this strategy want to divert attention away from the important issues that plague many Americans, especially those who are white, Working-class Americans. Conservatives known that their policies don't work. Conservatives know that Americans know that their policies aren't worth their weight in gold. But instead of offering solutions or fresh ideas, they reach to the lowest depths of humanity and invent some silly belief that minorities are taking the jobs of the White working-class. That Liberal elites are spending countless hours on television mocking the beliefs of the Archie Bunkers of the world.
Sadly, the strategy has been a success. Look at the last 30 years or so. We've been stuck with leaders who foster this resentment and when we do get a smart leader, it's more like an acceptable compromise rather than extraordinary step into the right direction.
But Buchanan's "Brief for whitey" essay isn't just a minor blip.
His book "State of Emergency, the third world invasion and conquest of America," reads like a white nationalist manifesto.
The Nixon apologist opines that one of the great tragedies in human history is that White America is changing color. He also claims that the Mexican government is involved in a conspiracy to take over the Southwestern part of the United States. Mr. Buchanan would claim that he loves this country so much that he is troubled by the racial makeup, but quite to the contrary, Pat Buchanan doesn't love this country at all. A true patriot would embrace the overflow of ideas that are coming into the United States. But not Pat. If it ain't white, it ain't the United States of America.
Folks who want MSNBC to take action need to save their breath.
In the land of make believe, to survive, network news needs the viewership of many of Pat Buchanan's followers. Fox news has survived on the resentment of white, working-class people. They've perfected the formula to a tee and to make it in the ratings, MSNBC and CNN have littered their programs with Pat Buchanan and Bill O'Reilly wannabes. That isn't to say it's the right thing to do, it's the way it is, now and will be for quite sometime.
Pat Buchanan isn't dumb. He knows in order to make himself more mainstream than what he should be, he has to appeal to stupid and ignorant. His act should've been retired a long time ago, but in the age of Fox News, he's made himself more relevant and somewhat powerful by being the official spokeperson for every Archie Bunker-type who doesn't take pleasure in knowing that their country is drastically changing.
The more I read Buchanan's essay the more I believe we should have a legitimate and intelligent conversation about race.