Word: buchananism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...What Buchanan has discovered is the enduring power of the full populist litany: moral conservatism, rejection of political elites, fear of foreigners and--the one leg that Republicans have largely avoided--suspicion of concentrated economic power. In the late 19th century, populism arose out of economic upheaval, the rapid growth of large industry and powerful railroads that crushed small farmers and craftsmen. Their enemy was the "money power" of the Eastern establishment, the power of banks and big corporations. That and immigrants and the corruption of the political establishment. Sound familiar...
...William Jennings Bryan and Prohibition, through Teddy Roosevelt's Progressives, the left-wing labor movement and the right-wing radio priesthood of Father Coughlin. And the Republican Revolution of 1994. "But the Republican populism of the past generation or so has been all antigovernment," says historian Alan Brinkley. "Buchanan is putting back the anticorporate elements...
...Buchanan's solution is Fortress America: pull the U.S. out of NAFTA and GATT, impose a 20% tariff on Chinese goods, 10% on imports from Japan and some kind of levy on goods from Mexico. Combine that with his hard line on immigration, his culture war, his unyielding opposition to abortion and the sweet-and-sour delivery he perfected on Crossfire. Papa's got a brand-new populism...
...Buchanan insists he's not an economic isolationist. He just wants to identify essential industries and protect them selectively, on the model of the import quotas that Ronald Reagan imposed on Japanese cars. But among economists, an otherwise squabbling breed, there's something like a consensus that for the great majority of American workers, free trade is a long-term boon that delivers better bargains on consumer goods and boosts demand for the products of America's fast-growing, high-wage export industries. More important factors in holding down wages are automation, sluggish growth in productivity and consumer demand...
...While Buchanan has specifics on how he would restrict trade, he doesn't say how he would end layoffs by companies that aren't exporting many jobs. He shakes his head over the 40,000 cut last month by AT&T. "You could tell how painful this chop was to [AT&T chief Robert] Allen; he makes $5 million a year and his stock option went up, like, $5 million that day." O.K., says Kevin Phillips, the Republican strategist who predicted the shift of blue-collar ethnics to the Republicans in the '60s. So what would Buchanan...