Word: buchananism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Buchanan, who makes such a fine meal of the scraps of the Republican and Democratic feast as a pundit ? but precious little as a wannabe pol ? wants to switch. The battle is on for the soul of Ross Perot's brainchild, and the question being asked by the more serious elements in the Ventura camp is whether Pitchfork Pat has a reformist bone in his body. "I haven't heard his political reform agenda," Minnesota Reform party chairman Dean Barkley told the Washington Post. "I still see him having that abortion issue and that social agenda on the front burner...
...party needs to be to find the voters and constituencies that are sick of the system: issue-driven and intellectually inviting. The debate over reform has advanced beyond Ross Perot's jug-eared, wild-eyed peek under the hood; it has also advanced beyond ? or, rather, never really included ? Buchanan's willful, calculated ignorance of the rules of economic and political success in the modern world. We are up to specifics, up to intra-system mavericks like Bradley and McCain pressing real plans for campaign finance reform, and beyond pitch-perfect radicals like Pat Buchanan, who play to the angriest...
Only in the Reform party could Buchanan's be a big tent. His would-be candidacy has already won the support of New York far-leftie Lenora Fulani, who is militantly pro-choice and pro-gay rights but told CNN she thinks she can come to terms with Buchanan, the man who is currently embroiled in a war of words with fellow Reform flirter Donald Trump over whether the U.S. should have gotten involved in World War II (Pat seems more than a little against it). According to Fulani, Buchanan "can play a role as a unifier, bring everybody together...
...though Buchanan and Fulani's far-out philosophies are filling a particular vacuum ? Ventura has lit a clear way ahead. He has got Minnesota's Democrats and Republicans talking, and its legislature functioning. Despite the chuckles, Ventura has not disgraced himself, and he has lent his party what must be considered a legitimate ? and respectable ? intellectual identity. He is for a small government that loves tough, and that ordinary folk get to participate in ? namely, for campaign finance reform. He is for fiscal conservatism (a balanced budget and low taxes) and social libertarianism. He has based a so-far-successful...
...These, at least, are sincere men (with judgment pending on the apolitical Trump), and they all fill what for Ventura is a necessary bill for the party: They're a breed apart. Buchanan, for all his posturing, is a political animal, a politician's politician. He happens to be a grassroots rabble-rouser because it keeps him on TV and sells books, and because no one else much wants to be one. He has the give-'em-hell attitude to excite the Reform party's lunatic fringe, and comes with his own built-in constituency ? a rabid band of anti...