Word: buchananism
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...from a new theme in U.S. history. In 1971 a young White House speechwriter, Patrick J. Buchanan, wrote a memo to President Richard Nixon suggesting that the theme be used as a weapon. His campaign strategy: cut the country and Democratic Party in half, and pick off "far the larger half." The Republicans told America that George McGovern meant "acid, abortion and amnesty." Nixon's "half" in the 1972 election was a landslide...
...years later, Pat Buchanan rose before the delegates in Houston to declare what he called "a cultural war" (nothing like a war to obscure the economic issue) and try to help tear off a fat half of America for George Bush. A '50s kind of week in several ways: Buchanan eerily reproduced the punitive, menacing quality of his boyhood hero, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy of Wisconsin. The role of threat to the American essence used to be played by communism. But moral squalor at home would do as well. Buchanan pounded at "the agenda that Clinton & Clinton ((meaning Bill...
...symptom of the malady: Pat Buchanan, who assaulted Bush from the right in the early primaries, is searching for a new label to replace "conservative." His sister and campaign manager, Bay Buchanan, explains, "We need something broader and more relevant. The movement was defined by what no longer exists, the cold war, and still uses a vocabulary now out of date." The fact that Bush gets diminishing credit for the U.S. victory in the cold war during his watch is a larger sign of rot on the right. "There's an amazing disconnect," says one of Bush's top campaign...
...Buchanan's brand of neo-isolationism appealed to only a minority of voters during the primaries. Still, those who supported Buchanan's message managed to get his "America First" motto into the platform's final draft. Though proposals to phase out foreign aid and to castigate the Administration for granting China most-favored-nation status were voted down, the Buchanan camp did win a provision favoring tougher measures against illegal immigration from Mexico. The new plank supported placing "structures" along the border, a variation of Buchanan's idea of building frontier fences. "That's wacko," remarked Congressman Vin Weber...
...from here," said Bush. "I'll be making some proposals regarding the economy that I'm not going to discuss now that I think will take care of it." The last time the President told the nation to "stay tuned" was last fall. In the midst of Pat Buchanan's G.O.P. primary challenge, Bush's aides promised "new approaches" in his State of the Union address. The country waited and then yawned. Little new was offered. Another yawn this fall will send the President to retirement. If he really has "new approaches" up his sleeve, they had better be compelling...