Word: buchananism
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These kinds of statements--coupled with proposals to disband large swaths of the federal government, ranging from the Department of Education to the National Endowment for the Arts--have turned Buchanan into a favorite subject of criticism and hand-wringing. This is a shame, for in the process, Buchanan's constituents and their needs have been quickly forgotten...
...Buchanan recognizes that most of the issues debated in politics today concern either those at the very bottom of society or the middle and upper middle classes. Between these two is a great mass of Americans who are not dependent on the government, but survive by working long hours at low wages (sometimes in multiple jobs). They work without the security of knowing there will always be enough to make ends meet...
...watching the margins to make sure ends meet, always making sacrifices. They must support their families on real wages that are now at the same level as they were in 1973, a full thousand dollars below what they were at the start of this decade of remarkable growth. For Buchanan, these Americans "have been left behind and left out." They see future hopes not in stock options but in slot machines...
...policies Buchanan advocates and the language he uses fail to live up to the importance of the cause he has embraced. Buchanan has not been shy in calling for dramatic changes, such as a moratorium on immigration and an aggressive campaign to build "American morals." He has called for a radical shift in America's trading policy, to orient it toward preserving the standard of living of American workers through tariffs and subsidies...
These are bold ideas, but remarkably useless ones. The call to end immigration appeals more to prejudice and fear than economics. It obscures the fact that many immigrants share the same economic troubles and concerns that affect working Americans. Although we should question the motivation behind these trade agreements, Buchanan's call for high tariffs and import substitution is foolish. The deceptively simple idea that by importing less, we will manufacture more has left a trail of ruined economies around the world...