"It's Pat!" But Sadly, We're Not Talking About SNL...
Just caught Pat Buchanan's act on Rachel Maddow last night. YouTube is a wonderful thing.
I'm not trying to offend any conservatives who might be reading this, because most of you guys are, in my experience, actually cool dudes (and dudettes) who're actually reasonable about certain hot-button issues and don't blindly subscribe to the philosophy of the firebrands. But really, are you sure this is the guy you want to have representing your viewpoint? And yes, I know he's employed by MSNBC, a network as left-wing as Fox News is right-wing, and if MSNBC's hiring strategies are anything like Fox's than Buchanan is kept on as the "token conservative" to illustrate how far "out there" the opposing viewpoint really is, much like how Fox kept a confessed milquetoast like Alan Colmes around for so many years as the token liberal. So maybe the entire point of having Buchanan on was to fuel viewer perceptions against the GOP by presenting the channel's primarily left-leaning audience with an exaggerated caricature of traditional right-wing talking points.
Actually, there's no "maybe" about it. That is precisely why they keep him around.
Still and all, I cannot believe that anyone would rally to the side of someone like Buchanan on the subject of race and minorities. I mean, his whole spiel on Maddow's show came off like a recruiting poster for the Klan! Even those opposed to Affirmative Action on the grounds of "reverse discrimination" (an argument I don't agree with, but can sort of understand how it might be construed thus), I hope, couldn't help but roll their eyes over this tirade, with Buchanan spouting lines like this:
"White men are 100% of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks, who were 90% of the nation in 1960 when I was growing up and the other 10% were African-Americans who had been discriminated against."
On the other hand, I am shocked that anyone out there actually expected anything less from Buchanan, a staunch Bible-thumbping ultraconservative who despite a grandfatherly demeanor in his more recent years has always been outspoken in his criticisms of minorities, liberals, social programs, and anything else that he sees as a threat to his comfortable, WASPy, Ozzie & Harriet view of What America Should Be. Let's not forget, Buchanan is the one who once wrote (in 1983) regarding the spread of AIDS: "[Homosexuals] have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution," and there is virtually nothing to indicate his stance has softened during the intervening quarter-plus century. He was also a very vocal critic of the entire feminist movement - until 2008, when a certain recently-resigned Alaskan governor signed on to the GOP Presidential ticket and suddenly Buchanan was the one demanding to know why everyone else was against "strong women" in a position of power. (Funny how prior to the ascendancy of Sarah Palin, "strong women" in the traditionally male-dominated field of politics were, in Buchanan's view, a sure sign of the impending fall of Western civilization...)
All I'm saying here is that with Pat Buchanan, you know exactly what you're getting. And anyone who is shocked, outraged, or otherwise surprised in any way by the things he said last night needs to be reminded of just who this man is, where he came from, and what he's always stood for. That's like putting your hand on a hot plate and being surprised when you give yourself a second-degree burn. You know the guy's an asshole and you know what he's gonna say about these topics, so why do you even bother listening to him, or for that matter anyone on the political fringes (left or right)?
All it does is feed the troll... and as anyone who's ever been involved in an online discussion knows, feeding the troll is the dumbest thing you can do.
I'm not trying to offend any conservatives who might be reading this, because most of you guys are, in my experience, actually cool dudes (and dudettes) who're actually reasonable about certain hot-button issues and don't blindly subscribe to the philosophy of the firebrands. But really, are you sure this is the guy you want to have representing your viewpoint? And yes, I know he's employed by MSNBC, a network as left-wing as Fox News is right-wing, and if MSNBC's hiring strategies are anything like Fox's than Buchanan is kept on as the "token conservative" to illustrate how far "out there" the opposing viewpoint really is, much like how Fox kept a confessed milquetoast like Alan Colmes around for so many years as the token liberal. So maybe the entire point of having Buchanan on was to fuel viewer perceptions against the GOP by presenting the channel's primarily left-leaning audience with an exaggerated caricature of traditional right-wing talking points.
Actually, there's no "maybe" about it. That is precisely why they keep him around.
Still and all, I cannot believe that anyone would rally to the side of someone like Buchanan on the subject of race and minorities. I mean, his whole spiel on Maddow's show came off like a recruiting poster for the Klan! Even those opposed to Affirmative Action on the grounds of "reverse discrimination" (an argument I don't agree with, but can sort of understand how it might be construed thus), I hope, couldn't help but roll their eyes over this tirade, with Buchanan spouting lines like this:
"White men are 100% of the people that wrote the Constitution, 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close to 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country built basically by white folks, who were 90% of the nation in 1960 when I was growing up and the other 10% were African-Americans who had been discriminated against."
On the other hand, I am shocked that anyone out there actually expected anything less from Buchanan, a staunch Bible-thumbping ultraconservative who despite a grandfatherly demeanor in his more recent years has always been outspoken in his criticisms of minorities, liberals, social programs, and anything else that he sees as a threat to his comfortable, WASPy, Ozzie & Harriet view of What America Should Be. Let's not forget, Buchanan is the one who once wrote (in 1983) regarding the spread of AIDS: "[Homosexuals] have declared war upon nature, and now nature is extracting an awful retribution," and there is virtually nothing to indicate his stance has softened during the intervening quarter-plus century. He was also a very vocal critic of the entire feminist movement - until 2008, when a certain recently-resigned Alaskan governor signed on to the GOP Presidential ticket and suddenly Buchanan was the one demanding to know why everyone else was against "strong women" in a position of power. (Funny how prior to the ascendancy of Sarah Palin, "strong women" in the traditionally male-dominated field of politics were, in Buchanan's view, a sure sign of the impending fall of Western civilization...)
All I'm saying here is that with Pat Buchanan, you know exactly what you're getting. And anyone who is shocked, outraged, or otherwise surprised in any way by the things he said last night needs to be reminded of just who this man is, where he came from, and what he's always stood for. That's like putting your hand on a hot plate and being surprised when you give yourself a second-degree burn. You know the guy's an asshole and you know what he's gonna say about these topics, so why do you even bother listening to him, or for that matter anyone on the political fringes (left or right)?
All it does is feed the troll... and as anyone who's ever been involved in an online discussion knows, feeding the troll is the dumbest thing you can do.