ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 26, 1996 TAG: 9602270026
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
BOB DOLE is a decent man, an experienced Senate majority leader, a decorated survivor of World War II and of countless budget battles.
That he would face a serious challenge from - and last week lose the first presidential primary to - Pat Buchanan says something about Dole's failure so far to muster a convincing campaign message.
It also says something, though, about the Republican Party, and about our country, that someone like Buchanan could be considered a legitimate presidential candidate with a shot at the GOP nomination.
Buchanan's economic pitch - higher trade barriers - is disastrous enough in itself, especially for working-class people who would be hardest hit by higher consumer prices and the erosion of jobs in export industries. Most of the former TV commentator's supporters are too young to know the economic and social havoc that Herbert Hoover's protectionism wreaked on America and the world.
But at least Buchanan's economic nostrum can be rebutted as foolish. His social views must be confronted as evil.
Buchanan is the Republicans' "Southern strategy" made flesh. That strategy, begun by Richard Nixon when Buchanan was an aide, has for a quarter-decade appealed to independent and formerly Democratic lower-income whites, especially white males, who have felt threatened and disenfranchised by accelerating economic change and by the advances of blacks, women, gays and immigrants.
Buchanan, however, pursues this strategy not just with nods and winks and code words, but head on. He calls his message "conservatism with a heart." That this is a heart of darkness becomes evident on reviewing some of the sewage Buchanan has spewed:
Americans must decide "whether the United States of the 21st century will remain a white nation."
Hitler was "an individual of great courage [and] extraordinary gifts."
AIDS is "nature's retribution" against homosexuals.
Gays make up "the pederast proletariat."
Women are "less equipped psychologically to stay the course." They are "simply not endowed by nature" to succeed in the work place.
Feminists are "the butch brigade."
Blacks have failed to "assimilate" into "our society."
Jews are Israel's "amen corner."
Evolution should not be taught in schools.
Abortion should be criminalized.
Gun control should be eliminated.
Immigration should be based on ethnicity. "Englishmen" are OK to let in. "Zulus" are another matter.
Buchanan dubbed his 1992 campaign "America First," an echo of the America First Committee of the 1930s, a pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic, nativist and isolationist movement.
Buchanan has asked: "Who speaks for the Euro-Americans who founded the U.S.A.?" Presumably, he's offering himself as spokesman.
In the week before the New Hampshire primary, attention was drawn to his campaign co-chairman, a proponent of armed citizen militias who has attended meetings with white supremacists and neofascists. Now attention must be drawn to Buchanan himself.
But not just to him.
We should look, too, within ourselves. What does it say about us, as a nation, that in 1996 such a figure could be a leading presidential contender, winning primaries and amassing legions of supporters?
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS PRESIDENTby CNB