Borderline Buchanan
My accidental incursion into the creepiest book club meeting ever.
By Joseph Peha, University of Denver
Tuesday October 24, 2006
I love bookstores because when I go to one I always end up finding something fun that I wasn’t looking for. Take my trip to Olsson’s in Washington, D.C., this weekend as a case in point. Nestled somewhere between the children’s section and science fiction was the anti-immigration ideologue himself, Pat Buchanan.
He was plugging his new book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, to a small audience. Even as he began the speech, Buchanan didn’t waste an iota of time to get to his point: The United States will break up if the current wave of immigration continues. In other words, civil war will break out, Balkans-style, because, “Every American city will look like Los Angeles, and Los Angeles will look like Mexico City.”
Buchanan’s preventive measure of choice? He thinks we should build a fence across the Mexican border. And then it hit me: he’s completely right! One only needs to reflect upon the numerous wonders a wall did for Germany. After the walls went up, all their problems disappeared.
Buchanan continued his verbal assault on anything foreign. He exclaimed, “People don’t trust people who don’t look like them.” And that really seemed to strike at the heart of the matter. My curtains of ignorance had been drawn asunder and a glorious ray of racial insight had been imparted upon me: According to Pat Buchanan, white people don’t trust anyone else.
But what really shocked me is Buchanan’s avid stance on deportation: “The ones you deport are the gang members, drunk drivers, people who threaten the health and safety of Americans – then you go after the businessmen who hire them.” Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Let’s deport gang members, even if they’re naturalized American citizens. After all, sweeping things outside your borders in a globalized world will never come back to bite you in the ass. When deported gang members in El Salvador fed gangs inside the U.S. with new members, it must have been a total anomaly.
Strangely enough, I can somehow sympathize with some of the qualms that Buchanan raises. He warns about the dangers of rampant business interests and the bungled situation in Iraq. But as a wise colleague of mine, August Pollak, told me, “He’s right about so many issues for all the wrong reasons.”
And that’s what compelled me to speak to some of the audience members at the book signing. Who were these people who could so ardently support such bombastic remarks while cupping a copy of Ann Coulter’s book in their hands? I approached a father and college-aged daughter duo and asked for their opinion. As conversations inevitably seem to go, the man inquired where I was from. “Seattle,” I replied. “We have a friend out there. He complains, you know, about the large Asian element. But he moved into a much whiter neighborhood.” It seems to me that Buchanan and his followers talk incessantly about immigration simply because it’s a thinly veiled guise to inject racism back into the public debate.
 After nearly everyone left, I approached Buchanan for a photo op. As I did so, one of his die-hard supporters, toting a pin from Buchanan’s 1996 Republican presidential primary campaign, was discussing the prospect of a leftist saboteur in the Minutemen organization. Strangely enough, she was the one who snapped our picture; the aged right-winger seated next to the leftist college graduate. Anyway, I was about to leave his side when a question dawned on me. I turned to Buchanan and asked, “Do you speak any other languages besides English?” He looked at me with a puzzled expression. Apparently he studied some Greek, Latin, French, and Middle English. But no, he did not speak anything else.
And then I realized something: you can only be afraid of something you don’t understand. For as much as Buchanan harps about immersion and assimilation, he hasn’t taken the time to do it himself in another country. If he had spent any reasonable of period of time in a non-English environment, he would have learned something. And with a new language comes a new set of ideas, a new culture, and a new and broadened view of the world. But just like his linguistic repertoire, his political views will probably always be narrow.
One thought reverberated in my mind as I left the bookstore reeling from an hour of anti-immigration rhetoric: I just wished all of it had taken place at Borders.
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Why is it that leftist feel they need to embellish… [out right lie]... when they talk about conservatives?
I am the person who took the photo. I was also present during the conversations Mr. Peha had with an audience member and Mr. Buchanan. Neither happened as he wrote in this piece.
The family he spoke to only praised Seattle, and said they hoped to move there someday. So how did this turn into an anti-Asian – read racist – remark? It’s clear Mr. Peha didn’t have a story about the attendees, that would mark them as another bunch of haters so he made it up—All dear readers, just for your benefit.
As for his conversation with Pat Buchanan – it never happened. He asked to have his photo taken with Pat and I obliged. That is all that happened. If you are interested is viewing a video of what Pat Buchanan said at the book siging, you can visit our website at http://www.buchanan.org
Watch it and decide for yourself.
— Linda Muller - Oct 24, 09:04 PM - #The author sounds like he’s trying to get attention, although part of me wishes Ms. Muller would be completely honest instead of playing politics.
— Bob - Oct 24, 09:59 PM - #By my use of “author” above, I was referring to the author of this aritcle, Joseph Peha. Sorry for the ambiguity.
— Bob - Oct 24, 10:03 PM - #Having just watched the video graciously provided by Linda, I can verify that Mr. Buchanan did in fact make the quotes during the pre-signing speech as Jospeh noted. (6:22 and 7:00).
The conversations made after the spech and during the signing are of course not provided on Mr. Buchanan’s site, for reasons I’m sure Joseph’s reporting explains clearly. Though not present for all of his interviews, as a second party who was next to Joseph (and the other person photographed with Buchanan-thanks, Linda!) during the final conversation about languages, I can personally verify that yes, it is true.
Linda, Given that your own video validates the first part of Mr. Buchanan’s words and I happily stand by the second half, I am very displeased you would resport to accusing us of “lying.” Perhaps instead you could encourage some of Mr. Buchanan’s fans to actually defend their veiwpoints.
— August J. Pollak - Oct 25, 06:50 AM - #I just watched the clip as well. As much as I disagree with the sentiments expressed (coming from San Francisco, a multi-cultural, mutli-lingual city since its founding), Buchanan was quoting an author in the Fianancial Times claiming his study shows that in cities and communites with the greatest diversity multi-culturalism based along racial/ethnic lines leads to a general breakdown of trust: “They [citizens] don’t trust the mayor. They don’t trust the newspaper. People don’t trust people who don’t look like them. People don’t trust people that look like them.” A bone-headed notion to be sure, one demonstrated to be false throughout our history, but Buchanan’s statement as quoted in the article above makes it appear he is making a baldly racist appeal, which is quite different from what he actually said.
— Grif - Oct 26, 05:39 PM - #I was first introduced to Buchanan fourteen years ago during the ‘92 Election. I absolutely detested him as a politician. I disagree with his thoughts and opinions on immigrants, immigration, and the affects of both on our society. However in his MSNBC appearances lately he has spoken out strongly against the current administration and especially their direction in Iraq. It is easy to dismiss him as a racist, but at least he is a true conservative. Starkly different from the current administration and Republican party. I could never bring myself to vote for him for any public office, but hey, at least he isn’t Rick Santorum.
— Ryan Kube - Oct 26, 06:32 PM - #Ok, lets go back to school kids.
What did I write?
Mr. Peha embellished, lied, about two main points in this article.
1. The conversation with that hate filled family who was happy about his friend who finally, “moved into a much ‘whiter’ neighborhood” in Seattle never happened.
2. The conversation about language with Pat Buchanan never happened.
I didn’t mention a third lie about me, as I was the supporter wearing the Buchanan pin. Mr. Peha wrote that I, “was discussing the prospect of a leftist saboteur in the Minutemen organization.”
Mr. Peha lied to produce a piece he obviously felt would play well with this audience.
About the other quotes he he gave as examples of Pat Buchanan’s “racism”, again watch the video.
His quotes are exaggerated and out of context. Clearly written to inflame an audience who he thought would never find out what really happened.
BTW—Pat Buchanan was quoting from a Harvard Study, just recently released. The article came from the Financial Times in London. I have it posted on our website at: http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=133
You can also read Pat’s column about the topic titled, “America 2050: A Nation of Turtles.” It is located here:
http://buchanan.org/blog/?p=142
And a note to those who say that they have noticed Pat has softened his stance, or even changed over the years – he has not changed one bit.
America is changing. He was and is a man before his time. Thankfully the American people, even college students are waking up to the crisis.
We are in the process of adding all of his columns from the past decades. You might want to go back to school and begin reading them.
You will learn that it is not just the Republicans who are our enemy, but the Democrats as well.
It was Clinton who gave us NAFTA, GATT, and the World Trade Organization.
They are both in the back pocket of the globalists and the multinational corporations.
Go to:
http://buchanan.org/blog/?cat=4
for a good dose of what is really going on with your government.
Then when you are ready to learn more, go to my new website for Dr. Jerome Corsi. www.StopSPP.com
The North American Union is coming. It is the reason for all that has happened in the past.
— Linda Muller - Oct 26, 08:08 PM - #2. The conversation about language with Pat Buchanan never happened.
I have no intention of letting you continue going “Nuh-UH!” over and over again, especially when you are insulting me as well. I was there. I confirmed the quote. You are lying, and calling me a liar, and I am insulted by both.
— August J. Pollak - Oct 27, 06:43 AM - #Interestingly, Buchanan must have been referring to a Harvard study that came out late this summer. Check out the Financial Times article, “Study paints bleak picture of ethnic diversity” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c4ac4a74-570f-11db-9110-0000779e2340.html).
However, the author of the study put out a memo concerning the primary source: “Correction to 10/08/06 Financial Times article on Robert D. Putnam and
immigration/diversity research” (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro/pdfs/FTcorrection.pdf).
“I turned to Buchanan and asked, “Do you speak any other languages besides English?” He looked at me with a puzzled expression. Apparently he studied some Greek, Latin, French, and Middle English. But no, he did not speak anything else.”
He has studied more languages than a majority of the world pop—and certainly more languages than most Americans, immigrants or illegal aliens.
J.S.
— Jack Sawyer - Oct 27, 08:51 AM - #Burlington, VT
Yes, Linda, we get it. Pat is a Freaking Genius, and brown people are, coincidentally, icky. Thanks for your clarification.
— Blue Patriot - Oct 27, 08:52 AM - #I’m sure we all feel better now.
-BP
I agree. Pat is brilliant and a great American statesman.
Why do you say brown people are icky? Are you a racist?
— Linda Muller - Oct 28, 12:09 PM - #“You will learn that it is not just the Republicans who are our enemy, but the Democrats as well.”
Our “enemies” huh, It’s that kind of thinking (and speech) that gets people inflamed to begin with. Republicans, Democrats, Mexicans, Asians…all my fellow americans. I may not like Democrats, Conervatives, or Republicans, and I may not like how the large number immigrants affects our country, But I do know that calling any one of those fellow humans an enemy reflects a mentality based in ignorance and fear.
— elise - Nov 1, 06:08 PM - #