The best spokesman we have on immigration

Russell W. writes:

I caught Pat Buchanan on a local LA talk radio show this afternoon (Ken Gallagher, I think it was, on KFI AM 640) promoting his new book, State of Emergency.

All I can say is, wow. I’ve never heard such a comprehensive anti-immigration stance put so clearly, succinctly and persuasively. It’s really a shame that Buchanan has let his antipathy to neocons cloud his thinking regarding the Muslim world (and Israel) because I can’t think of a better spokesman for this most crucial domestic issue.

LA replies:

Agreed. When I’ve heard him on the immigration issue in recent radio and tv appearances, he’s been very good, though there is always that troubling lack of coherence and consistency, as when he can’t seem to decide if it is legal or illegal immigration he opposes. Whatever the flaws in his message, the fact is that we don’t have anyone else in the public eye saying the kinds of things he says. Which makes the way he’s tainted himself over the last six years all the more regrettable and tragic.

I’m waiting for an interviewer to ask him what he thinks we should do about Muslim immigration, given his stated position—driven by his evident need to regard the enemies of his enemies as his friends—that we must “win the hearts and minds of Muslims.” Will Buchanan abandon his tilt toward Islam, and thus arrive at a coherent immigration restriction message, or will he maintain his tilt toward Islam, making a hash out of his immigration restriction message?

The hope is that his growing recognition of the real ills this country faces, particularly mass non-Western immigration, will make him drop his obsessions with false ills, such as the supposed control of America by a neocon Jewish cabal that got President Bush to launch a war with Iraq solely for the benefit of Israel, or the supposed danger that standing against Islamic extremism will provoke Islamic extremism.

Thinking about Buchanan and the immigration issue, I’m reminded of an article Dwight MacDonald wrote in Esquire when I was a kid that was called, “What is the best newspaper in America? The New York Times, Alas, Alas.” Well, who is America’s best spokesman for a pro-national immigration policy? Patrick Buchanan, alas, alas.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at October 29, 2006 11:51 PM | Send