Face it Jonathan—ANYONE
who bashes Bush is on your to-read list. Buchanan is as far Right as Kerry is
Left. Izzy
From:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Hughes
Jonathan
Sent: Monday,
September 27, 2004 8:14 AM
To:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: [TruthTalk] Pat
Buchanan
Has anyone read Pat
Buchanan's "Where the Right Went Wrong: How the Neoconservatives Subverted the
Reagan Revolution and Highjacked the Bush Presidency"? I plan to pick it
up at lunchtime today. Below is Amazon's review as well as a review by a
reader.
Amazon:
Although the George W.
Bush administration is famous for being "on message," delivering a consistent
and polished political perspective no matter what, such consistency apparently
does not extend to every member of the conservative universe. In Where the Right Went Wrong, veteran pundit
and occasional presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan offers up scathing
criticisms of Bush's policies, the arrogance and boorishness of which, he warns,
could ultimately dramatically destabilize the United States' superpower status.
The problem, in Buchanan's eyes, is the rejection of traditional Reagan-era
conservatism by an administration under the sway of the so-called
"neoconservatives," who favor a pre-emptive military strategy and big government
and don't mind running up dangerously huge budget deficits to support it. The
war in Iraq, fought without
direct demonstrable threat, alienates America in the eyes of the rest of the world,
says Buchanan, squandering the global goodwill earned after the 9/11 attacks and
creating exponentially larger numbers of terrorists who will threaten the
U.S. for generations to come. The
zeal over free trade among elected officials, a feeling notably not shared by
Buchanan, Ross Perot, and Ralph Nader, is costing America jobs,
Buchanan theorizes, and leading to a de-industrialized service-sector-only
economy, an end to American self-sufficiency in favor of a reliance on global
corporations, and a looming economic crisis. Refreshingly, and unlike pundits of
his day, Buchanan crafts his arguments by examining world history, offering
detailed analogies to the Roman Empire, the Civil War, and pre-Soviet
Russia among others. Conservatives
alienated by the Bush administration will find an eloquent champion in Buchanan
and even liberals, who may not have known there was a conservative argument
against war in Iraq, stand to learn something from a
right side of the aisle perspective so different from that found in the Bush
White House. --John
Moe
The
Philadelphia
Inquirer
"...an honest writer who
opens_his_mind and psyche in_a way few people can...He minces nothing except an
occasional opponent."
Book
Description
A searing indictment of neoconservatives by three-time presidential
candidate and New York Times
bestselling author, Pat Buchanan. Where the
Right Went Wrong might be the most controversial political book
written this year.
I am a conservative, and I will likely vote for George
W. Bush in this election. So will Pat Buchanan who said recently in an interview
with EWTN's Raymond Arroyo "Where Bush is wrong, Kerry is wrong. However, where
Bush is right, Kerry is still wrong."
However, voting for someone surely
doesn't mean complete agreement. Buchanan articulately and methodically
demolishes the case for war in Iraq in this wonderful book.
Furthermore, he criticizes Republican spending, pointing out that this President
has not vetoed a single spending bill. He makes a convincing case that the Bush
administration has abandoned conservative principles.
As a Catholic, I
am heartened by this book's tone. I have always been uncomfortable with the
President's "I pray and Jesus is guiding me" message. Really? I read a wonderful
bumper sticker the other day: "Who would Jesus bomb?" Outstanding. The Bush
administration kept trying to lobby the Pontiff to change his position on the
war. Finally the Vatican had to come out and say that
their position on the war hadn't changed, and would never change, neo-cons like
George Weigel not withstanding.
In terms of his politics, Buchanan
stands with the Magisterium (and hence two thousand years worth of revealed
Christian truth) on every major issue save immigration. He even has the courage
to attack legal contraception in "Death of the West." His honesty and courage
are an example to all faithful people who consider themselves conservative, and
they are on display in this newest book. Here he attacks the Bush
administration's neo-con advisors as "liberal wolves in conservative suits." He
argues passionately against the war in Iraq. He argues against free trade,
and its disastrous consequences for our workers.
I can't imagine an
America where the vast majority of
men who held a full time job could afford to buy a house and educate a family of
three or more on one salary. I know intellectually that that was my
Grandfather's America and therefore that it used to
exist. I can't imagine an America where most people trusted
their neighbors, and thought most other Americans were inherently decent people.
That was my grandfather's America. What has happened to us? How
can we regain the good of what our country was, without repeating the mistakes
of the past? Read Pat Buchanan and ask yourself.... why are we in this mess? It
is authors like this that make me proud to be a
conservative.
Jonathan Hughes
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