TRUE
BI-PARTISANSHIP
Since
the much-vaunted differences between our two "major" parties
disappear at the water's edge – since both Republicans
and Democrats support an internationalist foreign policy and
gargantuan outlays for military spending, in spite of the
end of the cold war – the use of the American military
for propaganda purposes is okay, as long as it is "nonpartisan"
– or, at least, bi-partisan. And just to underscore
this vital point, the Weldon letter was also signed by Rep.
Brady, Democrat of Pennsylvania. The cost to the taxpayers?
The Pentagon isn't giving out any figures, but you can bet
it won't come cheap – but money is no object as far as
Weldon and Brady are concerned. After all, this is but a drop
in the bucket in the context of how much the taxpayers are
involuntarily contributing to the two major party conventions:
a whopping $13,512,000 each. This is on top of the
$60 million each for the general election. These figures are
almost never cited by "mainstream" journalists of either the
left or the right, as if the legitimacy of the subsidies is
beyond question. On the other hand, we have been hearing a
whole lot about the $12.5 million that will go to the Reform
Party's presidential nominee. Though less than what the two
"majors" are getting to put on their national conventions,
this is a much bigger deal because the recipient of
the money is likely to be one Patrick J. Buchanan. Russell
Verney, the Reform "boss" now without a party office, has
recently
threatened that Buchanan will be "getting out of the wrong
end of an old-age home before he actually receives the $12
million." Interviewed by the New York Times, Verney
averred that the Federal Election Commission, which is after
all "made up of Democrats and Republicans, is not going to
be in any hurry to send out any checks." Openly allying with
a two-party monopoly he has repeatedly denounced for "corruption,"
Verney is a classic example of how personal vindictiveness
and boss-ism can undermine the original goals of a movement
and poison and spirit of any party.
CAT'S
PAW OF THE TWO-PARTY SYSTEM
It
is truly a sight to see Verney, and what is rightly called
his "wrecking crew," so eagerly doing the work of the major
parties in trying their best to sabotage Buchanan's bid. They
have used every trick in the book, so far, and by convention
time they will be ready for a few that are not in the book.
And what a circus that is going to be – which is precisely
the line that Verney is helping the media put out there. The
Reform Party "circus" – that will be the drumbeat, so
that the birth of the first third party of any consequence
since the rise of the GOP will be the occasion for a chorus
of derisive hoots and knowing laughter. The laughter will
die down, and even be silenced, however, once the TV ads start
running against foreign interventionism:
AD
SCRIPT –
BUCHANAN FOR PRESIDENT
PICTURE
– FOOTAGE OF US COMBAT PLANES DROPPING BOMBS ON SERBIAN
CITIES: BELOW, BLOSSOMS OF FIRE SPROUT LIKE MUSHROOMS ACROSS
THE LANDSCAPE.
VOICEOVER:
WE RAINED DEATH ON SERBIAN CITIES FROM 30,000 FT. AND ATTACKED
A PEOPLE WHO HAD NEVER ATTACKED US, KILLING OVER 5,000 –
AND FOR WHAT?
PICTURE:
THE KOSOVO 'LIBERATION' ARMY GOOSESTEPPING THOUGH PRISTINA,
RED FLAGS FLYING, ARMS OUTSTRETCHED IN THEIR QUASI-NAZI SALUTE,.
VOICEOVER:
WHILE SERBS FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES AND A NEW WAVE OF ETHNIC
CLEANSING SWEEPS THIS 'LIBERATED' LAND – THIS TIME PAID
FOR BY YOU, THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS.
PICTURE:
PATRICK J. BUCHANAN, SITTING IN HIS OFFICE AT HOME, WITH SHELLEY
BY HIS SIDE. HIS HARDEDGED STERNNESS IS OFFSET BY THE TWINKLE
IN HIS EYE, THE HINT OF SARDONIC MISCHIEVOUSNESS THAT SEEMS
TO ANIMATE HIM AS HE PREPARES TO MAKE AN IRREFUTABLE POINT:
"If
I am elected President, US support for the would-be dictators
of Kosovo will come to an end. Let me state my present intent:
If elected, I will have all U.S. troops out of the Balkan
quagmire by year's end, and all American troops home from
Europe by the end of my first term. Forty years ago, President
Eisenhower pleaded with end. JFK to bring all U.S. troops
home from Europe. Certainly, sixty years after the end of
World War II, and fifteen years after the Berlin Wall fell,
is not too soon to get all US troops out of Europe and let
Europeans provide and pay the cost of their own defense. If
not now, when?"
WE
ARE TO BE SPARED NOTHING
Not
now – or ever: this is the view of the Anti-Buchanan
Brigades, who will do anything – note to the Secret Service
and other law enforcement agencies: and I do mean anything
– to ensure that such a TV ad never makes it on the air.
Working in tandem with Verney and the Wrecking Crew –
soon to make its debut at an MTV "Rocks the Vote" concert
– the "get Buchanan" crowd has been working overtime
lately, churning out hit pieces on both
sides of the Atlantic. The Edsall
piece in the Washington Post has been ably
refuted by George Szamuely, and I also had something
to say about the new McCarthyism of the left as practiced
by the Post. In a letter to the editor of the Post,
Buchanan answered the charges ably and with admiral restraint
and good humor. But refutations don't matter to the professional
smearmongers, and we aren't just talking about the liberals
over at the Post, or Clintonian-leftist Larry Flynts
of this world.
JONAH
GOLDBERG,
GEN-EX NEOCON
The
effectiveness of this concerted campaign to smear Pat Buchanan
is that a vital and energetic section of it emanates from
the right. Norman Podhoretz, Charles Krauthammer, Bill Kristol
and the gang at the Weekly Standard – in short,
the "neo"-conservatives whose heroes are Democrats like Harry
Truman and Scoop Jackson, and who came over from the left
– have been way ahead of the left in smearing Buchanan
as an "extremist" of the right. Now "gen-ex" neocons are having
their say, with Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review
Online – and progenitor
of a crusade to undertake an American invasion of Africa –
adding his voice to the chorus. In
a recent column, Goldberg writes: "I've never thought
the Germans had much to teach us about how to run a country,
but I'm beginning to change my mind. In Germany, cults are
banned from national politics; in America they're given a
big shiny political party. Just look at what is happening
in the Reform Party." From a snide capsulized history of the
Reform party up until it qualified for matching funds, Goldberg
segues into his natural element: sleaze. Goldberg's initial
15 minutes of fame, you'll remember, were the result of his
peripheral involvement in Monica-gate – as the Son of
Lucianne Goldberg, who brokered the infamous Linda Tripp tapes,
young Jonah's realm of expertise was, uh, rather narrow, but
he has since branched out to become an all-around provider
of political wisdom. "Before 1992," he informs us, "the Reform
Party didn't exist" yet now the Buchananized Reformers will
get their hands on $12 million. Goldberg is piously horrified:
"A
former pundit and orthodox movement conservative – whom
I used to like a great deal – Buchanan has become the
dashboard saint for America's racist and anti-Semitic fringe.
The Washington Post's Thomas Edsall reported recently
that a coalition of white supremacist, neo-, semi- and all-but-entirely
Nazi groups has rallied around Buchanan. You certainly don't
have to be a racist to support Buchanan – I know honorable
people who do. But if you are a racist, Buchanan's your guy,
and he's OK with that. As one "white rights" group editorial
put it, 'Our type of people – Nationalists – have
been joining the Reform Party all across America and this
is going to almost guarantee that Buchanan will be its candidate
in November.'"
AN
APPETITE FOR SLIME – FROM MONICA-GATE TO ELECTION 2000
Having
graduated from retailing the smarmy details of Bill Clinton's
pathologically boring sex life, Goldberg is now acting as
a transmission belt for another kind of filth. By quoting
obscure cranks without any following or significance –
except their ready availability to reporters – as "endorsing"
Buchanan, we are supposed to believe that Pat is the moral
and political equivalent of some dime-store demagogue. Engaged
as it is in an orgy of political correctness, the GOP and
its partisans can ill afford to be haunted by the specter
of a permanent party to their right. Thus, the frenzied assault
on Buchanan and particularly on the prospect of his campaign
receiving the (relatively) measly $12 mil. In resorting to
cries of "racism," various errand-boys for the RNC, such as
Goldberg, reveal not only their desperation but their essentially
left-wing mindset. To even raise the issues of unchecked immigration,
and the unchecked influence of foreign lobbies on our foreign
policy, is – for Goldberg and his liberal friends over
at the Washington Post – a racist act in and of
itself. It is enough for Goldberg to spread the despicable
lie that "if you're a racist, Buchanan's your guy, and he's
OK with that." Quit suckin' on that crack pipe, Jonah: wishing
doesn't make it so. Somehow, the journalistic Boy Wonder of
National Review Online did not refer his readers to
the Buchanan campaign's strong statement denying any connection
to or sympathy with these groups: to liberals and neocons,
however, it doesn't matter – in their eyes, denials of
bigotry only confirm the initial diagnosis. Angela "Bay" Buchanan,
his senior campaign adviser and sister, wouldn't even talk
to the Post but had this to say in a news release: "If any
member of any such group has gravitated to our campaign, it
was without our knowledge, or consent. But if they have, they
probably did so because they came to believe the malicious
lies about my brother spread by such institutions as the Washington
Post. You do your worst; we shall do our best."
THE
HEIGHT OF HYPOCRISY
No
one has ever established a single connection between any Buchanan
staffer and a racist organization, but this hasn't stopped
Goldberg and the Anti-Buchanan Brigades from repeating the
Big Lie endlessly. This is what it means to be a gossipmonger
in the truest purest sense: picture a politicized gossip columnist
like Goldberg and his ilk as a kind of parrot, mindlessly
repeating what has been heard or read, and squawking in unison
with the other pet pundits. Together, they make enough noise
to give some apparent validity to their accusations, no matter
what the facts: after all, if Pat Buchanan wasn't an anti-Semitic
racist sexist admirer of Franco and Father Coughlin, then
why are all these people saying he is? Goldberg is
at least smart enough to realize that the outcry seems like
a reenactment of what happens to conservative Republicans
when they oppose leftist initiatives like affirmative action
and open borders: trying to cover his sorry ass, Goldberg
has the nerve to write: "Indeed, I believe, for example, that
many conservative groups are falsely accused of anti-Semitism,
racism, etc. because Northern liberals are bigoted against
Christians, Southerners and conservatives." Like which conservative
groups, Jonah? Perhaps you're talking about the Anti-Defamation
League's infamous attack on Pat Robertson and the Christian
Coalition, which branded both as "anti-Semitic" – a charge
that re-surfaced during the GOP primaries, with John McCain
using it to club Dubya via Robertson and the hapless Jerry
Falwell. The Democrats have surely stocked this cock-and-bull
story in their arsenal of disinformation and 'black propaganda,'
and are ready to haul it out after the conventions. But if
those charges are false, and motivated by partisan advantage,
then why do the same sort of attacks coming from exactly the
same people have any validity in regard to Buchanan? Clearly
the strategy of GOP loyalists in the punditocracy is to deflect
charges of racism, anti-Semitism, and other politically incorrect
"isms" in Buchanan's direction. But this strategy, which can
be easily used against any and all conservatives, can and
will backfire. That this doesn't matter to the neocons –
who hate their enemies with a special passion – should
tell us everything about the sorry state of the conservative
movement in the age of Dubya.
Please
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