Pat Buchanan

Introduction

Patrick Joseph Buchanan (born November 2, 1938, Washington, D.C.) is an American paleoconservative writer, political commentator, and former politician. He held positions in three U.S. presidential administrations Nixon, Ford, and Reagan – and sought the GOP nomination for U.S. president twice, and the Reform Party once.^[1] His work has profoundly impacted the morals and values of traditional American conservatives and Donald J. Trump’s 2016 presidential platform.^[2]

Early Career

Buchanan, a Roman Catholic, received an A.B. degree in English from the Jesuits’ Georgetown University in 1961. A year later, he received an M.S. degree from Columbia University in journalism (1962). He then immediately began his career with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat.^[3] There, Buchanan supported Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. He wrote the forward to specific editions of Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative. In addition, he wrote press releases for the Young Americans for Freedom.^[4]  

In 1966, he became the speechwriter and assistant to President Richard M. Nixon during his second run for office. There, he coined the phrase the “Silent Majority,” helping bring millions of registered Democrats to Nixon.^[5] Buchanan stayed with Nixon through the Watergate Scandal, briefly continuing his position under President Gerald R. Ford. 

Before becoming the White House Communications Director for President Ronald Reagan, Buchanan wrote a syndicated newspaper column and began his commentary career in digital media.^[6] He held daily commentaries on NBC radio from 1978 to 1984. Buchanan also started T.V. analyses  on The McLaughlin Group and CNN’s Crossfire, making him a nationally recognized political commentator.^[7][8]

Presidential Bids

1992

Buchanan had less success in his 1992, 1996 and 1999 presidential runs. His platform against President George H.W. Bush rebuked the wars in the East, seeing Israel deeply entrenched in the U.S. foreign policy.^[9] Buchanan advocated for limits on free trade and a temporary moratorium on immigration. He sharply criticized the feminist and homosexual rights movements, and opposed abortion while promoting social conservativism and opposing multiculturalism. Buchanan was one of a few prominent conservatives to predict the Republican effort to moderate toward the center in his “Culture War” speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention. 

In his speech, Buchanan said of Bill and Hillary Clinton: 

“The agenda Clinton & Clinton would impose on America—abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units—that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America needs. It is not the kind of change America wants. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in a nation we still call God’s country.”^[10]

1996

During his 1996 presidential bid, Buchanan ran in opposition to U.S. Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the Senate Majority Leader. At the core of the election, Buchanan opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).^[11] He used his seething rhetoric to garner populist support against the Washington establishment, which Dole was perceived to personify.^[12] 

Buchanan ultimately received 21% of the vote on Super Tuesday, losing the bid to Dole. He eventually endorsed Dole after choosing Jack Kemp as a running mate.^[13] Buchanan then returned to his commentary and began writing his books, beginning with 1998’s The Great Betrayal.

2000

In October 1999, Buchanan abandoned the Republican party, referring to them as a “beltway party” and alleging neoconservative leadership.^[14] He ran for president under the Reform Party’s ticket. In his acceptance speech, he touted a withdrawal from the United Nations, expelling its headquarters from New York, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Energy, Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and taxes imposed on inheritance and capital gains. Being a more conservative forward-thinking, he also called to eliminate affirmative action, later ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023.^[15][16] 

Under the Reform party banner, Buchanan received 449,895 votes or .4% of the popular vote.^[17] 

Reform party members urged him to become more active in the party’s politics, but he declined. Before the 2004 election, he returned to the Republican party, offering endorsements to George W. Bush in 2004, Mitt Romney in 2012, and Donald J. Trump in 2016.^[18][19][20]

Return to Commentary

In 2002, Buchanan returned to T.V. commentary on MSNBC’s Buchanan and Press.^[21] Joined with Bill Press, the two focused criticism on the war in Iraq. The hosts’ opposition to the war led to the show’s cancellation in November 2003.^[22] Buchanan remained a commentator for MSNBC, appearing on Morning Joe, Hardball, and The Rachel Maddow Show. 

In 2002, he co-founded The American Conservative with former New York Post editorial page editor Scott McConnell and journalist Taki Theodoracopulos.^[23] The magazine focuses on traditional conservative perspectives on foreign policy, economics and immigration. 

In 2006, Buchanan became a contributor to VDARE, a blog founded by anti-immigration activist and fellow paleoconservative Peter Brimelow.^[24] 

In 2011, MSNBC ultimately cut ties with Buchanan after publishing his book Suicide of a Superpower. The book entailed a chapter called “The End of White America.”^[25] Minority advocacy group Color of Change successfully pressured MSNBC for permanent suspension from the network in February 2012.^[26]

Publications

From 1973 to 2017, Buchanan published 13 books. A few of his more prominent books include The New Majority: President Nixon at Mid-Passage, privately published in 1973. In it, he discusses the so-called “Middle America” vote. In 1998, Buchanan wrote about his views on free-trade policies in The Great Betrayal. In 1999, he wrote on foreign policy in A Republic, Not an Empire. In 2002, Buchanan wrote The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization—-a book proven to have gained popularity among the modern Right around the time of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential bid. In 2008, Buchanan added to the collection a critique of the great World Wars in Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World.