Could you vote for an anti-Semite for President? Assume that you agreed with many of the programs advocated by a presidential candidate -- on trade, the economy, abortion etc. -- but you also believed that he was a bigot, could you vote for him? That is the question being raised by Patrick Buchanan's candidacy.
Some Americans seem to be answering "yes" -- they could vote for a bigot. Others are denying that Buchanan fits that description. The recent news report that one of Buchanan's four campaign co-chairmen, Larry Pratt, has ties to white supremacist militia groups should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Buchanan's history. Here is the incontrovertible evidence of Buchanan's bigotry.
After reviewing Buchanan's statements over a considerable period of time, Buchanan's own mentor, the respected conservative William F. Buckley, said: "I find it impossible to defend Pat Buchanan against a charge of anti-Semitism. [Buchanan has] said things about Jews that could not reasonably be interpreted as other than anti-Semitic in tone and substance." Buckley went on to characterize the tolerance of Buchanan's bigoted views as part of "a creeping cultural-political insensitivity to anti-Semitism that is both morally wrong and alarming."
Another conservative, William Bennett, has "labeled Buchanan a neo-fascist." Buchanan has accused George Bush of putting Bennett up to calling "me a fascist." In answer to a question from Michael Kinsley as to whether Buchanan is "a fascist," Bennett replied: "well, as I said, I think he flirts with these ideas. I mean, he's very much enamored of authoritarian figures ..., and he has some real worries about ... people who are not the purest Americans."
Among such impure Americans, Buchanan counts Jews. When a group of Jews accused Buchanan of anti-Semitism at a rally, this was Buchanan's response: "This rally is of Americans, for Americans and for the good old U.S.A., my friends." At another rally, a Buchanan staff member, Amy O'Neill, explained that "Jews would always be persecuted, because the devil would always want to take little shots at them." She said that she was speaking for Mr. Buchanan.
These, and similar outbursts led a spokesman for the American Jewish Congress to say that "Buchanan is as genuine and authentic anti-Semite as they come." The American Jewish Committee labeled his statements as "plainly anti-Semitic" and having "no place in the political process or in civilized discourse."
Conservative New York Times columnists William Safire and A. M. Rosenthal have called Buchanan an anti-Semite. Rosenthal warned that "We are not dealing here with country club anti-Semitism but with the blood libel that often grows out of it; Jews are not like us but are others, with alien loyalties for which they will sacrifice the lives of Americans." That is how Rosenthal characterized Buchanan's views, when Buchanan falsely accused only the Jews of pushing for a war with Saddam Hussein in which real Americans with Christian names "like McAllister, Murphy, Gonzalez and Leroy Brown" would die.
Virtually all the neo-Nazi and racist groups in America regard Buchanan as their champion, and Buchanan has not discouraged this support until he was caught with a white supremacist sympathizer as a campaign co-chairman. Indeed, he has written for "The Spotlight," one of the most notorious racist publications in America, and his columns have been reproduced -- without his objection -- by many other bigoted newsletters such as the Post Eagle and Truth Now. An article in the New Republic reported that Holocaust deniers know they "can expect a hearing from Buchanan." Indeed, Buchanan -- who has defended admitted Nazi war criminals -- has himself denied that Jews were gassed at Treblinka, a historical fact that no reputable historian has ever doubted. These actions led former Justice Department official Alan Ryan to observe that "great numbers of people are asking themselves: "Why is Pat Buchanan so in love with Nazi war criminals?"
Former Republican National Chairman Rich Bond has called Buchanan "a hate monger, a race-baiter [and a person] flirting with anti-Semitism."
Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who survived the Holocaust, has said: "I rarely use the word anti-Semite, but he comes very close to one."
In light of these testimonials -- by conservatives, by non-Jews as well as Jews, and by Buchanan's own friends -- and of Buchanan's own words, it is impossible for anyone to deny that he is a bigot and an anti-Semite. It is too late in history for any person of good will now to say, "I will still vote for Buchanan despite his bigotry, because I support the other issues in his campaign." Just as it is morally wrong for African Americans to support Louis Farakhan because of his anti drug programs and despite his bigotry and anti-Semitism, so too it is morally wrong for anyone to support Buchanan.
In 1992, a group of white New Hampshire Christian Republicans formed a Committee Against Bigotry to warn voters that: "It is not only Jews and blacks who are concerned. White Christians don't want to elect anti-Semites and racists ... either." I hope that groups like this will be formed all over the country to show that a vote for Pat Buchanan is a vote for bigotry and anti-Semitism.
