In 1992, Pat Buchanan delivered an address at the GOP Convention that at the time was considered so extremist that Molly Ivins quipped it read better in the original German.
But in today’s Republican Party, would Buchanan’s speech of 23 years ago really sound out of place? Let’s take a look:
[A] militant leader of the homosexual rights movement could rise at that convention and exult: “Bill Clinton and Al Gore represent the most pro-lesbian and pro-gay ticket in history.” And so they do.
Bill Clinton supports school choice–but only for state-run schools. Parents who send their children to Christian schools, or Catholic schools, need not apply.
Elect me, and you get two for the price of one, Mr Clinton says of his lawyer-spouse. And what does Hillary believe? Well, Hillary believes that 12-year-olds should have a right to sue their parents, and she has compared marriage as an institution to slavery–and life on an Indian reservation.
Well, speak for yourself, Hillary.
Friends, this is radical feminism. 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–that’s change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can tolerate in a nation that we still call God’s country.
Sound familiar? How about this ...
[W]e stand [….] for freedom to choice religious schools, and we stand [...] against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women.
We stand [...] for right-to-life, and for voluntary prayer in the public schools, and against putting American women in combat. And we stand [...] in favor of the right of small towns and communities to control the raw sewage of pornography that pollutes our popular culture.
But this is standard fare, you might say. What about the rest of what Buchanan said? Well let’s look at it:
This election is about much more than who gets what. It is about who we are. It is about what we believe. It is about what we stand for as Americans. There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself. And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton & Clinton are on the other side, and George Bush is on our side. And so, we have to come home, and stand beside him.
So tell me again who won the battle over the soul of the Republican Party? Listen to Trump. Listen to Cruz. Hell, listen to Carson, Rubio, and all the rest.
Is there anything Pat Buchanan said that they have not said or will not say?
Today’s Republican Party is Pat Buchanan’s Party. Republicans have seen to it that history has absolved Pat Buchanan.