There's much to admire about Pat Buchanan, the former Reagan speechwriter, founder of the American Conservative magazine, and author of numerous books on timely themes. His “America First” principles have great appeal in times when U.S. wars and foreign trade policy are so far out of touch with the U.S. national interests. Buchanan's recent critiques of the Bush administration's fear-mongering about “Islamo-fascism” and the associated “struggle for civilization” are also to be applauded. Buchanan was also among the first analysts to warn the country about the rise of the neoconservative ideologues—another indicator that Buchanan is an analyst that deserves our attention.
As an extension of his America First principles, Buchanan has become one of the most articulate, consistent critics of U.S. imperialism. This skepticism of America's mission abroad recommends him and other like-minded conservatives as global good neighbors—those who insist that there should be strict limits on U.S .interventionism abroad, whether on “democracy promotion” missions or military invasions and occupations. But the same America First principles give rise to an unsavory nativism that elevates the Anglo-Saxon culture and race and denigrates other cultures and races.
Buchanan's latest book, State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America, is helping fuel an already dangerous backlash movement against immigrant families. Clearly, rapid immigration does raise questions about the social, political, and cultural cohesion of the United States . However, by framing these issues as ideological and military terms, Buchanan discredits himself and all other immigration restrictionists as hateful and paranoid men who dismiss the good neighbor values of mutual respect, mutual help for common problems, freedom from fear, international independence, and respect for international treaties.
In his book Buchanan warns that there is a plot of reconquest underway and that this “Aztlan Plot” aims directly at “reannexation of the Southwest, not militarily, but ethnically, linguistically, and culturally through the transfer of millions of Mexicans into the United States and a migration of ‘Anglos' out of the lands Mexico lost in 1848.” Immigration is not just an international job market. Rather, says, Buchanan: “The Aztlan strategy entails the end of the United States as a sovereign, self-sufficient, independent republic, the passing away of the American nation. They are coming to conquer us.”
Not only does immigration represent conquest by numbers, but the potential for political insurgency, according to Buchanan. He warns: “The seething racial resentment in the Third World should cause second thoughts about opening our borders to mass immigration from the world.” Immigration is a problem that needs urgent federal attention but Buchanan's anti-immigrant screed serves only to aggravate the existing tensions within this country, providing intellectual and ideological justifications for more immigrant-bashing. According to Buchanan, immigration is the most serious foreign policy crisis facing the United States . Clearly Buchanan, along with other leaders of the anti-immigrant backlash, is seeking to position the immigration issue as one that can help forge a right-wing populist movement in America that will reinforce the country's image as a bad global neighbor.
See also:
Reframing the Immigration Debate: The Actors and the Issues
Global Good Neighbor
