Roscoe on Michael Hoffman's Revelation of the Method

Roscoe himself commenting this week: It was gratifying to read Michael's comments on Pat Buchanan, who twice within the Republican party in 1992 and 1996, sought the nomination in the Presidential race and in 2000 ran as an independent. He was correct on three big issues: he opposed the off shoring our manufacturing, endless military intervention in other parts of the world (what Harry Elmer Barnes called "perpetual war for perpetual peace") and unrestricted immigration. Of course, the Republican party would not stand for this. In December 1991, National Review (a silly rag that long ago appointed itself as the keeper of the Overton Window as to just exactly what opinions "conservatives" are allowed to express) basically devoted the entire issue to giving William F. Buckley Jr. free rein in the hatchet job of asking "is Pat Buchanan an anti-semite?" This later spun off a book, "In Search of Anti-Semitism," which Nathan Glazer reviewed in the New York Times and from which the following excerpt is taken. "Two passages suggest he is edging toward this conclusion. Mr. Buckley argues that anti-Semitism morally disqualifies a person from seeking public office, and then asks, Would anti-Catholicism disqualify a candidate? A Catholic himself, Mr. Buckley says no: "There is no geographical promontory out there, populated by Catholics who are exposed to terminal persecution. . . . I am ready to concede that in our world, in our time, Jews have inherited distinctive immunities." And again, going even further, he says: "Anyone who gives voice, especially if this is done repeatedly, to opinions distinctively, even uniquely, offensive to the security of settled Jewish sentiment involving religious or ethnic or tribal pride engages in anti-Semitic activity." In his scathing obituary of Buckley, "William F. Buckley Jr., RIP--Sort Of," Peter Brimelow suggested that, "I do know that Buckley's political ambitions were not merely symbolic. After his race against Lindsay, he convened a private meeting including F. Clifton White and long-time National Review Publisher Bill Rusher, both veterans of the Draft Goldwater movement, to discuss the question of how he could run for president. They assured him, very unimaginatively I believe, that it was unthinkable. So Buckley stepped aside. But had he and not James won the Senate race in 1970, he would have been a contender. It was a fatal mistake. Conceivably, it could have broken his heart. "Unquestionably, in my view, it explains the fratricidal savagery of Buckley's 1992 attack on Pat Buchanan, a fellow Irish Catholic conservative who had dared to make the jump from pundit to presidential candidate. As a much-celebrated Catholic, Buckley must have known that Envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. But that does not mean he was immune." Buchanan, a gracious, intelligent man with a sense of humor and with decent instincts, never stood a chance in a party that likes mean spirited people: the Bushes, Dole, McCain, Romney, Trump. But I am grateful that he made the effort.