Pat Buchanan in The Associated Press


On Immigration: Make English our official language

Buchanan’s TV ad, titled “Meatball,” depicts a man who begins to choke when he hears of a government move to strip English of its status as the “national language.” The ad cites an executive order President Clinton signed in August making it easier for non-English-speaking citizens to gain access to federal programs and services. The man calls 911 and, eyes bulging from the meatball stuck in his throat, hears an automated menu of languages to choose from. “Please listen for your language,” a recording says. “For Spanish, press one. For Korean, press two. For Bengali, press three.” He dies before getting to English, though it’s unclear what the choking man would have done had he reached an English-speaking dispatcher. “That’s a good question,” Buchanan said. “Do you ever miss English?” an announcer asks in the ad. “Immigration is out of control. Bush and Gore are writing off English for good.” Buchanan believes English should be the official U.S. language.
Source: Scott Lindlaw, Associated Press Oct 9, 2000

On Civil Rights: No gay VP; no gays in Cabinet; it’s “a disorder”

Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan ruled out picking a homosexual or gay rights advocate as a running mate or Cabinet officer, saying that such sexual orientation is “a disorder.” Buchanan said, “If someone is an out-of-the-closet homosexua and if someone advocates the homosexual rights agenda publicly they’re not going to be in my Cabinet. I believe that homosexuality is a disorder. It’s a wrong orientation.” [However,] Buchanan has said he doesn’t “believe in persecuting anybody” and woul
Source: The Associated Press May 4, 2000

On Foreign Policy: Struggle against emerging world government

“Loyalty to the New World Order is disloyalty to the Republic. In nation after nation, the struggle between patriotism and globalism is under way.” Buchanan said the Clinton administration is allowing the UN to intrude on America’s sovereignty. At the same time, he said, the US is guilty of “trampling on the sovereignty” of other nations by injecting troops in internal conflicts, such as Kosovo. “If ever sovereignty becomes obsolete, we may expect America’s involvement in endless wars until, one day, we pay a horrific price in some act of cataclysmic terror on our own soil,“ Buchanan said. ”For interventionism is the spawning pool of international terror.“ The UN is increasingly seeking authority over US troops and control of the nation’s borders, Buchanan warned. ”This then is a millennial struggle that succeeds the Cold War: It is the struggle of patriots of every nation against a world government where all nations yield up their sovereignty and fade away,“ he said.
Source: Associated Press, “Attack World Government” Jan 6, 2000

On Homeland Security: Declare war only after attack on US, interests, or honor

“My vision is of a republic, not an empire -- a nation that does not go to war unless she is attacked, or her vital interests are imperiled, or her honor impugned. And when she does go to war, it is only after following a constitutional declaration by the Congress,” Buchanan said. “We are not imperialists; we are not interventionists; we are not hegemonists; and we are not isolationists. We simply believe in America first, last and always.”
Source: Associated Press, “Attack World Government” Jan 6, 2000

On Principles & Values: Leaving GOP elite, to take message to voters

Excerpts from Buchanan’s letter announcing he would seek the Reform Party nomination: “I must leave the party that has long been my home-with regret but not rancor-because the Washington elite of the GOP has left me and the principles for which I have toiled and fought for 40 years. Free from the constraints of working within one of the establishment parties. we will, at long last, be able to take our message directly to all the American voters in a general election.”
Source: CNN.com, via Associated Press Oct 25, 1999

On Immigration: Use troops to stop illegal immigration

Buchanan said America needs leaders who will “halt illegal immigration cold at our borders even if we have to have troops. We need to repair, rebuild and restore the melting pot.”
Source: Kristen Hays, Associated Press Jul 27, 1999

On Civil Rights: Legal gambling is a “destructive vice”

At a 1995 rally in Iowa, Buchanan called legalized gambling “a vice and an addiction... destructive to the work ethic [and] ruinous to the family.”
Source: Laurence Arnold, Associated Press Jul 26, 1999

On Free Trade: Tariffs on wheat imports to equalize costs & protect farms

“Slapping a tariff on imported wheat would help deter foreign sales in the United States at a time when American farmers are not covering their own costs,” Buchanan said. He advocates a tariff on imported farm commodities to equalize the price with US production costs. The revenue could be used to cut taxes, he said. “When the price of wheat falls below the cost of production, why are you importing wheat? That simply kills your family farms.”
Source: Associated Press Jun 18, 1999

On War & Peace: Kosovo conflict is illegal and unconstitutional

Buchanan called the conflict over Kosovo “an illegal and unconstitutional war, launched without authorization by Congress. There is not now, and there never has been, any vital US interest in whose flag flies over Pristina to justify the loss of a single platoon of US Marines.”
Source: Associated Press Jun 18, 1999

The above quotations are from Columns and news articles distributed by the Associated Press.
Click here for other excerpts from Columns and news articles distributed by the Associated Press.
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Page last updated: Feb 15, 2019