Pat Buchanan: King of race baiting (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

“Barack Obama is a drug dealer of welfare. He wants permanent dependency, in my judgment, of all these folks.”

- Pat Buchanan speaking to Greta Van Susteren on Fox News

Wow. Everyone knows Pat Buchanan has a big mouth, but seriously – can he get any more offensive while still appearing on mainstream television? MSNBC kicked the senile race-baiter off its airwaves last year, but somehow he still manages to get himself on television to espouse his monstrously offensive views to the public. Romney at least attempts to disguise his pandering to racist America, but Buchanan flat out waves a big red flag calling on Americans to identify solely by racial demographic (or sexual orientation).

Van Susteren did not challenge Buchanan on his overtly racist comment showing again why Fox News should never be considered anything other than a propaganda wing of the GOP.

What a disgrace.

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The Atlantic has a great piece on the very lucrative side industry of Presidential politics where candidates turn failure into a media career. The best (and worst) examples:

Pat Robertson (1988): His Christian Broadcasting Network and its flagship show, The 700 Club, had been on the air for decades when he launched his surprisingly strong, though ultimately doomed, Republican challenge. (He did finish second in Iowa.) Still, a few months on the campaign trail is always good for ratings and way less messy than blaming natural disasters on devil worship.

David Duke (1998, 1992): Duke actually ran as both a Republican and a Democrat, and while his previous job (as Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan) will forever make him toxic to mainstream TV and radio, he’s made a nice living selling books about Jewish conspiracies and can still occasionally be called upon for a convenient (if racist) quote.

Pat Buchanan (1992, 2000):  After working in two Republican White Houses and starring as a featured player on the pioneering partisan yell-fests CNN’s Crossfire and The McLaughlin Group, Buchanan was a consummate Washington figure, but not very well-known of outside the Beltway. That changed with his first presidential run in 1992, which ended in failure, but led to a fiery convention speech — that introduced America to the phrase “culture war” — and earned him a reputation as one of the more outrageous and unpredictable Republican voices. After his second run in 2002, Buchanan got his own show on MSNBC and even after it was canceled he remained a semi-permanent talking head on the network… before he got fired earlier this year.

Alan Keyes (1996, 2000, 2008): A former diplomat and three-time presidential (and three-time Senate) loser, Keyes also scored his own MSNBC show in 2002, though it was quickly canceled due to poor ratings.

While Pat Robertson isn’t exactly brain of America, one would think that he’s intelligent enough to know he doesn’t have it in him to be President of the United States. And if that’s true, you really have to question the motivation of candidates like him. Do they really believe in helping the country, or are they just looking for a TV show? Hermain Cain is probably the best example thus far of a candidate with clear ulterior motives. Sadly, he may have set a dangerous precedent and opened the flood gate for even more idiotic candidates looking for book deals and shows on Fox.

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According to Pat Buchanan, African Americans can trace all their problems back to liberalism. Incapable of thinking for themselves, they "Bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation." And yes, that is a direct quote. Watch (and gasp) below:

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by Ben Cohen

In a brilliant segment, Rachel Maddow essentially destroys whatever credibility Pat Buchanan had left, running through a litany of falsehoods the Right Wing commentator had uttered in a previous debate on her show.

Buchanan had asserted that affirmative action was immoral because white men built America, and white people were being screwed out of jobs they were qualified for to make way for illiterate and under qualified minorities.

The best part of Maddow’s posthumous rebuttal was her eloquent reminder that slave labor was essentially the engine of the U.S economy in its early years, and blacks literally built the White House. Via Matt Osborne:

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By Ben Cohen

Poor Pat Buchanan. A failed political career born out of a platform that only appeals to other grumpy white men, Buchanan is stuck in an endless circle of self induced rage and irrational fear.

The MSNBC commentator actually believes being white in America puts you at a disadvantage, and feels a life dedicated to bemoaning 'reverse discrimination' and the rise of 'unqualified' minorities is an honorable use of his time.

Buchanan's projecting of his own massive insecurities and deeply held prejudices is painful to watch, and it is simply breath taking that no one at MSNBC wants to pull the plug on him. Exactly what is this man's appeal? The MSM's penchant for a tear up is one thing, but a man dedicated to furthering the cause of the white race is another.

Buchanan is technically right about discrimination – it shouldn't be done to anyone, white, brown or black. But some historical context puts Buchanan's views in a completely different light.

(more…)

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