printWhat motivates Middle America “to distrust its government, for it surely does”? Pat Buchanan packs a lot of pathos into the answer. I hope he is right, because not everyone agrees about what moves Middle—or is it “Meathead”?— America:
“…the alienation and radicalization of white America began long before Obama arrived. He acknowledged as much when he explained Middle Pennsylvanians to puzzled progressives in that closed-door meeting in San Francisco.”
“Referring to the white working-class voters in the industrial towns decimated by job losses, Obama said: ‘They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.'”
“Yet, we had seen these folks before. They were Perotistas in 1992, opposed NAFTA in 1993 and blocked the Bush-Kennedy McCain amnesty in 2007.”
“In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.”
“They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on – then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.”
“They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.” [My emphasis]
“They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.”
“America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.”
Brilliant Buchanan. And it is not MeatHead America! I have contempt for those who blame the victims. They did not choose corruption; it was virtually forced on them. Americans are amazingly patient, forgiving, trusting people and they have been spitefully used. Many of them may be Raptured out of this nonsense and then we may see the spectacle of a banker trying to drive a tractor.
I am ashamed of the elites who have looted such a fine, generous people and then mocked them (in secret envy, is my guess). We could have all prospered.
Pat Buchanan makes 4 errors:
(1) Parents surrendering children to the government for a Christian education is a flawed idea doomed from conception. Government is NOT GOD and never can be. Education is a parental obligation and should never be forfeited.
(2) Much of the anti-war movement was/is itself violent, repulsive, and pro-totalitarian (whether Nazi, Commie, or Islamic) – that doesn’t make the War on {Vietnam, Iraq, Badguyistan…} correct. The vulgar hippies alienated many – but the WARS were WRONG.
(3) “What institution [do you] trust to make economic decisions… , a plurality … pick ‘none’ – a grim statement”. NO – A CORRECT STATEMENT. Individuals are responsible for their own pursuit of happiness – not Congress, Citigroup, your boss, Obama…. – the individual is the correct “institution”.
(4) The fundamental FLAW in Buchananology is his concept of “nation”. “The nation” (e.g. government) should NOT exist to (a) educate my child (b) eradicate evil from the planet, and (c) “manage” the economy. [A nation is most certainly not what you define as a nation. You vulgarize the concept.]
Buchanan and his “angry white men” seem to be searching for a moral “middle class” Messianic Kingdom. I am searching for liberty where the government’s ONLY function is to “secure these rights” (as Jefferson so eloquently put it). [So in the process, you use the Left’s pejorative to undermine an already undermined group: white men. Nice. Buchanan is a patriot second to few.]
“What motivates Middle America “to distrust its government, for it surely does”?”
A litany of things stated and alluded to by Mr. Buchanan.
What will motivate Middle America to act upon the distrust?
I hope it’s the realization that, when, by the government’s own light, the citizens of a democracy become, ipso facto, the enemy, the government can be fairly judged to be undertaking a coup d’état. If that’s not enough then… just deserts.
Actually, it was Pat Buchanan himself who popularized the term “pitchfork brigade” in 1996 so the “angry white male” term seems to apply – although Pat did NOT explicitly call out the white male part when he coined “pitchfork brigade”. See:
http://www.buchanan.org/blog/pjb-pitchfork-time-1465
A nation is certainly MORE than just its government but Pat’s essay dealt with a combination of the culture and also who was running the government. The difficulty with GOVERNMENT is that when one erects chicken coops (governmental structures), FOXES naturally come to manage them (Bush, Obama, Pelosi…) – whether they bear the brand Republican or Democrat (even Pat left for the Reform Party in 2000).
The portion of America that is white-traditional-Christian is on the decline and many of them are on the left – so Buchanan’s traditional nation has been demographically floating away for some time now. But as Pat mentioned with “losing their nation” – what is PATRIOTISM if one feels a sense of alienation within ones own nation?