In 2006, I met with Pat Buchanan to discuss running for president. While we did not see completely eye to eye on everything, we both agreed on the threat to this nation posed by massive uncontrolled immigration. Pat was ridiculed for bringing up the issue during his runs in 1992, 1996, and 2000; but with conservatives revolting against President Bush over amnesty, immigration was finally becoming a serious issue in the Republican Party. Pat encouraged me to run, and I reluctantly gave it my best shot.
Unlike Pat, I didn’t win any primaries. In fact, I dropped out right before the Iowa caucuses, but I like to think that I forced the issue of immigration to the other candidates. Pat at least thinks I did. In his new book Suicide of a Superpower, Pat notes that “by the primaries, every Republican candidate was sounding like Tom Tancredo.”
Reading this book, I wish more than ever that Pat or someone like him was running for president. His past books have focused on specific areas like foreign policy, immigration, or economics. Suicide of a Superpower synthesizes all these major problems under a general thesis: America is disintegrating. Pat argues that our religious, cultural, and ethnic bonds that once united the country are coming apart due to a loss of Christian faith no replaced with the cult of multiculturalism and diversity. At the same time our bloated budget deficits and overextended military are not sustainable.
Pat addresses these issues without flinching from controversy. When it comes to immigration, Pat notes that our current policies will make White Americans a minority by 2042. Buchanan quotes numerous liberals groups and individuals such as Tim Wise, Michael Moore, and the Center for American Progress who yearn for this day because they think this will cause the defeat of the Republican Party.
I believe that if we have a slowdown on immigration and we end multiculturalism—two policies that Pat calls for in the book—that immigrants of all races in this country will assimilate. However, when left wing groups and politicians are openly stating that their numbers will lead to the destruction of traditional American culture and the Republican Party, no one can ignore the realities that Buchanan brings up.
Pat is at his best when he attacks what he calls “The Diversity Cult.” He notes how it is customary for all politicians and commentators to praise diversity. The only difference between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton is the former called diversity “one of America’s greatest strengths” while the latter said “diversity is our greatest strength.”
Buchanan notes that this view goes sharply against our founders who wanted a united and cohesive country. He quotes John Jay in the Federalist Papers who praised our country as “one united people—a people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs…”
The Diversity Cult has deadly consequences. Pat quotes a Boston Globe article noting that the Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan was not dismissed despite many warning signs because “they valued th rare diversity of having a Muslim psychiatrist.” The results are well known and tragic. Hasan shot up Fort Hood, killing 13 and wounding 29 while yelling “Allahu Akbar.” Instead of learning their lesson, Army Chief of Staff Bernard Casey said the massacre would be “an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a tragedy.”
I don’t agree with everything that Buchanan says in his book. One difference is with his view of Islamic terrorists. Buchanan recognizes that Islam poses a threat to the West, calling it a “candidate to reshape and replace the West.” He notes the absurd lengths secularists and liberal Christians in the West have gone to accommodate Muslims like the Arch Bishop of Canterbury saying Britain should allow Sharia law. Despite these warnings, however, Buchanan insists that terrorists, “did not come to kill us because they abhor our Constitution, or wish to impose Sharia on Oklahoma. They were over here because we are over there.” If this were the case, then countries with non-interventionist foreign policies would have no problem with Jihadists. However, in 2009, Interpol stopped an al Qaeda plot against France, despite their opposition to the War in Iraq.
That said, I agree with Pat that we cannot be the World’s policeman and that we do not need troops to defend Europe and Japan, or to spread democracy.
I have only touched the surface of many of the provocative ideas that Pat discusses ranging from housing policy and the financial crisis to the rise of ethnonationalist movements across the world and its implications for the United States.
Suicide of a Superpower is an incredibly insightful, well written and, thought provoking book. Buchanan has a masterful command of the English language. Even when I disagree with him, the force of his arguments and prose make me seriously consider the other side.
I strongly recommend that patriots concerned about the future of our great country read this book.
Tom Tancredo represented Colorado's 6th Congressional District from 1999 until 2009 where he chaired the 100+ member bipartisan Immigration Reform Caucus. He currently serves as co-chairman of Team America PAC and president of the Rocky Mountain Foundation. He authored "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for America's Border and Security.