A View From Here -- Deb Weiss
A VIEW FROM HERE
by deb weiss
Pat And The Poor Old Elephant
September 6, 1999
The buzz is getting louder.
They say Pat Buchanan really will jump the Republican
ship in order to make a run for the presidency on the
Reform Party ticket. He wants a hearing for his
intense, populist message of economic nationalism and
traditional values, and he just can't find his footing
within the GOP.
So far, nobody outside Pat's inner circle knows for
sure. Despite the enthusiasm of Perotistas like Pat
Choate, many Reform Party members are uneasy. They
just don't like Buchanan's positions on so-called
'cultural' issues, especially abortion.
However, for what it's worth, the Beltway sages
predict that Pat's going to go for it. It's a race
that would measure the edgy symbiosis between the
Reform Party and the Democrats, and could give
Democrats the very boost they need in next year's
presidential race.
If it's true that (in the words of a most
un-Buchananlike poet) each man kills the thing he
loves, then you almost have to believe that Pat has
homicide in mind for his beloved GOP.
Or so Republican strategists fear.
But that begs an important question. Can you really
call it murder, if the victim is already hellbent on
suicide?
Considering the current soul-state of the national
GOP, it's a pertinent distinction.
Torn between competing phobias (fear of Bill Clinton
and his cannibalistic smear machine; terror of being
mauled by a partisan press; and sweaty panic at the
prospect of having to take the occasional principled
stand), the poor old elephant lurks in its lonely
room, glumly contemplating its options: the rope, the
razor or the rooftop.
To be fair, the GOP has an eminently attractive, if
untested, front-runner in G. W. Bush. What's more, at
the state level the party is generally focused and
strong, with good odds of surviving a miscellany of
Democratic efforts to beg, borrow and (especially)
steal next year's elections.
But the Congressional GOP -- the party's most visible
face -- has disintegrated into absurdity, its
leadership mired in failures both practical and
philosophical. It has abdicated its oversight
responsibilities on a range of issues from Waco to
Kosovo, and has bungled even routine legislative
'housekeeping.'
When Congress reconvenes this Wednesday, it will have
about three weeks in which to generate thirteen
appropriations bills for the president's signature. So
far, the leadership has only completed one -- and that
one the least challenging of the bunch.
GOP leaders now face a too-familiar smorgasbord of
humiliations. They can tumble headlong into another
shutdown, opt for government-by-continuing-resolution,
or capitulate to the Democrats' spending priorities.
I can't help thinking of that poor little goat in
Jurassic Park -- that tethered, bleating chunk of live
bait helplessly awaiting the pitiless Tyrannosaurus
Rex (clearly a Democrat).
Congressional Democrats are ready to rumble. They have
a game plan. They don't much care what they have to
do, so long as they win. They've discarded their fine
ideals, along with the genial larcenies of their old
political machine (so quaint, in retrospect). They
smell blood.
For all their passionate intensity, mind you, it
doesn't do to blame the Democrats for Republican
failures, any more than you can blame Pat Buchanan for
seeking to exploit an obvious weakness.
It's not the machinations of its enemies that have
hollowed out the Republican Party in recent years, but
some soul-sickness that has left it unsure of what it
does stand for, or even what it should stand for.
Low taxes and free trade, or moral rigor and
protectionism? Big government to control abhorrent
behavior, like abortion and drug-abuse: or limited
government so free men and women can make their own
mistakes?
Is it the party of big business, or (as corporate
America trends Democratic) the party of small
entrepreneurs?
The thing is, no one really knows. Pat Buchanan
believes he has the answers. His guess is as good as
any.
He won't win, of course, no matter what ticket he runs
on. His appeal within the GOP is too limited: his
appeal outside too quixotic.
But don't try telling that to a Buchananite. They're a
lot like my good friends who were so passionately
convinced, in 1972, that George McGovern could trounce
Mr. Nixon. They don't take kindly to argument.
In fact, Pat could easily draw enough votes to propel
the unspeakable Al Gore to victory. His real and
enduring legacy would be, not a revitalized
conservative movement, but an implacably statist
Supreme Court, hand-picked by Mr. Gore.
If that happens, though, don't waste your time trying
to blame Buchanan. He didn't create that vacuum on the
right: he's merely trying to fill it.
A VIEW FROM HERE archive
Some Kind of Heroes: Mumia, Soliah, Et Al -- September 2, 1999
Being Janet Reno -- August 30, 1999
The Ghost At Our Banquet -- August 26, 1999
Solving Maleness -- August 23, 1999
The Media: A Nose Like a Vacuum Cleaner -- August 19, 1999
A Voter's Guide To The 21st Century -- August 16, 1999
A Good Town -- August 12, 1999
Singing The Praises Of Government News -- August 9, 1999
The First Couple's Chamber Pot -- August 5, 1999
Lifetime's Woman of the Year -- August 2, 1999
Thinking Over This Tax Cut Thing -- July 29, 1999
The John John Show -- July 26, 1999
America's One China, Two Alka Seltzer Policy -- July 22, 1999
The Politics of Speaking Ill of the Dead -- July 19, 1999
The Nasty Legacy -- July 15, 1999
All in a Slow News Week... -- July 12, 1999
Traps For The Young -- July 8, 1999
Remembering Michael Dukakis -- July 5, 1999
R.I.P., O.I.C. -- July 1, 1999
Mr. Clinton's Post-War Vengeance -- June 28, 1999
Guns, Cuisinarts and the Bill of Rights -- June 24, 1999
Attack of the Concerned Advocates -- June 21, 1999
FTC Nation -- June 17, 1999
The Very, Very Coincidental World of Bill and Hillary Clinton -- June 14, 1999
Water-boiling in Our Time -- June 10, 1999
Crisis and Peace -- June 7, 1999
Reinventing God -- June 3, 1999
On This Memorial Day -- May 31, 1999
The Un-McCarthy Era -- May 27, 1999
Unspeakable Spin -- May 25, 1999