1. -
failed badly-and how often
has that happened in recent
decades? It failed because Pat
fought back hard, and nailed
and named the enemy, so that
sume leadership of the con-
servative and paleo ranks,
marginalize the Bush conser-
vatives and neocons, and
make a tremendous splash at
Catchers," except usually it's
leftists Mau-Mauing liberals.
We can say: 'Look, gang: you
have a choice, It's either Pat
Buchanan or David Duke. If
the truth plus his basic lik- the Republican convention. At you don't vote for us, baby,
ability carried him through with maximum, he can knock Bush you're going to get Duke. And
scarcely a scratch. In other out of the box-in the same how do you like them apples?'
words, Pat has shown the way the Gene McCarthy did in
unique capacity to battle 1968. By getting large (though Note: This personal endorse-
against an elite smear cam- not winning) percentage of ment does not imply endorse-
paign-and win! Pat is our votes in New Hampshire, ment of Buchanan by the
leader. McCarthy forced Lyndon Center for Libertarian Studies,
We can already hear the Johnson to retire and not run which is a non-partisan, non-
small Modal voices bellyach- for reelection. Consider this: political organization.
ing: But Buchanan's not a suppose that Pat gets 30 or
purist, e.g., 'he's weak on free 40 percent of the vote in New Right-Wing
trade." To this we say: Come Hampshire. Bush then faces a
off it! To call for purity in a year of Pat on his neck through Populism: A
Libertarian Party candidate the convention, perhaps an
makes sense; the whole point independent Southern race by Strategy for the
of a libertarian political party
is to expound a consistent
David Duke in November, and
perhaps also a strong Demo-
Paleo
doctrine. But to expect liber- cratic challenger like Cuomo- Movement
tarian purity in a real-world capped by an ever-deepening By Murray N.
candidate comes close to im- 'recession" (read: depres- Rothbard
becility. On television and in sion). Is it so crazy to envision Well, they finally got
his column, Pat has expressed Bush, a few weeks after New David Duke. But he sure
forceful views on hundreds if Hampshire, announcing that scared the bejesus out of
not thousands of political, so- for the sake of his health, for them. It took a massive cam-
cial, and cultural topics. Do the sake of Barbara's health paign of hysteria, of fear and
we agree with every one of and blah blah, he has decided hate, orchestrated by all wings
them? Of course not, and so not to run in '92? Would you of the Ruling Elite, from Offi-
what? That misses the point. bet your life against this sce- cial Right to Left, from Presi-
The point is that Pat Buchanan nario? And at that point of dent Bush and the official Re-
is strongly infused with liber- course: Pat could actually win publican Party through the
tarian principle, and that he is it. New York-Washington-run
as close as any real-world We have a dream: and national media through the
candidate could possibly come perhaps someday it will come local elites and down to local
to paleo-libertarianism. All of to pass. (Hell, if 'Dr." King can left-wing activists. It took a
us should be proud and de- have a dream, why can't we?) massive scare campaign, not
lighted to work as hard as we Our dream is that, one day, only invoking the old bogey
can for a Buchanan presi- we Buchananites can present images of the Klan and Hitler,
dency. Mr. and Mrs. America, and all but also, more concretely, a
What are the prospects the liberal and conservative virtual threat to boycott Loui-
for a Buchanan race? At and centrist elites, with a siana, to pull out tourists and
minimum, he can throw a big dramatic choice. We can, in conventions, to lose jobs by
scare into Bush, build a the scintillating terms of Tom businesses leaving the state.
movement for the future, as- Wolfe, 'Mau-Mau the Flak It took a campaign of slander
January 1992 5
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