There is a story often told of a journalist's reaction to Barry Goldwater's acceptance speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1964. Having wrested the Republican Presidential nomination from the long-dominant liberal wing of the party, the crusty conservative was expected to strike a conciliatory tone in an effort to unite the party behind his underdog campaign against Lyndon Johnson. But Goldwater, an Arizona native, was more at home with cactus plants than olive branches.
"Those who do not care for our cause, we do not expect to enter our ranks," he declared. Then Goldwater answered critics of his alleged "extremism." "I would remind you that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice; and I would remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The reaction was the political equivalent of one of California's famous earthquakes. "My god," gasped an astonished reporter. "He's going to run as Goldwater!"
Pat Buchanan, a Goldwaterite in the days of his youth, made it clear he's still running as Buchanan when he arrived for the grand opening of his campaign headquarters in Manchester on Sunday. These days, he has a lot of company. Indeed, the whole field of GOP Presidential hopefuls sounds a bit more Buchananite than it did when "Pitchfork Pat" won the New Hampshire primary three years ago.
"There's tough competition out there," he told about 100 cheering supporters at his downtown campaign headquarters. "But the ideas and causes we have fought for so long have come to the point where people agree with me." Buchanan nearly always begins where the alphabet begins, with the "A" word. Others may have nicer labels for the destruction of pre-born human life ("choice, reproductive rights," etc.), but Buchanan does not flinch from calling abortion what it is.
"To me, abortion is the greatest evil on the American continent since slavery," he has said. Other candidates — Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Bob Smith — speak with equal conviction for the right to life. Still others have followed the cause by curious routes. Unlike Steve Forbes and Dan Quayle, Pat Buchanan did not campaign for the reelection of New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd "abort 'em all" Whitman.
While the "conventional wisdom" is that Republicans must dilute or abandon the platform's pro-life plank to broaden the party's appeal, Buchanan recalled the fate of the two "pro-choice" Republicans in the 1996 contest. California Gov. Pete Wilson and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania were out of the race not only before the snow melted in New Hampshire, but before it fell. In Wilson's case, the race was over before the leaves turned in the autumn of '95.
Buchanan, despite his victory in New Hampshire and strong showing in Iowa, was out by the end of March, as the front-loading of primaries worked to the advantage of Bob Dole, the early front-runner and favorite of the party elders. The argument for Dole, you may recall, was that the Senate majority leader had the stature and the savvy to beat Bill Clinton. What he lacked was a credible, and often a coherent, message. The voters somehow noticed that, if the party leaders didn't. The world, alas, will little note nor long remember the Dole administration.
While the Republican Congress does somersaults to pass new gun laws, Buchanan knocks Bill Clinton for exploiting the Columbine High School shootings, even as the President demagogued over the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City four years ago. "There were 18 or 19 gun and explosive laws violated at Columbine High," said Buchanan. "Passing a 19th or 20th law would not have accomplished anything."
Today there are a number of prominent Republicans who oppose, as Buchanan does, Bill Clinton's war on Yugoslavia. But where were they in late 1990 and early '91, when President George Bush, on the strength of a U. N. resolution, claimed the right to take this country to war with Iraq without the approval of Congress? Buchanan was virtually alone among Republicans in opposing the transfer of this nation's war-making authority from the Congress of the United States to the Security Council of the United Nations. The others were actively engaged as cheerleaders for the "New World Order."
Republicans are rightly concerned about winning back the Presidency in 2000. But if they want that victory to mean anything, they might well heed a candidate who would not leave them "pointing with pride" as Republicans to the same polices they "view with alarm" when a Democrat is in the White House.
