Pat Buchanan "White Folks Built This Country"
posted by: Tracy Viselli 113 days ago
Pat Buchanan is a long-time opponent of affirmative action, but tonight on the Rachel Maddow show, Buchanan let loose some of his most regressive ideas about saving white males from the scourge of women and people of color that victimize them. You can watch Rachel Maddow's interview of Pat Buchanan here.
Thanks FireDogLake and Media Matters for the video.
Here's an excerpt from Pat Buchanan's Human Events column, in which she notes he is actively urging Republicans to use the Sotomayor nomination as race bait to appeal to white, working class voters that Maddow quoted during her show on July 15th:
"These are the folks whose jobs have been outsourced to China and Asia, who pay the price of affirmative action when their sons and daughters are pushed aside to make room for the Sonia Sotomayors. These are the folks who want the borders secured and the illegals sent back."
Buchanan's last line about securing borders and sending illegals "back" certainly implies that Sotomayor, like all Hispanics, is only an inch away from being an illegal alien because of her ethnicity.
Maddow suggested several times during the segment that Buchanan was "dating himself" by advocating what is basically Nixon's 1968 Southern Strategy all over again. "Dating himself" was Maddow's polite way of noting that Buchanan's views are at best ignorant, and at worst, racist.
What struck me most about Buchanan's appearance on Maddow this evening is his continued insistance on the idea that white men, and only white men, built this country and are responsible for all historic constributions--effectively erasing the contributions of white women and non-white men and women who for the better part of American history couldn't even vote, let alone have access to the kind of education and professional advantages that white men enjoyed in this country for so long.
When asked why he thought that 110 out of 108 Supreme Court justices where white, Buchanan launched into a tirade about how this country was built by "white folks," and when Buchanan says "white folks" he means "white males" as he repeated over and over during the segment. What Pat Buchanan sees when he looks at America are non-white men and women (not to mention white women) usurping the authority of the white men who "built this country.
Yikes.
Maddow concluded the segment by telling Buchanan:
"For you to priviledge race and to say that what we really need to tap politically is white people's racist grievances, well you're playing with fire."
Indeed. It's time for Buchanan to stop speaking in public. He's part of a fast disappearing America and I for one can't wait to see him gone.
I won't even begin to address Buchanan's sexist arguments against Sotomayor. I'll save that for another day.
Sign the petition to ask MSNBC to fire Pat Buchanan!
Update:
And if that weren't enough, Buchanan was on Hardball with Chris Matthews saying that Hispanics aren't eligible for affirmative action because there were never enslaved. From Media Matters:
Thanks FireDogLake and Media Matters for the video.
Here's an excerpt from Pat Buchanan's Human Events column, in which she notes he is actively urging Republicans to use the Sotomayor nomination as race bait to appeal to white, working class voters that Maddow quoted during her show on July 15th:
"These are the folks whose jobs have been outsourced to China and Asia, who pay the price of affirmative action when their sons and daughters are pushed aside to make room for the Sonia Sotomayors. These are the folks who want the borders secured and the illegals sent back."
Buchanan's last line about securing borders and sending illegals "back" certainly implies that Sotomayor, like all Hispanics, is only an inch away from being an illegal alien because of her ethnicity.
Maddow suggested several times during the segment that Buchanan was "dating himself" by advocating what is basically Nixon's 1968 Southern Strategy all over again. "Dating himself" was Maddow's polite way of noting that Buchanan's views are at best ignorant, and at worst, racist.
What struck me most about Buchanan's appearance on Maddow this evening is his continued insistance on the idea that white men, and only white men, built this country and are responsible for all historic constributions--effectively erasing the contributions of white women and non-white men and women who for the better part of American history couldn't even vote, let alone have access to the kind of education and professional advantages that white men enjoyed in this country for so long.
When asked why he thought that 110 out of 108 Supreme Court justices where white, Buchanan launched into a tirade about how this country was built by "white folks," and when Buchanan says "white folks" he means "white males" as he repeated over and over during the segment. What Pat Buchanan sees when he looks at America are non-white men and women (not to mention white women) usurping the authority of the white men who "built this country.
Yikes.
Maddow concluded the segment by telling Buchanan:
"For you to priviledge race and to say that what we really need to tap politically is white people's racist grievances, well you're playing with fire."
Indeed. It's time for Buchanan to stop speaking in public. He's part of a fast disappearing America and I for one can't wait to see him gone.
I won't even begin to address Buchanan's sexist arguments against Sotomayor. I'll save that for another day.
Sign the petition to ask MSNBC to fire Pat Buchanan!
Update:
And if that weren't enough, Buchanan was on Hardball with Chris Matthews saying that Hispanics aren't eligible for affirmative action because there were never enslaved. From Media Matters:
Read more: race, latina, politics, racism, affirmative action, sotomayor, pat buchanan, southern strategy
comments
So... what did he say that wasn't true?
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I wholeheartedly agree with Pat Buchanan. More white women should also be backing him instead of pooling with minority/affirmative action women. He mentioned a white female in his rant so to say that he is only for the white man is rediculous. Women are making it that way.
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Marcia, my "under 2%" figure for Northern states is accurate. Here is a source, the Historical Census Browser of the University of Virginia Library:
http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/
histcensus/php/start.php?year=V1820
This gives census data for the year 1820, around the time this nation was being built. From the Ethnicity/Race/Place of Birth table, click "total free colored persons"; from the Slave Population table, click "total slaves". Then click Submit Query. On the next page, click "total population" from the Add or Remove Topics table, and Submit Query again. This gives a table showing the Black population at the time for each state against their total population. The Black populations of the five biggest Northern states were:
New York 39,367/1,372,812 = 2.87%
Pennsylvania 30,413/1,549,458 = 1.96%
Ohio 4,723/581,434 = 0.81%
Massachusetts 6,740/523,287 = 1.29%
Maine 929/298,335 = 0.31%
By 1860, the percentage of Blacks in the Nothern states was considerably smaller.
As for the balance of your message, I don't know who you're arguing with; I stand by what I said. On the exploitation of poor White workers, I couldn't agree with you more. White indentured servants in the colonies were essentially slaves.
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Frank Gerrry you're making me crazy. Are you saying that paupers, and serfs were FREE?!!!! The conditions in Europe were HORRENDOUS for the poor. and when they came here? They wrote back home stay where you are it is WORSE!!! You know it's impossible to accomplish this but I really believe some folks need about one years worth of slavery and discrimination because they are SADLY deceived.
The penalties for poverty, loss of limbs for stealing imprisonment until payment which no one could pay. Holding your hand through a fence hoping someone would put food in it.
Filthy dungeons and no clean water.
Figures say in the early colonies slave numbers out multiplied the colonists so your 2% figure is ludicrous. Whites lived in fear that one day the slaves would revolt and over throw them that is why they kept "middling" class people to watch over them with guns (overseers) The white population didn't overtake the Slaves until after the Civil War.
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So Natives DID engage in geoncidal actions, but Whites did NOT DELIBERATELY exterminate Natives. And you want to know why we have race problems. You keep trying to tell us we don't know what we know, see what we see, experience what we experience, and you keep trying to deny your actions, which only makes you an accomplice after the fact.
From the first pilgrim to invade a Natives home under the guise that I'll come back later to pay for what I took, to the President who enforced Manifest Destiny and broke every treaty created, there committed was GENOCIDE.
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Rebecca, in the Northern states the percentage of Blacks/slaves was under 2%, so they obviously weren't doing the lion's share of the work for most Whites there. Wealthy Whites always had the option to employ poor Whites or buy White indentured servants. Very few of the pioneers in the heartland were Black, either. You also overlook the fact that White-European civilization, similar to ours, developed just fine in Europe with hardly any Black slaves. Whites are very hard, creative workers and did not need the non-White labor to build America, though it helped.
Let me make it clear that I do not defend the greed and brutality of the slave-traders and the slave-abusers. I have no love for them.
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Mr. Buchanan forgets that most of those white men who founded this country had slaves who were actually doing the lion's share of the work. It's only when there is time for philosophical consideration that a system such as ours could be conceived; slave labor made that time possible.
Saying that it has always been a certain way doesn't mean it's right. You could make the same argument about people dying from cancer that Pat's making for white men being in control of our society: It's always happened, so it must be right.
Pat needs to look beyond skin, beyond labels. His beliefs, when translated into action, can hurt numerous Americans, and I think he's patriot enough that that would bother him, if he thought about it that way.
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Continuatiom last post:
As of Gates uproar blacks now want more & more than any other racial group. Granted blacks have suffered in the far-away past. But, that was then. All the indians of the past are gone & so are the slaves & their masters. They are all dead!
To make myself truly clear about all this affirmative action business blacks can no longer carry on about being denied. As long as they have the education & the will they can have it. Gates has proven that. But, have you ever heard of an American indian raise as much indignant cain as Gates has in this era?
If affirmative action is truly ment for those denied then the American indian has as much reason to holler as any black but, they have not.
Affirmative action applies to all minority groups not just blacks alone.
Plant trees for life....................
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Frank G.....You wrote:
...The large-scale killers of the Native Americans were diseases, unintentionally introduced to North America by Whites. That was a great tragedy, by I for one am not going to feel guilty about it.
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I agree to a point. Many indians lost much of what they had to the white man such as land, buffalos', other meat resources, to some degree their heritage. And, the indians were again forced to adapt to the white mans ways or suffer. Probably their greatest loss was self determination as they had it before the white man came.
I have great respect & much empathy for all they have lost simply because the indians were hauled off to reservations like cattle with no way to improve their lot because the white man/government made false agreements with the indians. In other words they were hoodwinked & blindsided by the white mans language. The indians thought it was a good deal initially but realized it was not.
From the beginning the indians have remained quiet & dignified & suffered through the poverty. But, there never was going to be any afirmative action for them just because they wanted it until blacks started doing their thing. And their thing was to raise as much hell as possible & riot to no ends. In my opinion it was a massive campaign of guilt tripping.
Affirmative action was implemeted & some such as Gates still
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...The large-scale killers of the Native Americans were diseases, unintentionally introduced to North America by Whites. That was a great tragedy, by I for one am not going to feel guilty about it.
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