Buchanan Wants "the Old Bigotry"

June 17, 2009




Buchanan argues against affirmative action: ‘One prefers the old bigotry.’
Today, in a Human Events column titled “Miss Affirmative Action,2009,” MSNBC’s Pat Buchanan continued his attack on Judge Sotomayor. He declared that affirmative action is worse than the “old bigotry” against African Americans:

Thus, Sotomayor got into Princeton, got her No. 1 ranking, was whisked into Yale Law School and made editor of the Yale Law Review — all because she was a Hispanic woman. And those two Ivy League institutions cheated more deserving students of what they had worked a lifetime to achieve, for reasons of race, gender or ethnicity.
This is bigotry pure and simple. To salve their consciences for past societal sins, the Ivy League is deep into discrimination again, this time with white males as victims rather than as beneficiaries.

One prefers the old bigotry. At least it was honest, and not, as Abraham Lincoln observed, adulterated “with the base alloy of hypocrisy.”

This is the newest in a series of racist comments made by Buchanan since Sotomayor’s nomination. He has told senators to oppose Sotomayor’s nomination and “stand up for the white working class.” He even went so far as to assert that, because of affirmative action, “what is happening now to white men right now is exactly what was done to black folks for years.”

Claire Teitelman
Think Progress, Guest Blogger on Jun 12th, 2009



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Ben Cohen, Huffinton Post, June 12, 2009 pleads with MSNBC:

MSNBC, Pull the Plug on Pat Buchanan

Poor Pat Buchanan. A failed political career born out of a platform that only appeals to other grumpy white men, Buchanan is stuck in an endless circle of self induced rage and irrational fear.

The MSNBC commentator actually believes being white in America puts you at a disadvantage, and feels a life dedicated to bemoaning 'reverse discrimination' and the rise of 'unqualified' minorities is an honorable use of his time.
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David Weigel, The Washington Independent, June 16, 2009
Pat Buchanan, 1971: Give the SCOTUS ‘Black Seat’ or ‘Jewish Seat’ to a Catholic

Trevor Griffey digs up a 1971 memo written by Pat Buchanan, then an adviser to President Richard Nixon, arguing that the administration needed to get ready for the 1972 election by giving preferential treatment to white ethnics.

I]nstead of sending the orders out to all our other agencies — hire blacks and women — the order should go out — hire ethnic Catholics preferable women, for visible posts. One example: Italian Americans, unlike blacks, have never had a Supreme Court member — they are deeply concerned with their “criminal” image; they do not dislike the President. Give those fellows the “Jewish seat” or the “black seat” on the Court when it becomes available.

Weigel sums up life long Buchanan's stand as follows:
"It’s striking how little Buchanan has changed in the intervening 38 years. In one of his anti-Sonia Sotomayor columns, he argued that the nominee had no more right to a seat than a “Polish- or Portogeuse-American” and that Hispanics would support her because “people often come out to vote for one of their own.”

I guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks.