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Pat Buchanan
Retired figureUnited StatesBorn 1938

Pat Buchanan

White House Communications Director (1985-1987) · Speechwriter and adviser to Richard Nixon

Conservative writer and broadcaster who sought the White House three times, combining curbs on immigration, tariffs, staying out of foreign wars and traditional values, a mix called paleoconservatism.

Compare yourself See the 12 scores
Profile on 12 axes10 of 12 documented
ECONOMYSTATESOCIETYWORLDOwnershipMarketsWelfareAuthoritySecurityStructureMoralityReligionTechnologyCultureTradeForeign
Where they stand

Pat Buchanan, axis by axis

  1. 01Ownership+50
    PublicPrivate
  2. 02Markets+30
    PlannedFree

    He backed tax cuts and shutting some federal departments, but his dislike of free trade and outsourcing, and his economic nationalism, pull him toward the center.

  3. 03Welfare+40
    SharedSelf-reliant
  4. 04AuthorityNo clear record
    DemocraticStrong leader

    The sources used show no clear stance on strong executive power versus democratic checks, so this is null.

  5. 05Security+55
    LibertyOrder

    He took a tough line on crime. After the Los Angeles riots in 1992 he told the country to take back its cities, and in 1989 he demanded severe penalties in the Central Park jogger case.

  6. 06Structure-35
    LocalCentral
  7. 07Morality+85
    ProgressiveTraditional
  8. 08Religion+70
    SecularReligious
  9. 09TechnologyNo clear record
    EmbraceCaution

    No recorded view on regulating technology.

  10. 10Culture+90
    MulticulturalNational identity
  11. 11Trade+85
    GlobalProtected
  12. 12Foreign policy+20
    CooperationStrength

    He opposed the Iraq war and other interventions, yet he put national sovereignty first and suggested leaving the UN, so the two readings partly cancel.

2 axes have no clear record, so matching leaves them out.

Who is Pat Buchanan?

Pat Buchanan, born in 1938, grew up in Washington, D.C. and is now a retired author and commentator. He attended Georgetown and then Columbia, and became a speechwriter and aide to Richard Nixon. Under Ronald Reagan he ran the White House communications office. He also became a familiar face on cable and television panel shows. In 1992 he challenged the sitting president, George H. W. Bush, in the Republican primaries. In 1996 he won the New Hampshire primary, beating Bob Dole. In 2000 he carried the Reform Party banner and took roughly 0.4 percent of the national vote. In 2002 he helped launch The American Conservative, and he stopped writing his column in 2023.

Political views

  • At the 1992 Republican convention he declared that America was in a cultural war, and he listed abortion, gay rights, church-run schools and women serving in combat as battlegrounds.Source: presidency.ucsb.edu
  • He is against abortion and has called for voluntary school prayer. He has also opposed treating same-sex couples as equal to married ones in law.Source: presidency.ucsb.edu
  • He is an economic nationalist who opposes free trade deals and the outsourcing of jobs.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • He argues for deep cuts in immigration and rejects multiculturalism. He sets these ideas out in State of Emergency and The Death of the West.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • He was against the war in Iraq and wanted troops brought home under a policy of non-intervention.Source: en.wikipedia.org
  • His 2000 campaign promised to take America out of the UN, abolish the IRS, drop the taxes on inheritances and capital gains, and end affirmative action.Source: en.wikipedia.org

Legacy

To his admirers, Buchanan was a pioneer on trade, immigration and overseas wars, issues that moved toward the center of the Republican Party later on. Many commentators observe that Donald Trump's 2016 campaign echoed themes Buchanan had pushed for decades. Critics call his stance on immigration and culture nativist. In 1991 the writer William F. Buckley Jr. said he found it impossible to clear Buchanan of antisemitism accusations, but he stopped short of calling him an antisemite. The Anti-Defamation League described him as an unrepentant bigot. In 2011 MSNBC suspended him after his book Suicide of a Superpower appeared, and it ended his contract the next year.

In their own words

“There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself.”
Address to the Republican National Convention, Houston, 1992

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Pat Buchanan: questions

What is paleoconservatism?

It is an American conservative tradition that puts national sovereignty first, wants fewer immigrants, shields home industry from imports, avoids foreign wars and holds to older social values. Its best-known politician is Buchanan.

What did Buchanan say in his 1992 convention speech?

Bush had just beaten him for the nomination, and Buchanan backed Bush. He then described a religious and cultural struggle over the nation's future, naming abortion and gay rights among the fronts.

Did Pat Buchanan ever win a primary?

Yes. He took New Hampshire in 1996, beating Bob Dole. He had also run in the 1992 Republican primaries, and in 2000 he ran for the Reform Party instead.

Sources

Portrait: Patrickjbuchanan.JPG by Bbsrock, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and converted to grayscale by 12axes-test.com.