Buchanan and the GOP

Arianna Huffington’s Sept. 26 commentary on Pat Buchanan exposes one of the many contradictions of the Republican Party. They begged him to stay, swearing there was plenty of room in the “big tent” to accommodate him and his followers. Now that it appears he is going to leave, they suddenly have no room for him, rejecting his views as racist and anti-Semitic. That a conservative columnist with the recognition of Huffington would attack Pat with such venom demonstrates how frightened the GOP is of Buchanan and his potential defection.

Buchanan and his views represent a substantial portion of GOP voters. Whatever party he runs under, Pat is forever going to be linked to the Republicans. Fifty years of scapegoating and race-baiting cannot be excised by piling on Buchanan. Like a drunken uncle, Pat and his followers will always be an integral part of the Republican movement. I am no Republican, and would never vote for Buchanan, but I welcome his courage and respect the exposure he is giving to the underbelly of the “compassionate” party.

BOB MUELLER

San Diego

* Frequent news articles and opinion columns have addressed Buchanan’s political intentions and prospects. It is clear that he hopes to cloak his nativist, self-important and constricted view of this country in the resources of federal campaign financing to seek credibility and a wider audience.

I don’t know if he is (or is not) at heart an ethnic-cleansing, anti-Semitic prig, but his recent writings and speeches call for no more than a two-word response from tolerant, democracy-respecting pluralists: Never again!

DAVID COHEN

Bakersfield

* I cannot believe the Republicans are this worried about Buchanan running as an independent and drawing off Republican votes. Yes, the true conservatives will come out of the woodwork to vote for Buchanan but that will be a drop in the bucket compared to the labor vote he will draw.

In spite of all the hype the press has put on Buchanan’s book and the assertions of racism, all Buchanan has to say is, “If you don’t vote for me, the globalists in the two major parties will export your job to Mexico, then Taiwan and ultimately to Red China and import their excess labor back to undercut your wages” (which is the truth), and working people will leave the major parties in droves.

He is a bigger threat to the Democrats than the Republicans. In a presidential debate, Buchanan will make George W. Bush, Al Gore and Bill Bradley look like the three stooges that they are. Stooges for the New World Order and the World Trade Organization.

Go, Pat, go!

MICHAEL A. PACER

Glendora