Buchanan Picks Sour Grapes

Charles de Gaulle retired from French politics with the dismissive claim that “France is not worthy of me.” Pat Buchanan, facing a third rejection in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, has decided that the party no longer merits his loyalty. Like the Democratic Party, it has become “a fraud upon the nation,” he said Monday in a statement overflowing with the sour grapes of wrath. Buchanan announced he will seek the Reform Party’s presidential nomination in a “last chance to save our Republic before she disappears into a Godless new world order.”

If nothing else, credit Buchanan with thinking and talking big. Whether his notions will find any greater acceptance under the Reform banner than they did when he was running as a Republican is another matter.

Not that Buchanan has the Reform nomination in the bag. Shortly afer Buchanan announced he was bolting the Republican Party, real estate billionaire Donald Trump confirmed that he is too, and will decide early next year whether to seek the Reform Party’s nomination. Like Steve Forbes, Trump is in the happy position of being able to finance a presidential campaign with his ATM card. But having great piles of money isn’t the same thing as being able to forcefully articulate ideas. Buchanan has that gift, off-putting though many of his notions are. Trump has yet to demonstrate that he should be taken seriously in the arena of ideas.

How Buchanan’s social agenda will sit with Reform Party activists is a key question. Ross Perot mobilized the faithful in 1992 in support of a balanced budget, paying off the federal debt, campaign finance reform and trade restrictions. Buchanan is comfortable with these positions. But the Reform Party also tends to be neutral on such issues as abortion and prayer in schools, and its platform urges “tolerance of the customs, beliefs and private actions of all persons which do not infringe upon the rights of others.” Tolerance is not a word that springs to mind when Buchanan’s name comes up.

Third parties in the United States don’t win elections, but by taking votes from the major parties, they can sometimes rearrange the political landscape. That’s why Texas Gov. George W. Bush pleaded with Buchanan not to jump ship, to the chagrin of others in the party who hoped Buchanan would take his sometimes bizarre world view and go away. That he has now done. The Reform Party meets next August to choose its presidential candidate. This campaign probably marks Buchanan’s last hurrah. Expect him to go all-out for that prize.