Here’s a news flash to you diehard supporters of Patrick J. Buchanan:
he’s going to lose Nov. 7, and he’s going to lose big. So
big, in fact, that the Reform Party probably won’t qualify for federal
campaign funds in 2004 — funds so hotly contested this year by Buchanan
and that other Reform candidate, John Hagelin.
And here’s another flash: it won’t make one bit of difference whether
Pat is, or is not,
on the ballot in Michigan.
So, those of you still contemplating writing hateful e-mail messages to WorldNetDaily after yesterday’s Michigan ballot story can save your wrists a little keyboard-induced ergonomics trouble. Your protestations of being “robbed” by Michigan Secretary of State Candice Miller are falling on deaf ears. At least, mine are deaf to them.
Having said that, readers of this column also know that earlier in this campaign cycle I praised Buchanan for his strength, his character and his motivation to seek the presidency against all odds yet one more time.
Say what?
It’s true. I’m a huge Buchanan fan; I’m just not a fan of the Reform Party in its present form.
When Hagelin came into the picture and the Reform Party began to self-destruct, I knew then with certainty that Buchanan was aboard a sinking ship —
filled with political malcontents and
discontents who are in the Reform Party because they can’t find a home in any other political party.
For the record, I don’t know whether Buchanan or Hagelin is most to blame for the Reform Party’s internally-engineered bout of destruction. But it doesn’t matter because I don’t care, either. At this stage of the game, it doesn’t make a damned bit of difference who is responsible for it.
But I do know this. Because of the infighting, the bickering, the “lose-at-all-costs” mentality, and the dual sabotage of each Reform Party contender’s candidacy this year, whatever legitimacy the party had in the early, heady days of Ross Perot is long, long gone. So too is its appeal.
Even the Green Party, led by consumer activist Ralph Nader — with his unreasonable, impossible and extremist leftist agenda — is doing better than Buchanan and Hagelin combined. What does that tell you about Pat’s chances of winning?
“But Dougherty,” you say, “Pat’s running on principle. He’s running because he believes in what he’s doing!”
Goody for him. That and a dollar bill will buy him a soda at a truck stop.
When all the votes are counted and the campaigns shut down for another four years, however, Pat will have made little real difference in the electorate. Because of the Reform Party’s shenanigans this election cycle, most voters won’t remember the “principles” Pat was running on. Instead, they’ll remember the bozos who had fistfights at the party’s leadership meetings and the handful of malcontents who walked out “to form their own Reform faction” at the party’s national convention.
That means Pat’s final presidential campaign (probably) will be remembered for what it was — a huge, expensive ($12.6 million of taxpayer money) joke.
Little of that may actually be Buchanan’s fault, but what a waste of his political talents nonetheless.
“What was he supposed to do?” you ask. “The Republicans wouldn’t have him.”
As I recall, some were glad to see him leave and others weren’t. The ones who weren’t predicted when he left that he was making a huge political mistake, and that the party (and Pat himself) would be better served if he stayed aboard.
They were right.
Granted, Buchanan has plenty to gripe about when it comes to the Republican Party. In many respects, indeed the party did “abandon” its core principles (one of his stated reasons for leaving). The GOP even managed to let the most corrupt president (and vice president) in history off the legal hook while a much-less-corrupt GOP president (Nixon) fell to Democrats years ago. Pitiful.
In principle, however, the GOP is still solidly conservative — like Buchanan. But by abandoning the Republican Big Tent, he also abandoned the only vehicle he could have used — realistically — to work for and effect the kinds of changes in politics and society he has sought. The Democrats sure aren’t going to implement them.
In short, he made a bad judgment call. And now look at him.
What becomes of Pat after Nov. 7? I don’t know, but personally I hope he finds his way back to the conservative mainstream — as a consultant, a leader, or just a shoulder to cry on. That’s where he can do the most good.
In the meantime, however, his supporters — many of whom need to tone down the reactionary anger that helped lead the Reform Party down the porcelain princess — better get used to the fact that Buchanan is going to be looking for some kind of work come Nov. 8.
