PAT BUCHANAN HANGS WITH JAMES EDWARDS

I found something of interest during a toilet perusal of the Southern Poverty Law Center's "Intelligence Report." I was at my Mom's house; she must give money to the SPLC or she wouldn't receive such a nice glossy rundown of the season's (in this case Fall 2007) white fringe threats.

An article covering the rise of white-supremacist Tennessee radio host James Edwards and his program "Political Cesspool" cites Pat Buchanan as a pivotal influence:

"[early in Edwards' development] he began reading the works of white nationalist politician and commentator Pat Buchanan, who appeared on 'Cesspool' last year... 'Buchanan was one of the first commentators that I noticed who really seemed to be speaking my language," Edwards told the Mid-South Patriot, a monthly Memphis newspaper, in a February interview. 'I felt as though he was articulating a message that resonated within me.' "

Edwards later worked on Buchanan's campaign for president in 2000.

Most Sunday's I watch the McLaughlin group, featuring Buchanan, for no good reason except to delay that day's workout. I even half-like a fraction of things he has to say about non-social issues (opposition to Iraq invasion, globalization, deficit). Pat does stuff for MSNBC. He comes across as not stupid, though torn up and confused about sex, religion and race in old, tiresome ways. Of course I was aware of his part in kicking off the "culture war" at the the 1992 Republican Convention, and his consistent broadcast of extreme social views. But this had been tempered for me by his acceptance into mainstream media programs where his wackiness was in the background. And of course he was embedded in the Republican mainstream with his work for the Nixon and Reagan administrations. So I was surprised to see that he would take the step of making appearances on this Edwards show, Political Cesspool. The program follows Edwards' strategy of slickifying hateful dogma for mainstream digestion (don't throw swastikas around, don't say the word nigger). The SPLC article points out how David Duke attempted this strategy but was dogged by photos of a swastika-wrapped youth.

Of course a quick Buchanan google reveals that I'm just uninformed. He does belong on this awful program. For the past 40 years he has been mainstreaming hate.

PS:
From Wiki, a bizarre irony- Alexander Haig approved Pat Buchanan's appointment as ambassador to South Africa, but Gerald Ford said no (hopefully "no fucking way").