Thread: BUCHANAN TO GOP: TOLD YOU SO!

BUCHANAN TO GOP: TOLD YOU SO!

'What we warned against in the 1990s has come to pass in the 21st century'

Published: 2 days ago

Pat Buchanan is putting the Republican Party and the conservative movement on notice: Listen to Donald Trump or become irrelevant.

“What we warned against in the Buchanan campaigns of the 1990s has come to pass in the 21st century,” Buchanan told WND. “Trump’s success in the Republican Party is due to how he has seized the issue of illegal immigration, condemned the trade deals designed to strip the nation of the greatest manufacturing base the world had ever seen, and challenged compulsive intervention in unending Middle East wars where no vital interest of the United States was imperiled. Trump is directing a powerful searchlight on the consequences of the failed Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama policies on all these fronts.”

Buchanan, a New York Times bestselling author, television commentator and syndicated columnist, electrified America during his presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996. When running for office, Buchanan sounded many themes that would sound familiar to Trump supporters, including opposition to so-called “free trade,” the need to stop illegal immigration, especially from Mexico, and skepticism of American military interventions that don’t serve American interests.

Like Trump in 2016, Buchanan was able to shock the political world with a victory over the Republican establishment in the 1996 New Hampshire primary. However, Buchanan only won three other states that year, eventually losing the Republican nomination to Bob Dole, who then lost to Bill Clinton.

Unlike Buchanan, Trump’s victory in New Hampshire was only the beginning of his march to the front of the Republican pack. On Tuesday, Trump won every Republican primary except Gov. John Kasich’s home state of Ohio. He even crushed Marco Rubio by almost 20 points in Rubio’s home state of Florida, knocking the onetime conservative favorite out of the race.

Buchanan believes Trump’s success shows his own message has only grown more relevant with time, as the negative effects of mass immigration and economic globalization have continued to punish the country. He argues it is time for the American Right to shift away from old solutions and embrace a different kind of conservatism than that which operated under George W. Bush.

“Economic patriotism, ethno-nationalism, populism, America First, anti-interventionism except when America is under attack – these ideas are the future of the Republic,” Buchanan said. “If the Republican Party in 2016 re-embraces the same old neocon policies that have so dismally failed the nation, the party will lose more than the 2016 election. It will forfeit its future.”I

But not everyone agrees, as both the Republican Party and the conservative movement are fiercely divided on whether to accept or resist Trump and his nationalist message.

On Thursday, self-described “conservative leaders” are meeting to plot a possible third-party challenge to Trump if he wins the GOP nomination. Several pundits and writers are also calling for a “blacklist” to punish anyone in the conservative movement who has supported Trump.

Matt Walsh, a contributor at The Blaze, called Trump supporters “traitors,” listing Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Robert Jeffress among others.

Amanda Carpenter, a former staffer for Ted Cruz and current commentator on CNN, also endorsed the idea of a “blacklist.”

And Trump himself, despite his advantage in delegates, may have his toughest battles ahead in the fight for the GOP nomination. Despite losing every contest on Tuesday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz rejected conciliation and argued only he has the potential to defeat Donald Trump in upcoming primary states. Cruz especially urged Marco Rubio’s supporters to join him. Cruz also said he had “zero interest” in serving as Trump’s vice president.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich is still in the race and has promised to contend for the nomination all the way to the GOP convention in Cleveland. His defeat of Trump and his seizure of Ohio’s 66 delegates in Tuesday’s winner-take-all primary increased the odds Trump will face a contested convention. As it is mathematically impossible for Kasich to acquire the 1,237 delegates needed, a contested convention is the only way Kasich could become the nominee anyway.

Yet Kasich is unlikely to win over many conservatives, although he calls himself one. He supports Common Core and amnesty for illegal immigrants and has defended Obamacare on biblical grounds.

Despite continuing opposition to Trump, some Republicans already seem to be focusing on the general-election campaign against presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. In a sign of growing acceptance of his status as the presumptive nominee, Trump picked up the endorsement of Florida Gov. Rick Scott on Wednesday. In a post on his official Facebook page, Gov. Scott urged Republicans to “get serious” and “coalesce behind Donald Trump.”

“If we spend another four months tearing each other apart, we will damage our ability to win,” Scott warned.
Trump himself is also training his social media firepower on Hillary Clinton, rather than his Republican opponents. His newly released Instagram mini-ad mocks Hillary Clinton for barking like a dog at a rally and suggests a Clinton administration would make America a “punchline” to other nations.

Taking in all of these developments, Buchanan argues larger issues are at stake that the conservative movement needs to grapple with rather than ignore. Rather than launching internal purges or going all-out to destroy Trump, Buchanan urges conservatives to actually discuss and understand the policies and motivations powering the front-runner's campaign.

"As for the conservative movement, either it accommodates the forces unleashed in the election of 2016, or it becomes a debating society and a think-tank cult," Buchanan said.


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/03/buchanan-...3mXUZy0fr7R.99