Judd at Think Progress notes some remarkable passages from Pat Buchanan’s new book in which he argues that European success was a genetic trait linked to whiteness and that if America loses its European-descended majority, then America is lost:
America faces an existential crisis. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2024 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived.[...]
In 1994, Sam Francis, the syndicated columnist and editorial writer for the Washington Times…volunteered this thought:
“The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people, nor is there any reason to believe that the civilization can be successfully transmitted by a different people.”
Had Francis said this of Chinese civilization and the Chinese people, it would have gone unnoted. But he was suggesting Western civilization was superior and that only Europeans could have created it. If Western peoples perish, as they are doing today, Francis was implying, we must expect our civilization to die with us.
There is a major problem with this thinking: that America’s survival as America is linked directly to a majority of its citizens being of European descent (whatever that means, as even across Europe there are substantial variations. Is Pat talking Norwegian or Italian? Greek or German? British or Ukrainian?)
America is about certain ideas and values, not the color of the skin or the genetic material of its inhabitants. And America will not cease to exists if the European descended types are no longer an absolute majority. Heck, as it is there is a substantial percentage of American that aren’t descended from white Europeans, yet we thrive.
Further, Pat needs to do some homework: given that Latin America is made up of a large number of mestizos–i.e., persons whose ancestors are a mix of indigenous persons and, *gasp* persons of European descent, then I am not sure what the big deal is. If the issue is really making sure we have plenty of genetic material that can be traced back to the Mother Continent, then really, what’s the problem with a little Latin blood?
Also: is Pat saying that Thomas Sowell, Clarence Thomas, Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell, Alberto Gonzalez, and so forth are all incapable of being truly American because they aren’t descended from white Europeans? And how would he explain the success of democracy in un-European places like Japan?
There is another major problem with the Pat’s reasoning (I use the word advisedly), and that is the linkage to the demographic shift that is predicted by 2024 as being a creature solely of immigration–it is not. Rather, part of that shift is just internal trends. Yes, more Americans of non-European hues having babies. But the important part is the “American” part, not the hue part.
Now, should we be making sure that those who are new Americans are assimilated into America? Absolutely. But as David Weigel (blogging at Sully’s place) notes, the mere presence of Hispanics hasn’t meant the diminution of America:
this idea that Mexican immigration will topple the nationhood and traditions of European-Americans is nine parts alarmism and one part B.S.Can anyone point me to the border towns where democracy has collapsed, supplanted by Latin American-style caudillos? Have Arizona, California, and the rest of the Southwest become less American or less loyal?
Indeed, not.
(As a side note: there are plenty of places (i.e., most) in Latin America where there aren’t any “Latin American style caudillos” in charge–Weigel falls into a little stereotyping there, but the broader point stands.)
Having lived a substantial part of my life in SoCal and in Texas, I can attest that there are plenty of Americans of hispanic derivation who are exactly that: Americans. (And, btw, some of them are rather light skinned–maybe that will help Pat breathe a tad easier).
Yes, I am getting a bit cranky on this subject, but it is because I am getting tired of these ridiculous arguments (another recent example here). I am not, however, surprised to hear this from Buchanan.
It is grandly ironic, given Pat’s own background, that a century ago it was Irish Catholics who were seen to be a scourge that would wreck the United States (for more see the updated release of Michael Barone’s book The New Americans).
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August 22nd, 2024 at 10:08 pm
Nicely said.
Funnily enough, exactly the same kinds of argument are applied by Islamophobes like Steyn as they contemnplate the supposed takeover of Europe - and for mostly the same reason, pure bogotry.
Regards, Cernig
August 23rd, 2024 at 12:11 am
Immigration Moratorium?
I shouldn’t be outraged by Pat Buchanan’s call for an Immigration Moratorium to protect White America as Eminem would say, but I am. Buchanan has a new book State of Emergency in which he does the same thing as in
August 23rd, 2024 at 3:18 am
First, let me say excellent review and I shall link to this and comment greatly on this. Also you might check my blogs and see some more suprising quotes from Sam Francis I think I have found
First to Cernig. I would careful of calling Steyns view extremist or radical. In fact care should be taken to expalin what is happening in Europr is not happening here and that this is two situations. Needless to say from what we are seeing in the NEtherlands Belgium and other parts of Europe is not assimilation to a large degree. That is troublesome. It is troublesome from the Pope on down to the common person. I am am not a Islamic phobe but I am a foe of Radical Islam. Right now I am not sure if that is what we are seeing gaining ascendancy in Europre. I pray not
MOving on again excellent review. A few thoughts on this past year. We must make this a bi partsain issue. Really, I dont mena to pretend like it is but actually join forces. Many Republicans that have supported a comprehensive approach have felt fairly or unfairly that we are taking all the political heat. That has to change. A common sense comprehensive appraoch that address the problems of assimilation, border security, and economic concerns of all parties is needed. This stuff that Pat Buchanan is spreading needs to be stopped now. Also the Tanton groups must be exposed that help generate this.
August 24th, 2024 at 12:00 am
If Europe will cease to exist, or be changed so much as to have its institutions unalterably changed by Islamic immigration, why will the United States and its institutions be unchanged by Mexican and Central American immigration? These peples have little if any experience in self-government-to the contrary, graft and bribery is the order of the day in those countries. Latin countries have absolutely no history of limited government. Why do we think that their walking across the US border will make them believers in law and American institutions? To the contrary, this very act of lawbreaking will only encourage them to believe, as they obviously do, that American law is as meaningless as the law in the countries they came from. And how exactly do you propose to assimilate the millions of people coming from one part of the globe who speak the same language and same the same cultural assumptions? This is a recipe for irredentist disaster. So many simple minded Libertarians so “abolish the welfare state”-like that’s ever going to happen. We will learn the hard way, as Europe is learning, that religious, linguistic and cultural ties are not erased when the assimilation machine is broken, Nothing but racial strife and blood shed are in our future if we do not get a handle on this. If you think that is an exaggeration please go to Los Angeles and open you eyes to the Brown-Black strugge going on there daily.
August 24th, 2024 at 2:06 pm
Islam, at least orthodox Islam, is an ideological religion in a way Judaism and Christianity are not. Imagine if all the Mexican immigrants to the USA were Zapatistas and you’ll have some idea of the difference between us and the folks across the pond.
September 21st, 2024 at 3:51 pm
[...] One of my students chose for their commentator book Pat Buchanan’s State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. The book, about which I have commented before, contains the following passage: America faces an existential crisis. If we do not get control of our borders, by 2024 Americans of European descent will be a minority in the nation their ancestors created and built. No nation has ever undergone so radical a demographic transformation and survived. [...]