RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events McCain in 08?

Buchanan is a conservative, but he is dissatisfied with the direction of the Republican party, which he sees as having diverted away from the pragmatic conservatism that existed from the time he served under Nixon, on up through the Reagan years.

He is definitely populist, and arguably relatively isolationist, but only isolationist to the extent of not getting involved in foreign wars and alliances that are not essential to the United States' sovereignty and security. He sees us as over-committed in an over-abundance of defense alliances that, since the Cold War ended, are unneccessary to U.S. national security, and have been bleeding us financially in the Bush Sr., Clinton and W.Bush years. NATO, SEATO, Korea, Taiwan, Bosnia Kosovo, Somalia, Haiti... plus military aid and foreign aid to a wide variety of countries that would hate us with without our aid, and arguably do anyway (Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, Indonesia...)



True conservatism is about smaller government, reduced fiscal spending, balanced budgets, protecting our borders and national defense, limiting military use to foreign situations that directly threaten us (i.e., avoiding foreign entanglements), and protecting the unity and best interests of U.S. citizens.

Since the Bush Sr years, Republicans have been compromising American interests, and Conservative Republican core beliefs, in exchange for artificially sustained Republican power from 1994-2006.
And along with the Democrats, selling out the U.S. and its people to corporate interests, NAFTA and offshoring.
(Bush Sr. was elected to be Reagan II, but oversaw huge domestic spending by Congress and also raised taxes, and did not use his veto power, and largely due to the Gulf war, oversaw a huge rise in the federal deficit, as well as encouraging NAFTA and offshoring, that were passed under Clinton).

And we've been on a snowballing treadmill of offshoring factories and jobs ever since , excessive corporate-serving rampant immigration (both legal and illegal) for which U.S. taxpayers are picking up the tab while corporations reap the benefits of their cheap labor. Plus huge trade deficits ($800 billion annually, the last time I looked), and skyrocketing national debt as a percentage of GNP, together resulting in a falling dollar-value globally, that collectively are seriously threatening our lifestyle and sovereignty.

I think Buchanan is (like myself) at his heart and soul a Republican Conservative, but he is leveraging for productive change within his party.

I think he outlines this best in his 2004 book, Where the Right Went Wrong.