Pattie, Pattie, Puke, Puke

In South Florida, you have ample opportunity to observe people as they age. As the years pass, it appears that minor idiosyncrasies are amplified and small character flaws are magnified. The person who you knew in his/her late 40s and 50s is often not the same person as he/she passes into his/her sixth or seventh decade of life. If the person in question begins with only minor blemishes, the transformation is no big deal. But if a person begins with serious flaws, the transformation can be downright repulsive.

Patrick J. Buchanan, a long-time conservative celebrity, spokesperson, and writer falls into the latter category. Throughout his career, Buchanan has been on the wrong side of most issues that matter to the American Center, whether it's reproductive rights, immigration, or global trade. His antipathy toward Israel and his not-so-subtle anti-Semitism are well documented. That was then.

As the years have passed, every flaw in Buchanan’s character has been magnified and the result is not pretty. Today, he has become a revisionist pseudo-historian suggesting the onset of World War II was caused not by Nazi Germany’s dark ambitions, but by oppressive behavior on the part of England and other European allies. In a recentscreed at TownHall.com, he writes:

The Holocaust was not a cause of the war, but a consequence of the war. No war, no Holocaust.

Poor Nazi-Germany, so oppressed, so misunderstood! According to Buchanan, the Nazis were forced into murdering 20 million people. They had no choice once they were attacked for invading inconsequential countries like— Poland.

It’s reasonable to state that Buchanan’s position is garbage. In a scathing condemnation of Buchanan’s historical accuracy, conservative historian Victor Davis Hanson writes:

Buchanan unfortunately is neither a reliable journalist nor an historian, and thus simply cannot be trusted to report accurately what is written.

It’s also reasonable to note that his isolationist, anti-War, anti-Semitic arguments support the notion that the far-Right and the far-Left are closer philosophically than either would care to admit.

Buchanan is aging badly (in an intellectual sense) and as a consequence, he has become an embarrassment to himself and to those on the Right who value rational thinking.