Insightful beyond the daily news | Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America...

You can't argue against history. | Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart | Patrick J. Buchanan

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	• Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart Patrick J. Buchanan Thomas Dunne Books, 2007 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 62 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Alarmist? We'd Better Hope So.

Pat Buchanan's is a rare voice, one that refuses to tote a party line, and instead seeks to grapple with some rather irrefutable facts. While I plan to do further reading from other perspectives on those aspects of the book I found most interesting or difficult to swallow, I thought it was a very lucid presentation.

As with most of his recent books, he criticizes our government (and those in a position to influence it) for maintaining various trappings of empire, ones that he believes will mean the end of the United States as the leader of the free world if they are not abandoned in short order. Thankfully, there's far less speculation about neocons and their motives than in "Where the Right Went Wrong". I would also read this book before "Death of the West", which is a little more overwrought.

Whatever you think of Buchanan (and especially if you think he's just a cranky racist, which I believe is flatly false), this book is well worth reading, and soon. I believe he has the facts squarely on his side in this case. Even if he's wrong on half his points, he's still prescribing necessary medicine.

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Insightful beyond the daily news

Pat Buchanan has condensed United States history and our economy from World War II to the present time, used language we all understand, opened our eyes and cleared our minds to allow for reality to set in.

It is a make sense book. Mr. Buchanan has used his years in politics and studying American history to wake up the reader. Do you know why the U.S. has become the policeman of the world? Do you know why our one time national industries are now owned by foreign concerns? Do you know how and why our country has been falling apart for years since WWII?

If you know these answers, buy the book anyway. You will still learn something new. If you don't know the answers, buy the book. You will understand how un-united we have been as a result of greed and the superman attitude we have taken over the years. The American public has been told for decades by politicians that we are following a path for the betterment of our lives and the world. Wow, have we been duped.

The book is a good read for one that deals with history and the economy.

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You can't argue against history.

This is another 5-star book from Pat Buchanan on the subject of U.S. foreign policy.
While he does repeat some of the information from past books, "Day of Reckoning" is less of a history lesson than past offerings.

Buchanan, like Lou Dobbs and Jerome Corsi is highly critical of the secret plan for the North American Union and NAFTA Superhighway. It's pursued for the benefit of transnational elites at the expense of our sovereignty.

This book is a scathing critique of Bush's National Security Strategy(Bush Doctrine) which is fueled in large part by the "Wolfowitz Memorandum".

As Burke stated "Great empires and small minds go ill together." We are seeing the manifestation of that right now. Buchanan correctly points out that "terrorism is the price of empire."

Ignorance of history, arrogance, and ideology are all equal parts of the Bush Doctrine.
Perpetual war does not bring perpetual peace. Thus the allergic reaction to anything resembling diplomacy.

The history of a mission to make the whole world a democracy traces back to Wilson and it failed as miserably then as it does now. True to form, yet today, those who oppose the global democracy myth are labeled "isolationists." The author accurately argues that George Bush has done more than any other one man to isolate our country with his foreign policy blunders.
Buchanan points out that a fundamental flaw with that quest for worldwide democracy is that Islamists don't normally embrace freedom of religion.

His thoughts on free trade are on point. He explains why Marx favored free trade. That was interesting as well as who really profits from the "global economy".
"Free trade puts the claims of consumers ahead of the duties of citizens. And history has proven free trade to be both a serial killer of manufacturing and a Trojan horse of transnational government." a well written quote from page 222.

Buchanan cites a few quotes from Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire", another excellent author on the subject of errant U.S. foreign policy.

He also offers a sensible 10 point solution to the illegal immigration problem and suggests routing the decision whether to go to war or not the Constitutional way- through Congress.

"Day of Reckoning" may be Pat Buchanan's best book yet. I recommend it.

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Buchanan notes a multitude of problems

Many of the reviewers (most?) tend to note only the parts of this book with which they agree. There is some great information in here but the devil is in the details, as always. Thus, three stars.

Patrick Buchanan, the author, has written many similar books and is known for these best-sellers as well as being a long-time talking head representing conservatism on TV and also as a Presidential candidate in the Republican and Reform parties. He gave a speech in the Republican National Convention years ago that was credited for electing Bill Clinton. This is not really true, but is the interpretation that the liberal media put on this speech that I recommend as the last gasp of traditional conservatism in the Republican Party before the liberal neo-cons took over. You need to know Buchanan's history as you read this book because his opinions don't really fit into any pigeon-hole, they're best described as Buchananist rather than conservative or liberal.

For example, take Buchanan's views on Immigration. He lists excellent statistics and anecdotes demonstrating that immigration will be the death of the US as we know it. But his 10 steps to fix it are on page 245 and do not include items such as deportation, local government enforcing immigration laws and the like. Buchanan does call for a fence and enforcing employment laws. So is this conservative or liberal? All you can really call it is Buchanan.

The book is 250 pages and 8 chapters of Buchanan's opinion on the end of America as we know it. He notes our imperial overreach with American troops in over 150 countries and the huge outlays of our money to protect other places like Europe and Japan and Israel and Palestine and South Korea and ... well,you get the picture. This anti-imperialism is one of the strengths of Buchanan and this book, and it is hard to argue with as current events unfold. Even the liberals realize that something has got to give and are supporting "change" and "hope", rather than their usual tax and spend. (And I realize that change and hope are just euphemisms for theft from one group to give to another. I teach my children and youth groups how to spot idiocy in political speech by teaching them about the uselessness of the holy word "diversity". I ask them is diversity good. Usually 100% raise their hands. I then ask them is "frequency" good. A few less than 100% raise their hands, and a few look puzzled. Is frequency good in catching pneumonia? Of course not. Is it good in getting paid? Of course. So frequency by itself is meaningless? Yes, it is. Now take a simple math problem 2+2=4. I then list some diverse answers. 2+2=5, 2+2=3, etc. Now is diversity in answering this question a good thing or a bad thing? It is a bad thing. So whenever any idiot politician of any party says he is for meaningless things like diversity, change, reform, or hope, you should know that he is treating you like the idiots you are.)

Buchanan loves to quote Bush inanities along the same vein and then point out that Bush is wrong. If you're a Bush supporter, you will be very uncomfortable with this part of the book. Buchanan also does a great job on free-trade vs. protectionism and the de-industrialization of America with its resultant loss of good jobs and the middle-class. Read the book for this, if nothing else.

I have several problems with the book. First is that Buchanan basically says that Amreicanist principles like those in the Declaration of Independence are meaningless, political terms. If true, then nothing has meaning. I kind of think our right to life and such guide our politics and lead to pro-life, pro 2nd amendment type views. I won't surrender these to anyone and Buchanan kind of glosses over this. He posits four principles that all can unite behind now that the culture war is lost and we'll never agree on abortion, immigration etc. I disagree vehemently with Buchanan on these principles and I can't understand why reviewers give this book 5 stars unless they haven't read the book in depth and are voting because they like Buchanan and conservatism.

These principles are republicanism, federalism, localization, and democracy. These are vague terms, poorly defined by Buchanan. He defines republicanism as having our representatives rather than judges make our laws. He is of course correct, but this only works under a framework of laws like the Constitution and Common or Natural law. So Buchanan misses the root of our system which is morality and Constitutionalism. Federalism means the 50 states should decide matters like abortion etc. Kind of a State's Rights principle. (I'm making these points clearer than does Buchanan.) I'm not sure what Buchanan means unless he wants to let each state decide for themselves crucial cultural issues. But doesn't the Declaration empower the Federal Government with protecting life (forbidding abortion etc.)? I'm not sure how to make the Federal courts and government give this power to the states, and I don't want California making marriage based on nothing more than a shared perversion legal and forcing my state to accept it under the full faith and credit clause of Article 4.

I agree with letting the closest political unit make decisions for its people, as long as it is under the Declaration and Constitution. (The true meaning of Republicanism is rule by law, and not rule by judges OR representatives.) And the last principle, democracy, is one that Buchanan rails against in the rest of the book. Democracy, according to the US founders, is the worst form of government and always becomes a mobocracy like we are now seeing in the US as the majority now want to raise taxes on the minority that makes more than them (Is this really taxation with representation, if my representatives have no power to represent me?). More than 50% of the people now derive a significant portion of their income from the government along with myriad unearned benefits from free drugs to inadequately funded retirement pyramid schemes (social security). Like Tytler noted so long ago, democracies only last until the people figure out they can vote benefits to themselves taken from others. So I am puzzled at Buchanan championing this particular un-American principle. In America, the people rule under moral, God-given rights and a Constitution to protect those rights. We were never intended to be a popularity club where the guy that tells the biggest lies and promises the most gets elected.

Parts of the book repeat what I think Buchanan said better in earlier books (particularly The Death of the West: How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization). So overall, three stars for the reasons mentioned. Vincet Veritas and Long Live the Republic!

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America is coming apart at the seams. Forces foreign and domestic seek an end to U.S. sovereignty and independence. Before us looms the prospect of an America breaking up along the lines of race, ethnicity, class and culture. In Day of Reckoning, Pat Buchanan reveals the true existential crisis of the nation and shows how President Bush?s post-9/11 conversion to an ideology of ?democratism? led us to the precipice of strategic disaster abroad and savage division at home.
Ideology, writes Buchanan, is a Golden Calf, a false god, a secular religion that seeks vainly, like Marxism, to create a paradise on earth.
While free enterprise is good, the worship of a ?free trade? that is destroying the dollar, de-industrializing America, and ending our economic independence, is cult madness. While America must stand for freedom and self-determination, the use of U.S. troops to police the planet or serve as advance guard of some ?world democratic revolution? is, as Iraq shows, imperial folly that will bring ruin to the republic. While America should speak out for human rights, the idea that we get in Russia?s face and hand out moral report cards to every nation on earth is moral arrogance. While we have benefited from immigration and the melting pot worked with millions of Europeans, the idea we can import endless millions of aliens, legal and illegal, from every culture, clime, creed, and continent on earth, and still remain a country, is absurd.
To save America the first imperative is to remove from power the ideologues of both parties who have nearly killed our country.
In his final chapter, Buchanan lays out ideas to prevent the end of America. He calls for a bottom-up review of all of America?s Cold War commitments, a ten-point program to secure America?s borders, ideas to halt the erosion of our national sovereignty and restore our manufacturing preeminence and economic independence, and a formula for finding the way to a cold peace in the culture wars.
Buchanan offers a radical but necessary program, for neither party is addressing the real crisis of America -- whether we survive as one nation and people, or disintegrate into what Theodore Roosevelt called a ?tangle of squabbling nationalities? and not a nation at all. IN THIS EYE-OPENING BOOK, PAT BUCHANAN REVEALS THE PERILOUS PATH OUR NATION HAS TAKEN:

- Pax Americana -- the era of U.S. global dominance -- is over.

- A struggle for world hegemony among the United States, China, a resurgent Russia and radical Islam has begun.

- Torn apart by a culture war, America has begun to Balkanize and break down along class, cultural, ethnic, and racial lines.

- Free trade is hollowing out U.S. industry, destroying the dollar, and plunging the country into permanent dependency and unpayable debt.

- One of every six U.S. manufacturing jobs vanished under Bush.

- The Third World invasion through Mexico is a graver threat to U.S. survival than anything happening in Afghanistan or Iraq.

?IS OUR DAY OF RECKONING JUST AHEAD?

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