Do you remember Pat Buchanan, the one-time Republican candidate who challenged incumbent President George H.W. Bush for the presidency in 1992? As Adam Nagourney reports in the New York Times, twenty years ago Buchanan raised many issues that resonate more than ever today within the Republican Party. These included abortion “on demand,” homosexual rights, and discrimination against religious schools. Very rarely does an orator at a convention pave a way that is actually followed by his or her party. But Buchanan helped motivate and crystallize the Republican Party to advance their extreme right social and economic agendas. In ways that have been both subtle and obvious, he has succeeded. Now, we are paying the price through gridlock, and perhaps even worse, one-party right wing control.
