Correspondence
Correspondence Pat, Conservative of the Heart Iwould like to comment on your editorial "The Buchanan Challenge" (Mar. 4). I completely agree that Buchanan's bizarre mix of social conservatism and...
...Chris Brahmstedt Arlington, VA Your Buchanan editorial was probably the worst to date...
...But the editorial's greatest shortcoming was not the incoherent characterization of Buchanan (Pat's a big boy and can defend himself...
...From the tone of your editorial, it seems you're miffed that you've been left by the wayside from the Buchanan landslide...
...First, Jude has consistently provided extraordinarily accurate advice and observations about the markets and the economy...
...As to Buchanan's so-called isolationism, it is, rightly understood, very similar to the conservatism of the orthodox Jew, Christian, or Muslim...
...Its first responsibility is to citizens, not the protectionist unions...
...Repeal of the Ashurst-Sumners restrictions on interstate commerce in prison-made goods is a vital beginning But bureaucratic resistance must be overcome...
...A quick check of the State Department's list of ambassadors shows the nominee is now Hon...
...Christopher H. Zakian New York, NY Pat's Diverse Peasantry Tucker Carlson completely distorts his conversation with me ("Jews for Buchanan," Mar...
...Second, in the tradition of intellectually honest policy-makers, Wanniski constantly calibrates his insights and understandings...
...You know who you should speak to...
...and we do not support quotas around here...
...I responded, not in "debatespeak," but with a touch of humor...
...The spirit of Lee Atwater lives as the GOP's big tent stretches to accommodate many dialects and languages...
...Buchanan's hostility to this Washington forgetfulness and his forthright attitude toward Americans add an honest person to the presidential race, one whom the Republican party and The Weekly Standard should recognize...
...in the same sentence...
...It is these addenda to the nature of risk and societal flux that so threaten the established order in Washington...
...His economic ideas are, frankly, childish, and we can probably leave it at that- after acknowledging that even childish ideas have an attraction, especially when delivered with Buchanan's enthusiasm and conviction...
...In the second half of the article, Carlson writes that Derek Shearer's ambassadorial nomination was stopped in the Senate...
...Gregory Stanko Silver Spring, MD...
...As a decade-and-a-half client of Wanniski, I can readily attest to the substantive quality of his work conveniently ignored by Ferguson...
...Morgan Reynolds Bryan, TX Fixing Our Own House As Larry Arnn notes, Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech was indeed great ("How Winston Churchill Can Save Us-Again," Mar...
...When I asked if Orthodox Jews support Buchanan, Forbes said, "There's a good amount of support...
...Manuel Antonio Lopez Keene, NH Your savage challenge to Patrick Buchanan leaves fellow conservatives wondering how the Republican tent could fill with such unqualified actors...
...Gregg M. Turner Keene, NH The attempts of neoconservatives to pretend to be conservative while seeking to remain "respectable" in the eyes of liberals leave such a bad taste in my mouth that I am forced to come to the defense of Patrick Buchanan...
...Medved's a Buchanan supporter...
...in part because almost all his policy proposals deserve to be dismissed...
...Indeed, his style is most like that of an old-line Catholic priest...
...Buchanan's fusion of ideas is hardly new...
...Derek Shearer, U.S...
...He might remind us that in the 1930s his speeches advised Britons to repair their own house first...
...Near the end of our conversation, I remembered that the movie critic Michael Medved had spoken at one of Buchanan's American Cause dinners...
...May I suggest def and ergo, or homey and Zeitgeist...
...But we should show a little more integrity and dignity when we attempt to bring order to our house...
...Ambassador to Finland...
...His rhetoric is like a boiled-down version of C.S...
...This is an achievement of unique, if dubious, distinction...
...Along these lines, your continuing dismissal of Steve Forbes's candidacy is a mystery to me...
...Buchanan's "conservatism of the heart," on the other hand, is not an idle slogan...
...I thought it was an offensive and thoughtless request...
...I completely agree that Buchanan's bizarre mix of social conservatism and Gephardtian protectionist economics can only lead the GOP back into the minority status its adherence to Dole-style pragmatism locked Republicans into for 40 years...
...Buchanan's populism symbolizes what America wants-strict conservatism, not the conservative/liberal views espoused by Dole and company...
...By the way, I thought voters determined whom the party nominates, not Washington insiders...
...It also means allowing private-prison operators to "profit" from the employment of convict labor, repealing the state-use system that grants a captive market for the shoddy products of prison industries, and implementing an English rule in which prisoners can lose as well as gain in prisoner litigation against work...
...Stephen W. Shipman Los Angeles, CA Ambassador of Finland Ihave enjoyed reading your magazine as it finds its stride...
...Carlson proved that he will do anything, write anything, and even make insidious requests to reach his ultimate goal: stop Buchanan...
...I asked...
...Inmates Should Work Andrew Peyton Thomas's "Jailhouse Work" (Mar...
...I was not "strangely uncomfortable" when he asked me for a list of Jewish supporters...
...Government should step aside...
...We did not have a list...
...4) correctly echoes Jeremy Bentham's sentiment when Bentham urged replacement of the jails of his day by "mills for grinding rogues honest and idle men industrious...
...This means measures like an enterprise-recruiting office in the prison system and modest prison bonuses for progress toward financial self-sufficiency...
...In the past, Dole has voiced conservative views and then forgotten them on Capitol Hill...
...Oh yeah," replied Forbes...
...He is the opposite of the fiscally conservative, socially liberal Republicans: those soulless calculators who want their tax cut as well as the license to "take care" of their girlfriends...
...If it is not, then maybe the whole show from 1776, or 1688, needs to be reexamined, something one can be sure THE WEEKLY STANDARD won t do...
...The solution is competitive enterprise...
...Michael Medved...
...Not since the Scottish Enlightenment have we witnessed such men whose insights have enhanced our understanding of ethics, economics, psychology, and sociology...
...I will be looking forward to coming issues to see further imaginative couplings of ghetto slang with foreign words...
...Forbes McLean, VA Tucker Carlson Responds: To refresh Forbes's memory, here's how our conversation went...
...D. Muir Hutton Orleans, MA Jude, Modern Intellectual Contrary to the caricature by Andrew Ferguson ("The Way the Jude Works," Mar...
...Perhaps the most important quote was "I come to you at a time when the United States stands at the highest point of majesty and power ever attained by any community since the fall of the Roman Empire...
...I will rely on you to continue to keep me politically and linguistically up to date...
...Let's face it: They both stink...
...Trying to assist Carlson, from the top of my head I threw out two names: Rabbi Yahuda Levin [sic] and Rabbi Aryeh Spero...
...4), Jude Wanniski, like Irving Kristol and George Gilder, is one of the most important public-policy figures of modern times...
...The advice you give them on what they need to say against Buchanan can be understood only as a joke...
...Sincerely doing my best to help Carlson, as a deputy press secretary should, I was used...
...we did not break down our supporters...
...Perhaps his tweaking your publication as "The Beltway Standard" has provoked more anxiety than your editors can bear...
...I never suggested that "anyone looking to understand the depth of Buchanan's appeal" should call Medved...
...Lewis's The Abolition of Man...
...As a Cuban who grew up in Miami, I have to wonder whether anyone at THE WEEKLY STANDARD has ever visited the southern United States...
...Let me get it straight: Buchanan is a leftist and a voice of anti-Americanism...
...What is to be done about Pat...
...we should halt illegal immigration...
...Yet there was a factual error in Tucker Carlson's "The Hidden Politics of 'Personality Parade'" (Mar...
...The general press, the Republican party, and Buchanan's penchant for combativeness have succeeded in making him a pariah candidate (a designation that one imagines is not unattractive to Buchanan...
...he is analogous to George McGovern and peddles a hidden Marxist subtext in his economic message...
...One might think that the country begun by the Puritans is a little closer to satisfying the deepest longings of many Americans than the European common market of the Rockefeller Republicans...
...Not satisfied to accept supply-side policy solely in terms of recent popular nostrums, Wanniski alone has sought to incorporate the behavioral insights of Reuven Brenner and the social maxims of Abraham Lincoln...
...Our country in effect pays people to break the immigration laws by providing welfare, medical payments, and costly bilingual education: In California, for example, one third of all public assistance goes to immigrant-headed households...
...Many for-profit enterprises would love to hire convict labor and most convicts want to work...
...Yet state, local, and federal lockups today control a huge asset, convict labor, and largely waste its productive potential...
...Your editorial states that Buchanan is "so easy to dismiss...
...Churchill, looking at America today, might make a different speech...
...Buchanan has a simple philosophy: Abortion is wrong...
...It was your suggestion that candidates like Dole or Alexander are capable of picking up the rhetorical gauntlet Buchanan has thrown down...
...Is it indicative of our inclusiveness now that we are the majority party...
...I thought it could be a good lead, but never suggested he was a "Buchanan booster...
...Unwilling to give up the rich faith which has formed his people over the ages, Buchanan forgoes being liked and respected by the world in order to remain what he is...
...Florida is being devastated by the costs of providing welfare and schooling for refugees from Nicaragua and Cuba...
...He might be the only Republican candidate who could lose to Clinton...
...K.B...
...According to you, we do not need to be protected from "Spanish-speaking hordes...
...Miami still has not recovered from the jump in the crime rate from the Mariel exodus...
...and jobs are the number one priority of the president...
...What I found rather odd was your use of the words "dissed" and "outr...
Vol. 1 • March 1996 • No. 26
