Firedoglake posted this video on YouTube of Pat Buchanan talking to Rachel Maddow saying that white people built this country.
Must see video:
Video also posted on Care2, click here to see it.
VIDEO: White Men Built This Country Says Pat Buchanan
 |
| By Dolores M. Bernal NEWS JUNKIE POST Jul 16, 2009 at 9:19 pm |
80 Responses for “VIDEO: White Men Built This Country Says Pat Buchanan”
Comments are closed
FEATURED VIDEO
-
Opinion
Super Bowl, American Idols & BigMac: “Panen Et Circenses” Of Today
In the days of the Roman Empire, “Panen Et Circenses” (literally ” bread...
-
Environment
Preaching to the Choir
Progressives are not dealing with many issues, but rather one single issue that...
-
Business
Can Ford and GM Take Advantage Of Toyota’s Problems?
The damage to Toyota from the massive worldwide recall could become more than...
sounds like a logical argument to me, fair is fair
Gee, John Roberts was the best, most qualified candidate for the supreme court EVER. That nitwit couldn’t even get the Presidential oath right, and it’s got at least half the words of the Pledge of Allegiance, something that everyone here learns in elementary school, if not before.
He’s an example of the most qualified person? And perhaps the most damning thing in his background, he was nominated by bush, who never, never, never picked a good person for the job: Brownie, Paulson, Gonzales, Cheney, and……ahem…..HARRIET MIERS.
Sontomayor looks like a rocket scientist next to them all, including and especially Roberts and busch & co,
Funny how the far right like Buchanan never talk about John “I can’t even memorize a 30 word or less oath right” Roberts.
I agree. Race should be irrelevant when it comes to decisions. Qualifications above all else. Giving legal preference to non white people is not fair.
Although with 108 out of 110 being white though there might be racism or politics involved and that is unfortunate.
White people may have founded the constitution, but it was black slaves who built the White House with thier bare hands. So white people are not the only ones who contributed to making this country.
So how about this…
White people founded this country and wrote it’s guiding principals. They also imported, trained, and fed the laborers who built much of the country’s infrastructure. Some of the laborers were slaves and many of the slaves were from Africa.
It’s pretty PC, pretty much correct, and still gives whitey most of the credit.
“Some” of the laborers? Get a grip on reality. The economy of the South prior to the Civil War would be nothing without the slave trade. Attributing the “building” of this country to slave owners is like giving white people credit for jazz music simply because they owned all the record companies.
Bottom line: This country was built by immigrants. White, Black, Chinese, you name it. We all came here on boats and built this fine nation together, displacing its natives in the process.
A notable portion of the democratic principles of federation embodied in the US constitution were influenced by the pioneering politics of the Haudenosaunee, AKA the Iroquois Confederacy.
Note that Buchanan focuses on two injustices of affirmative action, and denies millions of examples of racial discrimination.
Say that I have spent the last 10 years blocking my neighbor’s ability to get water or garbage service, while labelling them dirty. After that’s done with, I’m required to help them clean up their property, and I run around saying how unfair that is. Man, this is kindergarten ethics, it’s a no-brainer!
when is it ethical to discriminate?
well-said!
Actually, the White House was designed by James Hoban and built by both European and African laborers.
Affirmative action is stupid. Seriously.
Says the privileged racists!
@Nikki – If white people didn’t tell them to build the White House then they wouldn’t have done anything.
Sounds like the norm, doesn’t it
wow someone’s a raciest
This guy is sucks. He isn’t making sense. He would prefer everyone higher up in the world to be white. and blacks and other races to be lower.
Did you listen to his words? He says that the best candidates should get the job (be it the Olympic athlete representing US or supreme court judge).
that’s not what he said. He saying that if we are to choose a candidate be it man or women black or white that person should have the background to prove themselves that if given that seat they would have the knowledge and the experience in the law to maintain that seat, He wasn’t saying that he hates a women who happens to be Hispanic he saying that he cant tell by her background that she can run the seat. (about the Olympic talk)Listen hes not racist like he said before if your going to compete get the best at the sport if that so happens to be mostly black then they where the best and only a coincidence.
popurls.com // popular today…
story has entered the popular today section on popurls.com…
There’s a black president in office…affirmative action is no longer necessary. He made it, so other blacks and hispanics should have no problem.
Pat Buchanan is defending white entitlement. He’s afraid that his people (white men) are going to lose the perks of being the most powerful group. He wants to keep his power, but he can’t back it up with anything but words like these…
white entitlement? Where do guys pull this bs from. How about the best person for the job no matter what race. I like his point about the olympics…we don’t mandate that every track team have 20% white runners, because that would be stupid.
And if we are going to have affimative action shouldn’t it apply to sports as well. Those are jobs just like any other. Every basketball team should have a white player on the floor at all times…it’s the law!!
you’d have a point if white people had been historically kept from competing. or if whites were lynched for trying to run laps. affirmative action sucks for everyone. but as long as companies refuse to hire fairly, they’re gonna be stuck with AA. The University of SC doesn’t have a single black full professor. There are 3 HBCs within a 1 hour drive and no one has managed to produce a single a choad worth offering tenure to. coincidence? not in the city that still flies the confederate flag. now, because of SC and UGA, every other college in the state of SC has to suffer.
those are the people you need to blame for affirmative action.
Not true I had several black professors at USC. Along with many other minority professors. Quit spreading lies. USC also has a large number of black students enrolled. Much more than racist Clemson University.
Pat Buchanan is saying some wrong things, but so is this Rache Maddow. She seriously comes across as equally ignorant, just on the other side of the fence because she seems to think that just because its the First Latino woman that we are supposed to celebrate that based on that she’s a different race? The great thing about this past Presidential Campain is that by-far the grand majority voted for Obama based on his Politics, not because of his skin color.
The same should apply with this.
Despite the efforts to spin this to make Pat look like a racist, he’s right.
She keeps saying 108 out of 110, but Pat answered that earlier. She’s pulling the numbers from the length of American history. Pat said, even up to the ’60s, white people made up 90% of the population. If white people made up a vast majority of the population, it would make sense that white people would make up the vast majority of Supreme Court justices.
He also admits that all those who weren’t white were discriminated against, which would skew the results. But reverse discrimination isn’t a solution. If you want true racial equality, you need to make these decisions based on merit alone. 108 out of 110 Supreme Court members may have been white, but a majority of those were selected in a time when most of the population was white, and racial discrimination was at an all-time high. But the mistakes of our forefathers are not a reason to go to the other extreme.
Pick the best candidates. She just doesn’t get it.
Define “white”. 90% of Americans are of mixed ethnic heritage.
Your argument is perfect, and explains why we have had 50% women presidents, senators, congressmen, mayors, governors, and generals. There was a time when the vast majority of the population was American Indian, which explains why they were such a well-treated and powerful group, as of course they still are. It is naive to think that racism and discrimination still exists in the US. After all, the grade gap between white and black high school students is clearly based on their skin color. They underperform compared to whites, and therefore they are fundamentally less qualified to go to college, get a job, and become a Supreme Court Justice.
I went to MIT and Caltech and am a white male, so I know exactly how innately better I am than everyone else. In fact, I definitely know how much better I am than you, as I can clearly think about this issue without resorting to seriously flawed arguments.
Cheerio!
There seems to be a great deal of ignorance in these comments, I’m talking to you guys saying affirmative action is unnecessary. While I agree that affirmative action has it’s flaws, the purpose it serves should not be belittled. Did you know the rate a young black man will get a callback for a job is 50% less than their white counterparts? Look up studies, you will find them from all over that confirm this bias. For you the people saying stupid stuff like “a black man is in the white house, that means they can all make it”, you guys really shouldn’t perpetuate so much ignorance. This white elitism makes me so sick, because I whole heartedly want to believe that it doesn’t exist but it’s so blatant, so selfish and self serving. The way our society is structured, there are certain inherent disadvantages in place and the law is there to protect those who are weak.
Race should not affect any one positively or negatively, affirmative action is a disgrace and only prevents people from being equal. I look forward the day when the content of the supreme court does not matter, not until we are color blind will racism be dead.
Ross,
Standardized tests are color blind but if you picked people to go to college using them the vastly disproportional majority would be white. And then their kids would get good educations and perpetuate the grade gap. And then all Supreme Court justices would be white. But if everyone is born equal then some great justices would lie dead in paupers’ graves (the greatest potential physicist is a child in a slum in Mumbai). So color blindness doesn’t always yield equality, and you need to rethink how we should achieve the thing we all aim for: true equality and representation.
I can’t stand Rachel Maddow.
Every time I see her on TV I need to change the channel.
Totally annoying and just can’t stand her, she thinks she knows it all.
Just like Sottomayor is not qualified Rachel is not qualified as well.
The only reason they are doing what they are doing is this special privilege do being minority or being gay.
If Sotomayor was white she won’t be where she is with her credentials.
If Rachel is not gay she won’t be on TV.
Bottom line.
My background is european, and I knew none of them up front when watching this video, helping me to attain an objective view.
They both seemed to increase their stand on their grounds, as the opponent did the same. A typical stand off, with no immediate solution, but always good for a debate.
Only when we both begin to admit we have a situation where we disagree, and look into each others assumptions, will we come to a common ground.
Buchanon tried to manipulate the opponent by putting words in her mouth, although she instantly rebuted. By this move Buchanon came off as manipulative, and as such his performance took a beating.
Whatever, it ought to be clear that diversity is required for the supreme court to be representative, and the “smartest” people are not always in the best interest if the concentration leads to an unbalanced and stuck representation.
What generation European? I grow up there.
Objective View??
Wake up, I’m sick and tire of Minority Crap and Diversity.
The ignorance on this video and in these comments is very disturbing and dissapointing.
Pat uses inaccurate generalizations (‘..what they do in the Ivy League is that they graduate half of the class as Cum Laude’ when, in fact, Cum Laude or “honors” means you graduate in the top 25% of the class. Ms. Sotomayor graduated “summa cum laude” which is the top 10%. Buchanan graduated but without honors), and outright lies (“100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg”. There were Black people (many of the ex-slaves) on BOTH sides of these battles.) to support his poorly crafted arguments.
Pat needs a refresher course on the GOP “Big Lie” strategy, because the lie has to be plausible.
The entitlement attitude is so strong its almost like a cult religion. This type of “us” and “them” debate saddens me just as I was having a good friday.
I was expecting another face palm of incredible racism.
Pat Buchanan did not make me do that. He makes relevant points – but the only thing I would disagree with is his assertion that ONLY because of affirmative action is Sotomayor in the position she is.
Rachel Maddow, however, treats having a certain amount of melanin in your skin and the ability to roll one’s R’s above qualifications. I do not think having Sotomayor on the SCOTUS is anything special and that any glass ceilings are being shattered. In fact, one could make the argument that having Sotomayor nominated has set back Latinos decades due entirely to the very process intended to be the great equalizer: affirmative action. Whether it is true or not that she would not have gotten into the schools she did by her own merit, the perception is that she was handed success on a platter.
It’s sad, and I feel sorry for anyone who has benefited from affirmative action but also put in the effort to succeed.
“she hasnt written anything ive read” thats her fault?
Rachel Maddow is not listening to him! She asks why 108 out of 110 have been white, and he states, becasue those were the best people for the job at the time. Rachel mis-interprets this as an attack on races who may have liked to be considered by did not have the oppertinity – thats not what Pat is advocating. Pat is saying that all people of all creed color etc should be treated equal. WTF is wrong with that. How can it be “fair” to give someone an advantage over another simply based on race! thats Racism! Yes its not exactly a palatable subject for anyone who sympathises with minority groups that have been discrimnated in the past, but as the old saying goes.. two wrongs dont make a right. You cant create a fair system unless thats what it is.. FAIR. Digging up the past and complaining that people are not fairly represented by white males is an insult. It has a presumption that the white male cannot sympathise with other minoritys. All this guy is doing is trying to give everyone a fair go, while ensuring that he doesnt loose out in the process – a very reasonable position. Equality : all things being equal. If you dont have the credentials then you shouldnt have the job.
Just like to add a bit about my perspective on this. Im from Australia. Here in Australia, we have one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world. Part of our identity is “giving people a fair go”. This has helped make our country good, and seen many people of many backgrounds and ethnicities immigrate to Australia. This Fair Go attitude, doesnt mean affimative action. It means, where ever you come from, what ever you look like – if your the most qualified, you should be the one to claim the helms of our civilisation. I think it is extremly foolish too underestimate how much impact on the development of a state/nation a placement of poor choice could represent.
ahaha! Some parts of Sydney are multicultural, but as a whole, Australia is as much a white settler state as any, with all the nastiness of history lingering. I’d like you to repeat what you just wrote to some of my Tongan friends…
The debate over affirmative action has always boiled down to two opposing camps who answer differently the question of “what should be done about past discrimination that continues to benefit people in the present?”
Putting aside all the tangential debates over what value to assign various social contributions (and/or social harms) in our history, the question is basically whether to let today’s whites, who inherited advantages gained for them by their discriminatory ancestors, keep all their inherited advantages, even if they themselves were not responsible for the past discrimination.
One camp says we must let them keep all their advantages simply because they were not responsible for gaining them. One camp says some advantages should be moved to today’s disadvantaged descendants of victims who experienced the past discrimination.
It’s not an easy question for any camp, at least not for anyone who thinks carefully about it. Justice is seemingly violated either way. To let ill-gotten advantages remain where they are would be unjust simply because the gains were ill-gotten in the first place. Reallocating them would be unjust because we all know it’s not fair to take something away from someone who did nothing wrong.
In this light the only thing that will decide the matter is our priorities. If we give top priority to correcting past injustice, we come out in favor of affirmative action. This was Rachel Maddow’s position.
If we give top priority of preventing future injustice, we come out against affirmative action. This seemed to be Pat Buchanan’s position. (Too bad he let his racism take him on several lame tangents in the interview.)
Personally, I’m with Rachel on prioritizing correction of past injustice foremost. Our entire justice system, both civil and criminal, is founded on righting past wrongs. And the deterrent effect does act against future injustices as well. So with this choice, we get more bang for our buck, as a society. The other choice would only prevent future racial injustice, but leave all past injustices in place and unresolved forever.
Pat speaks the truth. I agree with him 100%
For those interested in more info about this topic:
Affirmative Action Debate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uH0vpGZJCo
It’s a great series on the topic of affirmative action (for and against–go through the playlist). Quite an eye opener.
This is so funny! The “White Man” is now in panic mode on the surface but they still run this country. Chill-out whitey it’s still your country for about another 100 years… then after that….ForGetAboutIt! LOL
You sir, are whats wrong with America. With less people like you our country would be a much more beautiful place.
In addition to my previous comment, another link for the lazy:
A video against affirmative action (a black man): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY4fKqOAUZw
The other video is a white man for affirmative action.
Interesting, no?
You cannot fix a problem like racism with affirmative action if it encourage reverse racism. A majority of supreme court justices were/are white simply because minorities and women couldn’t even vote for a long period of time in America. They LEGALLY couldn’t. Today anyone can become one but not everyone is qualified. With average testing scores lower among minorities when compared to whites, there shouldn’t be any question about the past and present.
PLEASE Just let everyone be able to be one and choose the most qualified no matter their sex or origin.
So being a white guy growing up in America I can say (and have said) I’m really lucky to be a white male and I know that I’ve gotten away with more things. I’ve gotten ahead for it at the workplace against equal coworkers of a different race. So any white person that says having affirmative action is stupid doesn’t understand a FEW (and this is the key word) people of different races benefit from affirmative action is nowhere close to how many get discriminated against every day. For that affirmative action to be stupid you’d have to look me straight in the face and tell me that we’ve 100% eradicated discrimination in America. Yeah right just take a look at the South!
Should we keep score, and then try to balance it int he following year?? its a ridiculous notion to try and “measure” discrimination, and then balance it. This is why we legislate against it, and then shuold rather work on cultural issues that lead to discrimination, rather than just use the same stratergy of discrimination based on race.
Whether one agrees with affirmative action or not, it’s difficult to deny that affirmative “action” brings the topic of discrimination to the active awareness of many. As such it accomplishes it’s purpose well, more so than just talking about discrimination. Discrimination against minorities still way outnumber discrimination against white people. You can always pick specific examples like Pat does, but that is not looking at the whole picture.
Pat Buchanan sounds like a white supremist. But I really thought this man was smarter than this. Pat! NO, white men did not build this country because my ancestors from slavery help build this country. Pat Buchanan needs to read a bible and some history books. Slavery from back in the biblical times build and were always the ones who planted and cultivated the earth. White men have brought along a higher technology for the now and future but they did not build this country. It has always been men of color who made this country what it is today. (Slaves)
well…the only place pat goes wrong is that race can’t be a factor – it just can no longer be considered – for anyone…
who was it that said something about being “not judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character…”
Character hmm…
There is no such thing as reverse discrimination, there is only discrimination. Race should not be an issue.
Hi,
You are addressing the problem from an overly simple viewpoint. You don’t address how we are supposed to achieve true equality (test scores, graduation rates, jobs, etc) through a race-blind process. Let me pose a scenario: if we had imposed race-blind policies immediately after abolition of slavery, do you think we would have perfect race representation in the Senate and Congress and in all colleges today?
I’m sure you’ll think of a great response!
Hey GeniusWhiteGuy,
The 1st paragraph, second sentence, end of the third line reads: “Affirmative Action was necessary, without a doubt.” So in fact, the ‘great response’ to your proposed scenario was written EVEN BEFORE your brilliant self was able to conjure the question. The next time you decide to reply to someones well thought out post I suggest you read/comprehend just a little bit of what they wrote! (This way you won’t look like a complete dumb***)
right on Pat, right on!
You must be racist like most American white are unknowingly. Sad
Man, I can’t wait to see what we’re going to do when we’ve learned to see we’re on both sides!
Both of these pundits are not very good at listending to and trying to understand the other’s point of view. On Rachel’s behalf, she wants equality and sees this in the wider spectrum of people who are not white male being promoted to such high positions. Pat does not say this is bad by any stretch, but simply says you can not use an unjust means (AA) to achieve a just ends and that this has dire effects. It is unfortunate that neither of them could try to understand the others point (both valid) but instead try to twist each others words to suite their own arguments. Primarily, Rachel was trying to paint Pat as a racist, which if you listen to his argument is far from the truth, and Pat was trying to paint her as a leftist who is promoting injustice against white males. Sad that people in such positions resort to such adolescent positions and as a result do no one justice and do not further the debate but only serve to debase each other and generalize their positions. Sad we can not move beyond this.
SLAVES – DO NOT CALL THEM “LABORERS” TO DOWNPLAY SLAVERY.
what a lesbian
Affirmative action places a less qualified candidate in the seat. What a great day for America. No doubt we’d all prefer to have a black/gay/hispanic/female pilot fly us on our vacation, or operate on us for a cancer. Not the best available in any color you understand, just the best available in that color. I look forward to achondroplasic dwarves’ rights affecting choice of quarterback for the Broncos and I hope we get the best damn dwarf available. I hope one day America will realise that we need the best person in these jobs chosen on merit from the whole racial/sexual pool. If the pool is 70% white males you’ll get 70% white male choices as Buchanan says. To change that you have to change the racial makeup of the country (which is happening anyway) To put someone in post simply for their color rather than their ability is just as racist as choosing the whitebread WASPy guy ‘cos he’s white.
If she really is not qualified, then playing the race card wouldn’t be necessary.
Pat is correct.
He makes sense.
Her point is FLAWED.
her main argument is 108/110 were white males.
She should not use statistics from dates when it WAS impossible for women or minotiries to become Supreme Court Judge. She should only use statistics from when it WAS possible for everyone to run for the position.
I’m a liberal who has always liked Pat and would have voted for him given the chance. He is a straight-shooter whose views don’t change for political expediency. He argued years ago that we should close the doors to further immigration.
Anyway, this is two intellectual heavyweights having at it from opposite sides of the debate, and we are all the better for it. I am grateful to MSNBC that they provide Pat as an ongoing foil to the liberal viewpoint. The flash of anger Rachel shows toward the end was unprofessional of her, though.
Okay, I agree that the best person for the job should be selected, but how do you become the best person for the job? It is through higher education and experience in that particular field. I do not believe in affirmative action but you must understand why it was put into effect. Of course the many of the justices are white because they were the only ones that could get into these higher education institutions and it wasn’t always because they were the best qualified. Don’t kid yourself by making the man a hero because of his words, all you need to do is look back 50 years and the truth will hit you. We as a country need to stop pulling out the race card everytime the person that “we” think should have been selected is not selected. Racism is not black and white, it affects all people, “white people built this country”, tell that to the slaves who didn’t have a choice back in those days. There was no other choice in those days. I am proud of the diversity that America has. If you need to see true diverisity in action, join the military and actually see who is defending this country………
Semper Fi Marine
Not a racist statement… since its truth.
You too are racist – like many other White who refuse to face the facts. Sad
THis guy is the Devils Hemmoroid!!! Good luck at the pearly gates, I think affirmative action just took your spot. lol. yours too glen.
so how long should white males be discriminated against ?
what is he thinking? if you’re a christian you should at least be humble enough to re-evaluate your opinions/beliefs and whether or not it is hurting people or hethere it is JUST or not…hope he enounce this video and play it back to himself slowly….
hell everyone can benefit from reviewing what they say and believe in…
……can’t still believe he believes that…
what is he thinking? if you’re a christian you should at least be humble enough to re-evaluate your opinions/beliefs and whether or not it is hurting people or it is JUST or not…hope he enounce this video and play it back to himself slowly….
hell everyone can benefit from reviewing what they say and believe in…
……can’t still believe he believes that…
this man is a legend
I totally agree with Pat. He’s making a very valid point and she is dancing around it. He’s not saying she should’nt be there because of her race or sex. He’s saying she should’nt be givin the position because of her race or sex. Its nice to see someone who is’nt scared to say it. Bravo!
well, maybe after he’s dead he’ll be a legend….to a small subset of crazy fascists…
you do understand what circular logic is?
Well, to be fair, he didn’t say that white people deserved the positions… he explained to rachel that historically white people have literally been the only candidates for these positions. This isn’t an opinion, it’s just an observation…
“the best minds for the job” – he said to put forward whoever was the best mind, and claimed that she wasn’t the best mind – theres no racism in this guy’s comments…