Author: Patrick J. Buchanan (Patrick J. Buchanan)

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What Matters Most to Nations and Peoples?
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What Matters Most to Nations and Peoples?

Speaking in Conroe, Texas, last weekend, former President Donald Trump accused his successor of allowing millions of migrants to enter the country illegally across our Southern border. “The most important border … for us is not Ukraine’s border but America’s border,” thundered Trump. “Before Joe Biden sends any troops to defend a border in Europe,...

NATO—Strategic Asset or Liability?
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NATO—Strategic Asset or Liability?

Is the territorial integrity of Ukraine a cause worth America’s fighting a war with Russia? No, it is not. And this is why President Joe Biden has declared that the U.S. will not become militarily involved should Russia invade Ukraine. Biden is saying that, no matter our sentiments, our vital interests dictate staying out of...

Is Biden Right? Does the Left Own the Future?
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Is Biden Right? Does the Left Own the Future?

Before he appeared at his first solo news conference of 2022, President Joe Biden knew he had a communications problem he had to deal with. Namely, how to get off the defensive. How to avoid spending his time with the White House press corps defending his decisions and explaining his actions as allegations of failure,...

By the Numbers, a Failing President
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By the Numbers, a Failing President

If the left believed that draping the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021, around the neck of former President Donald Trump and the party that refused to repudiate him would sink the GOP, it appears to have miscalculated. For, as the left painted the Capitol riot as an “armed insurrection,” “domestic terrorism,” “attempted coup,” and...

Biden Should Declare NATO Membership Closed
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Biden Should Declare NATO Membership Closed

In 2014, when Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to a U.S.-backed coup that ousted a pro-Russian regime in Kyiv by occupying Crimea, President Barack Obama did nothing. When Putin aided secessionists in the Donbass in seizing Luhansk and Donetsk, once again, Obama did nothing. Why did we not come to the military assistance of Ukraine?...

Biden: Bull Connor’s GOP Imperils Democracy
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Biden: Bull Connor’s GOP Imperils Democracy

“The next few days … will mark a turning point in this nation’s history,” said President Joe Biden in his Atlanta speech to reframe the debate in Congress on voting rights legislation and the filibuster. He went on: “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadows, justice over injustice? … I know where I...

Where Does NATO Enlargement End?
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Where Does NATO Enlargement End?

After the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and the Warsaw Pact dissolved, the breakup of the USSR began. But the dissolution did not stop with the 14 Soviet “republics” declaring their independence of Moscow. Decomposition had only just begun. Transnistria broke away from Moldova. South Ossetia and Abkhazia seceded from Georgia. Chechnya broke free of...

Why the Left Cannot Let Go of Jan. 6
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Why the Left Cannot Let Go of Jan. 6

“Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now.” That was the headline over the editorial of 1,000 words in The New York Times of Sunday last. On first read, I thought the Times was conceding its obsession and describing its mission. For the editorial began by bewailing yet anew the “horrifying” event, “the very real bloodshed of...

Russia Is Not the Great Rival; China Is
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Russia Is Not the Great Rival; China Is

While all facts are true, not all facts are relevant. And what are the relevant facts in this crisis where 100,000 Russian troops are now stationed along the Ukrainian border? Fact one: There is not now and never has been a vital U.S. interest in Ukraine to justify risking a war with Russia. History tells...

Biden’s Staring into the Abyss—and So Are We
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Biden’s Staring into the Abyss—and So Are We

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers / That perches in the soul,” wrote Emily Dickinson. “And sore must be the storm / That could abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm.” Staring ahead on New Year’s Eve, at what appear to be the coming storms of 2022, this once-hopeful country is going...

How We Forfeited the Fruits of Cold War Victory
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How We Forfeited the Fruits of Cold War Victory

As 1991 turned into 1992, America appeared to have arrived at the apogee of its national power and world prestige. President George H.W. Bush had just sent an army of half a million men to expel, in a 100-hour campaign, Saddam Hussein’s invading army from Kuwait. The world, including Russia, China, and Iran, had supported...

Has America Lost Its Faith?
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Has America Lost Its Faith?

Here we are on the eve of Christmas, that day of joy set aside for celebrating the birth of Christ who came down to earth 2,000 years ago to show mankind the way to eternal salvation. Yet, the present mood of America at Christmas 2021 seems better captured by Jimmy Carter in his “malaise speech”...

What To Do About That Russian Ultimatum
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What To Do About That Russian Ultimatum

“Get off our front porch. Get out of our front yard. And stay out of our backyard.” This might stand as a crude summary of two draft security pacts Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei A. Ryabkov delivered last week as Russia’s price for resolving the crisis created by those 100,000 Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders. Ryabkov’s...

Biden Holds a Losing Hand
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Biden Holds a Losing Hand

As President Joe Biden’s poll numbers sank this fall, and the presidentially ambitious in his party began to stir, the White House put out the word. Forget all that 2020 campaign chatter about Biden being a “transitional president.” He intends to run and win a second term. Well, perhaps. Yet, skepticism abounds.  First, if Biden...

Are Autocrats Always Adversaries?
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Are Autocrats Always Adversaries?

When did the political systems of 193 nations become the business of the government of the United States? And who elected us Americans to write the moral code for the regimes that rule other lands? Consider: On taking office, President Joe Biden pledged to center his foreign policy “on the defense of democracy and the...

Are Autocrats Always Adversaries?
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Are Autocrats Always Adversaries?

When did the political systems of 193 nations become the business of the government of the United States? And who elected us Americans to write the moral code for the regimes that rule other lands? Consider: On taking office, President Joe Biden pledged to center his foreign policy “on the defense of democracy and the...

Biden’s Full Plate—Ukraine, Taiwan, Tehran
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Biden’s Full Plate—Ukraine, Taiwan, Tehran

One day after warning Russian President Vladimir Putin he would face “severe” economic sanctions, “like ones he’s never seen,” should Russia invade Ukraine, President Joe Biden assured Americans that sending U.S. combat troops to Ukraine is “not on the table.” America is not going to fight Russia over Ukraine. “The idea that the United States...

Biden’s Full Plate—Ukraine, Taiwan, Tehran
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Biden’s Full Plate—Ukraine, Taiwan, Tehran

One day after warning Russian President Vladimir Putin he would face “severe” economic sanctions, “like ones he’s never seen,” should Russia invade Ukraine, President Joe Biden assured Americans that sending U.S. combat troops to Ukraine is “not on the table.” America is not going to fight Russia over Ukraine. “The idea that the United States...

Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will
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Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will

Either the U.S. and NATO provide us with “legal guarantees” that Ukraine will never join NATO or become a base for weapons that can threaten Russia—or we will go in and guarantee it ourselves. This is the message Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending, backed by the 100,000 troops Russia has amassed on Ukraine’s borders.           ...

Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will
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Putin to Biden: Finlandize Ukraine, or We Will

Either the U.S. and NATO provide us with “legal guarantees” that Ukraine will never join NATO or become a base for weapons that can threaten Russia—or we will go in and guarantee it ourselves. This is the message Russian President Vladimir Putin is sending, backed by the 100,000 troops Russia has amassed on Ukraine’s borders.           ...

The West’s Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name
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The West’s Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name

With the drowning deaths of 27 migrants crossing the Channel from France to England, illegal migration from the Third World is front and center anew in European politics. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed that France take back to its shores all migrants who cross the Channel illegally and come ashore in Britain. In the...

The West’s Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name
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The West’s Fear That Dare Not Speak Its Name

With the drowning deaths of 27 migrants crossing the Channel from France to England, illegal migration from the Third World is front and center anew in European politics. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has proposed that France take back to its shores all migrants who cross the Channel illegally and come ashore in Britain. In the...

Return of the ‘Law and Order’ Issue
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Return of the ‘Law and Order’ Issue

According to Gallup, on the issue of crime, President Joe Biden is 18 points underwater. While 57 percent of Americans disapprove of how he is handling crime, only 39 percent approve. Biden’s dismal rating was recorded before the verdict came in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial—not guilty on all five counts—a verdict Biden declared had made...

Playing With Fire on Russia’s Borders
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Playing With Fire on Russia’s Borders

Belarusian autocrat Alexander Lukashenko has cleared out the encampment at his border crossing into Poland, where thousands of Middle Eastern migrants had been living in squalor. Last week, that border crossing was the site of clashes between asylum-seekers trying to push through the razor wire and Polish troops resisting with water cannons. While the crisis...

Kyle Rittenhouse, Both Right and Righteous
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Kyle Rittenhouse, Both Right and Righteous

In judging the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse, set aside for the moment Wisconsin law under which he is being tried, and consider the natural law, the moral law, the higher law written on the human heart. In terms of values demonstrated and the deeds done that night that Rittenhouse shot the three men who attacked...

Are Democrats Looking to the Lifeboats?
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Are Democrats Looking to the Lifeboats?

Not so long ago, President Joe Biden was being talked of as a transformative president, a second Franklin D. Roosevelt in terms of the domestic agenda he would enact. And there was substance to the claim. Early in his presidency, Biden had passed a $1.9 trillion stimulus package. While his majorities in both houses of...

US and China: Collision or Cooperation?
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US and China: Collision or Cooperation?

In a surprise announcement at the Glasgow summit, U.S. climate czar John Kerry and his Chinese counterpart declared that their two countries have pledged to work together to slow global warming. Yet, the arrival a day earlier in Taiwan of a U.S. Navy plane from Clark Air Base in the Philippines, carrying a U.S. congressional...

Did Glasgow Deliver ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’?
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Did Glasgow Deliver ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’?

At the end of the first week of the Glasgow climate summit, 100,000 protesters marched to denounce the attendees as phonies who will never honor their commitments to curb carbon emissions. Despite pledges by 100 nations to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and by 20 nations, including the U.S., to end financing...

Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party
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Virginia Secedes From Biden’s Party

“I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” With this remark—arrogant, dismissive, contemptuous—in his debate with Glenn Youngkin, Terry McAuliffe committed a historic gaffe. From that debate forward, his poll numbers steadily sank until McAuliffe lost his lead, and with it, the election. And going down to defeat, McAuliffe dragged with...

Is Failure Baked in the Cake at Glasgow?
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Is Failure Baked in the Cake at Glasgow?

“Colossal Stakes as Leaders Meet to Talk Climate,” ran the headline. “The Last Best Hope,” ran the subhead, which turned out to be a quote from President Joe Biden’s climate czar John Kerry. But these alarmist headings were not atop an editorial. They topped the lead news story in Sunday’s New York Times, the opening...

Who Decides What Kids Should Be Taught?
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Who Decides What Kids Should Be Taught?

Virginia is a newly blue state, with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators, that Joe Biden won by 10 points. Hence, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe was an early and solid favorite to regain the office he vacated in 2017. But if McAuliffe loses Tuesday, the defeat will be measured on the Richter scale. For...

Can Poland Be Poland—and Stay in the EU?
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Can Poland Be Poland—and Stay in the EU?

“Let Poland be Poland!” That was the call of American conservatives, four decades ago, when the Solidarity movement of labor leader Lech Walesa arose in the port city of Gdansk to demand their freedom of the Communist system imposed upon Poland by the Soviet Union after World War II. A decade later, Poland broke free...

Warnings and Threats—or Bluster and Bluff
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Warnings and Threats—or Bluster and Bluff

Before the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took a side trip to Georgia and Ukraine. Purpose: Assure these nations that America has their back and encourage their hopes of future admission to NATO. Austin, said the Pentagon, would tell both nations there is an “open door to NATO.”  “Ukraine...

Nationalism to Confront Globalism in Glasgow
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Nationalism to Confront Globalism in Glasgow

“Extraordinary, isn’t it? I’ve been hearing all about COP,” said the queen to the duchess of Cornwall. “Still don’t know who is coming. … We only know about people who are not coming. … It’s really irritating when they talk but they don’t do.” Queen Elizabeth II was expressing her exasperation at the possible number...

Are the Good Times Over for Joe?
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Are the Good Times Over for Joe?

“When sorrows come,” said King Claudius, “they come not single spies but in battalions.” As the king found out. So it seems with President Joe Biden, who must be asking himself the question Merle Haggard asked: “Are the good times really over for good?” Consider the critical issue with voters today: the state of the...

Sink the New World Order Tax!
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Sink the New World Order Tax!

Last Friday, in a triumph for transnationalism, 136 nations, including the U.S., agreed to mandate a global corporate income tax for all nations that will not be allowed to fall below 15 percent. “Virtually the entire global economy has decided to end the race to the bottom on corporate taxation,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen,...

Are China’s Threats to Taiwan a Bluff?
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Are China’s Threats to Taiwan a Bluff?

Monday, four dozen Chinese military aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone, climaxing a weekend of provocations that saw nearly 150 sorties of China-based fighters and bombers. The U.S. State Department countered by issuing a stern statement warning Beijing about the adverse effect on regional “stability” of such “provocative military activity.” Yet even as the...

Biden Becomes a Bernie Sanders Democrat?
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Biden Becomes a Bernie Sanders Democrat?

“We’ve got the president of the United States on our side,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”  Got 96% of the members of the Democratic caucus in the House on our side. We got all but two senators at this point in the Democratic caucus on our side. We’re going to win...

Who Is Killing 10,000 Black Americans Every Year?
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Who Is Killing 10,000 Black Americans Every Year?

“Unfortunately, Jan. 6 was not an isolated event,” warned FBI Director Christopher Wray last winter: “The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.” Since he became director in 2017, said Wray, FBI domestic terrorism investigations had doubled in number to...

The Eclipse of Europe
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The Eclipse of Europe

For centuries up to and including the 20th, Europe seemed the central pivot of world history. Then came the Great Civil War of the West, our Thirty Years’ War (1914-1945), where all of the great European powers—Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia—along with almost all of the rest, fought some of history’s greatest battles. Result: Europe’s...

The Coming Climate Crisis Shakedown in Scotland
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The Coming Climate Crisis Shakedown in Scotland

“Follow the money!” The old maxim is always sound advice when assessing the motives of those advancing bold agendas for the benefit of mankind. Invariably, the newest progressive idea entails a transfer of wealth from the taxpaying classes of Western nations to our transnational, global, and Third World elites. For the masters of the universe,...

Are the US and China Stumbling Toward an ‘Islands War’?
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Are the US and China Stumbling Toward an ‘Islands War’?

In a diplomatic coup, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a deal last week with the U.K. and U.S. to have those Anglo-American allies help build a nuclear-powered submarine fleet for Australia. A $66 billion French deal to provide Canberra with diesel electric-powered submarines, among the largest defense contracts Paris had ever negotiated, was blown off....

Americans Souring on Biden—and Washington
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Americans Souring on Biden—and Washington

The California recall election turned out well for the Democrats. With Gov. Gavin Newsom sinking in the summer polls, the party had been staring starkly at the prospect of losing the nation’s largest state and seeing its governor replaced by talk-show host Larry Elder, who had vaulted into the lead among the 46 candidates seeking...

Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?
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Who and What Is Tearing the US Apart?

In Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, former President George W. Bush’s theme was national unity—and how it has been lost over these past 20 years. “In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks,” said Bush, “I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days...

Twenty Years after 9/11—Are We Better Off?
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Twenty Years after 9/11—Are We Better Off?

When the hijacked planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that first 9/11, the Taliban were in control of Afghanistan and providing sanctuary for al-Qaida. Today, the Taliban are in control of Afghanistan and providing sanctuary to al-Qaida. What then did our longest war accomplish?      The Afghan army and...

Is Democracy Versus Autocracy the New Cold War?
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Is Democracy Versus Autocracy the New Cold War?

“He may be an SOB, but he’s our SOB.” So said President Franklin D. Roosevelt of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza, and how very American. For, from its first days, America has colluded with autocrats when the national interest demanded it.  George Washington danced a jig in 1778 when he learned that our diplomats had effected...

Cacophony and Confusion in Foreign Policy
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Cacophony and Confusion in Foreign Policy

When President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the country was united behind him. The America First Committee, the largest anti-war movement in our history, which had the backing of President Herbert Hoover and future Presidents John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford, was...

Bad Moon Rising for Biden—and Us
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Bad Moon Rising for Biden—and Us

“April is the cruelest month,” wrote T. S. Eliot in the opening line of what is regarded as his greatest poem, “The Waste Land.” For President Joe Biden, the cruelest month is surely August of 2021, which is now mercifully ending. When has a president had a worse month?       On the last Sunday in August,...

In Afghanistan, the Worst Is Yet to Come
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In Afghanistan, the Worst Is Yet to Come

Say what you will about President Joe Biden, he has stuck to his guns on ending America’s 20-year involvement in Afghanistan’s forever war. His decision not to delay our departure after Aug. 31 was fortified by hard intel that the terrorist ISIS-K was preparing attacks at Kabul airport. Thursday evening, the two bomb attacks occurred....

The Bitter Fruits of Interventionism
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The Bitter Fruits of Interventionism

As President Lyndon Johnson and the best and brightest of the 1960s were broken on the wheel of Vietnam, the Biden presidency may well be broken on the wheel of the Taliban’s triumph in Afghanistan. Less than a week into the chaotic U.S. withdrawal at Hamid Karzai International Airport, a CBS poll found that Americans,...