Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9601 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-27
• Released on: 2007-11-27
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

About the Author
PATRICK J. BUCHANAN, America’s leading traditional conservative, was a senior adviser to three American presidents, ran twice for the Republican presidential nomination, in 1992 and 1996, and was the Reform Party’s candidate in 2000. The author of eight other books, including the bestsellers Right from the Beginning; A Republic, Not an Empire; The Death of the West; Where the Right Went Wrong; and State of Emergency, he is a syndicated columnist and a founding member of three of America’s foremost public affairs shows, NBC’s The McLaughlin Group and CNN’s The Capitol Gang and Crossfire. He lives in McLean, Virginia.

Customer Reviews

Entertaining, but misses the mark
Pat Buchanan is a smart man, that much is clear. His recollection of history may be immense, but his perspective is off the mark. Buchanan talks a lot about not getting involved in the affairs of other nations, often pointing out that George Washington advised against such things in his Farewell Address. Indeed, it is true that America has become much more interventionist than in previous eras, but the reason is simple: globalization has changed the game.

The threat of nuclear and biological weapons used by Islamic terrorists against the United States, weapons that could annihilate an entire metropolis and potentially ruin the American economy, is something men like Washington could not have foreseen. The bottom line is this: the business of other nations has become America's business. The old kings of Europe weren't that much of a threat to America as much as Bin Laden is, and that's the point Buchanan misses. The fact that Bin Laden's lackeys could reach America in a few days is something Washington never had to deal with.

I find it ironic that throughout his book, Buchanan points out how America is too imperialistic and trying too hard to spread democracy everywhere. Looking at America's so called "imperialism", one realizes that America doesn't have any colonies and doesn't actually own all that much outside of less than a 1000 military bases around the world (in countries like Germany, Japan, and Britain no less - do you think this can be called imperialistic?). Even more ironic is this: Bush is bluffing about spreading democracy. As Buchanan points out, the Gettysburg address was nothing more than wartime propaganda, as is Bush's intent to destroy anyone that is not democratic. In reality, Bush is simply fighting in Iraq to prevent good ole' Saddam from harboring terrorism even further, it had nothing to do with democracy or freedom. Being that countries like Iran would love nothing more than to sell a bit of nuclear materials to guys like Bin Laden, it is not unreasonable to intervene there either. America has to become interventionist or we'll lose an American city and then some. Buchanan wants to stick to the politics of the early days of the Republic, and it simply won't work.

Unfortunately, democrats, libertarians, and the rest of the reform parties don't understand that we need to preemptively strike terrorism before they hit us. They think Islamic jihadists hate America because of our presence in the Middle East. Really, it's about the West controlling the world when Islamic jihadists think they should. They simply hate the West: they see us as decadent sinners whose lives have no value. Why do you think countries like Britain and Spain received their fair share of the jihad? Why do you think France has a little problem with their Muslim population? These countries do very little to keep a presence in the Middle East. Yet still, they were hit indiscriminately. Buchanan just doesn't get it: just like Hitler didn't stop at Poland and wouldn't have stopped with the Soviet Union, these jihadists wouldn't stop in the Middle East. If they could, they'd bomb anything they could in France, Britain, Spain, and any other "infidel" country to achieve their vision of a Muslim world.

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!

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.