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I mean, not that their behavior is surprising but …
I’ve always thought the 1992 GOP Convention, particularly Pat Buchanan’s speech, was the most destructive thing that happened to the GHWB re-election campaign. It wasn’t just Buchanan, though his speech was the culmination of the turn toward far right militia and other groups by an already desperate Bush campaign.
Flashback:
“…, Patrick J. Buchanan rocked the Republican convention in Houston by declaring there was a “cultural war” taking place for the soul of America, denouncing the Democratic Party as one that supported abortion, radical feminism and the “homosexual rights movement.”
“The agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that’s change, all right,” said Mr. Buchanan, a conservative commentator who was a rival to President George Bush in the 1992 campaign. “But it is not the kind of change America wants.”
The speech — along with similarly sharp-edged addresses by the evangelist Pat Robertson and Marilyn Quayle, the wife of Vice President Dan Quayle — pushed issues like abortion, gay rights, religion and the role of women in society to the front of the stage, often loudly. Supporters of Mr. Bush pointed to the tone of the convention as one of the reasons he lost the election that November to Bill Clinton. …”
I’ve always thought the 1992 GOP Convention, particularly Pat Buchanan’s speech, was the most destructive thing that happened to the GHWB re-election campaign. It wasn’t just Buchanan, though his speech was the culmination of the turn toward far right militia and other groups by an already desperate Bush campaign.
Flashback:
“…, Patrick J. Buchanan rocked the Republican convention in Houston by declaring there was a “cultural war” taking place for the soul of America, denouncing the Democratic Party as one that supported abortion, radical feminism and the “homosexual rights movement.”
“The agenda Clinton and Clinton would impose on America — abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat — that’s change, all right,” said Mr. Buchanan, a conservative commentator who was a rival to President George Bush in the 1992 campaign. “But it is not the kind of change America wants.”
The speech — along with similarly sharp-edged addresses by the evangelist Pat Robertson and Marilyn Quayle, the wife of Vice President Dan Quayle — pushed issues like abortion, gay rights, religion and the role of women in society to the front of the stage, often loudly. Supporters of Mr. Bush pointed to the tone of the convention as one of the reasons he lost the election that November to Bill Clinton. …”
‘Cultural War’ of 1992 Moves In From the Fringe (Published 2012)
Twenty years after Patrick J. Buchanan spoke at the Republican convention of a “cultural war,” his views are more common than controversial.
www.nytimes.com
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