Pat Buchanan: "The Party's Over"

James

The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people's wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.

The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The "Omnipower" and "Indispensable Nation" we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.

Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism.

This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is the collapse of Gordon Gecko ("Greed Is Good!") capitalism. What we are witnessing is what happens to a prodigal nation that ignores history, and forgets and abandons the philosophy and principles that made it great.

A true conservative cherishes prudence and believes in fiscal responsibility, balanced budgets and a self-reliant republic. He believes in saving for retirement and a rainy day, in deferred gratification, in not buying on credit what you cannot afford, in living within your means.

Is that really what got Wall Street and us into this mess '” that we followed too religiously the gospel of Robert Taft and Russell Kirk?

"Government must save us!" cries the left, as ever. Yet, who got us into this mess if not the government '” the Fed with its easy money, Bush with his profligate spending, and Congress and the SEC by liberating Wall Street and failing to step in and stop the drunken orgy?

For years, we Americans have spent more than we earned. We save nothing. Credit card debt, consumer debt, auto debt, mortgage debt, corporate debt '” all are at record levels. And with pensions and savings being wiped out, much of that debt will never be repaid.

Our standard of living is inevitably going to fall. For foreigners will not forever buy our bonds or lend us more money if they rightly fear that they will be paid back, if at all, in cheaper dollars.

We are going to have to learn to live again without our means.

The party's over.

Up through World War II, we followed the Hamiltonian idea that America must remain economically independent of the world in order to remain politically independent.

But this generation decided that was yesterday's bromide and we must march bravely forward into a Global Economy, where we all depend on one another. American companies morphed into "global companies" and moved plants and factories to Mexico, Asia, China and India, and we began buying more cheaply from abroad what we used to make at home: shoes, clothes, bikes, cars, radios, TVs, planes, computers.

As the trade deficits began inexorably to rise to 6 percent of GDP, we began vast borrowing from abroad to continue buying from abroad.

At home, propelled by tax cuts, war in Iraq and an explosion in social spending, surpluses vanished and deficits reappeared and began to rise. The dollar began to sink, and gold began to soar.

Yet, still, the promises of the politicians come. Barack Obama will give us national health insurance and tax cuts for all but that 2 percent of the nation that already carries 50 percent of the federal income tax load.

John McCain is going to cut taxes, expand the military, move NATO into Georgia and Ukraine, confront Russia and force Iran to stop enriching uranium or "bomb, bomb, bomb," with Joe Lieberman as wartime consigliere.

Who are we kidding?

What we are witnessing today is how empires end.

The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars or balance its budget. Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.

Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.

Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U.S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves.

An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us '” the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved '” the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.

Randall Flagg

This is spot on. A culture of entitlements and excuses is the cause of all of this. Rather than remain self-reliant, people live beyond their means and expect a quality of life they have not earned. People have families they can't afford to raise and the masses are expected to remain silent and not judge the poor decisions and life choices of others.

Democrats want to create socialized medicine so that every person can receive medical care. But medical care is exspensive, limited and timely. It is a skill earned by a few through years of personal exspense and work. This program single handely epitomizes the self-entitlement view of lazy Americans willing to spend the money of others but not their own.

Republicans wish to enforce draconian standards on moral codes they deem appropriate. Never mind the cost of housing and feeding people in prison for years for "crimes" that harmed no one but the individual.

The world is cruel, harsh and brutish. No one is guarunteed a good life and the means to survive as long as man or machine can sustain them. These luxuries come at a cost that is earned from skilled labor and situation.

Not to come across as a Malthusian, but we don't want or need every person born to stay alive forever. The moral relativism and "me, me, me" attitudes of millions of youth and societal failures are what are destorying this nation. Buchanan hit it right on the nail with this. Only when people rely on themselves and don't expect society or "the government" to take care of them will we fully rise to greatness again. As Pat said, this started with the baby boomer generation and came to fruition during Vietnam. Now those beliefs have been passed on to a second generation of people who again have no concept of altruism or self-sacrifice.

Axlin16

I don't normally agree with just about anything Pat Buchanan says, but this is, as Randall put it - spot on.

We are not in a depression, but the significance of this economic situation is there will CERTAINTLY be a changing of the guard, especially after what Bush said really drove it home.

I don't think entirely this is a comment on conservativism, but yes, I do think this signals the death of the Reagan-era 'free market'.

It's over. DONE.

What was so good about Reaganomics was that he believed leaving the market alone, letting it make money and it's decisions freely, would lead to huge prosper and America would benefit. In the 80's this worked, and the idea works. Problem is the people running the banks destroyed it. DEAD.

We will never be able to trust allowing the free market to reign without much supervision again, and although this is not a Republican-bash, because unlike Nancy Pelosi, this is not the Republcans fault. But yes, one of the Republicans core values is a free market, and this is one thing the Democrats have been 100% about in spades for years - the market needs the government to supervise it and regulate it. THEY - CAN'T - BE - TRUSTED.

And that is evidently clear now.

And Randall, that was a great ass post. Especially the final few lines.

Saikin

Great posts guys.

I think this is a much needed wake up call to all of America to quit living outside of your means.

The best thing for any individual right now? Live within your means and save money. Don't expect the government to wipe your ass for you.

Newsflash to all the americans oppostite of what i just described- we're a democracy, get used to it, start adjusting to it.

I don't think either of these candidates can do what needs to be done right now.

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