Can America be saved? Patrick Buchanan expresses virtually no hope in The Death of the West. The John Birch Society holds a contrary point of view. (Cultural Currents).

Pat Buchanan's new book, The Death of the West, has scaled the heights of the New York Times Best-Seller List. Its subtitle "How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization" captures the book's main theme, which is that present demographic trends indicate that the West will soon shrivel up and die.

Buchanan's treatment of the demographic front in the "Culture War" is well written and informative. But his book is handicapped by two serious flaws: First, the identification of low birth rates, high immigration rates, and cultural Marxist ideology as the most important "clear and present dangers" for America; and second, the book's pervasive sense of defeatism and helplessness.

This defeatist attitude was effectively displayed in Buchanan's response to a question during a January 30th discussion with high school students broadcast by the CSPAN3 network. Asked if he holds out any hope for our country, Buchanan answered: "The train has left the station and the only thing that is going to turn it around is a change of heart or belief or attitude on the part of this generation right here. It's in their hands now, it's no longer in ours.

While it's certainly important to reach the hearts and minds of the young, it's difficult to see how idealistic youth can be motivated to action by Buchanan's depiction of a blighted future. In addition, Buchanan's book suggests that the struggle for hearts and minds has already been lost: "The America many of us grew up in is gone. The cultural revolution has triumphed in the minds of millions and is beyond the power of politicians to overturn, even had they the courage to try."

Buchanan chose a peculiar anecdote to serve as the concluding paragraph of his book: "Seated on his coffin in the wagon carrying him through the Virginia countryside to his place of execution, the old abolitionist John Brown was heard to say softly, 'This is a beautiful country.' And so it is. And that is why we must never stop trying to take her back."

This description of the pre-execution reverie of John Brown, a 19th-century terrorist being borne away to a well-earned, ignominious death, hardly leaves the reader uplifted, inspired, and prepared to continue the struggle. Buchanan could have chosen moving statements from a whole host of great American heroes. The words of Patrick Henry in his famous March 23, 1775 oration at St. John's Church would be particularly appropriate. "We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth," observed that great patriot statesman. "For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it might cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it." But Henry was not content to revel in the awful details of America's plight: "If we wish to be free ... we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight!"

America's Greatest Danger?

Whatever the merits of his prognosis, Buchanan correctly identifies the symptoms of our nation's illness. However, he misidentifies the source of that malady, and offers no effective prescription.

Buchanan insists that America and the West face four clear and present dangers:

The first is a dying population. Second is the mass immigration of peoples of different colors, creeds, and cultures, changing the character of the West forever. The third is the rise to dominance of an anti-Western culture in the West, deeply hostile to its religions, traditions, and morality, which has already sundered the West. The fourth is the breakup of nations and the defection of ruling elites to a world government whose rise entails the end of nations.

Of the four clear and present dangers, the population crisis of the West is the most immediate, and most dangerous.

Here Buchanan confuses a symptom -- the Western "birth dearth," and the concurrent flood tide of non-Western immigration -- with the sickness itself, which is the influence of the deeply entrenched criminal conspiracy that seeks to bring about "the end of nations." While it is true that the symptom Buchanan describes may prove fatal in itself, it cannot be effectively treated until it is recognized as an effect of that cancerous conspiracy.

From the founding meeting of The John Birch Society in Indianapolis in 1958, Robert Welch emphasized that this international conspiracy constituted a mortal threat to America and the West. Surveying the various means that conspiracy might employ to subvert our government and destroy our freedoms, Welch warned that the most effective approach "is the one which they are clearly relying on most heavily": "A part of that plan, of course, is to induce the gradual surrender of American sovereignty, piece by piece and step by step, to various international organizations -- of which the United Nations is the outstanding but far from the only example."

While Mr. Welch generally used the term "Communist conspiracy" to describe the threat, he used a major speech in 1966 entitled "The Truth in Time" to refine and elaborate that concept. "[T]he Communist movement is only a tool of the total conspiracy. As secret as the Communist activities and organizations generally appear, they are part of an open book compared to the secrecy enveloping some higher degree of this diabolic force."

This theme was revisited by Mr. Welch in the July 1971 issue of The John Birch Society Bulletin:

We believe ... that the Communist Movement is merely one arm of an immense and tremendously powerful Master Conspiracy. [A second] arm is ideological socialism, with such tentacles as the Fabian Society in England and the Americans for Democratic Action in the United States. Another arm is organized, international, diplomatic and political intrigue. Among its best known tentacles are the Cecil Rhodes "round table" groups, including the Council on Foreign Relations in this country. There are a dozen more arms of varying size, purpose, and importance.

Continuing with the metaphor used by Mr. Welch, any of the tentacles of this octopus might be lethal, but simply hacking away at individual appendages is of limited use. While "cutting off some tentacles of the dark conspiracy is temporarily helpful," noted Welch in the January 1970 Bulletin, "destroying the whole body of the conspiracy is the ultimate solution." This is why the JBS for decades has focused its efforts on the United Nations, which is at or near the heart of the international conspiracy.

Buchanan on the New World Order

In his 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns, Buchanan's stump speech included a sure-fire applause line: When he raised his hand to take the oath of office, he promised, "the whole new world order will come crashing down." Understandably, Americans who understand the new world order gravitated toward Buchanan's campaign, and many donations received by the Buchanan campaign came in envelopes bearing "Get US out! of the United Nations" stickers. Thus it would be expected that The Death of the West would take a strong stand on the UN, right? Wrong.

In keeping with the agenda outlined in his 1999 book on foreign policy, A Republic, Not an Empire, Buchanan in his latest book refrains from calling for U.S. withdrawal from the UN and its affiliated organizations. Instead, the author urges Americans to "resist any surrender of sovereignty, no matter which president or party favors it, and align themselves with the patriots of Europe like Margaret Thatcher...."

Buchanan's recommendation to "resist any surrender of sovereignty" is a battle plan for an engagement that was lost in 1945, when the Senate ratified the UN Charter after a mere four days' debate. Citing Margaret Thatcher as a promising ally is dubious advice, as well. Mrs. Thatcher is among England's most prominent "euro-skeptics." But she is also a major supporter of the Gorbachev Foundation, a UN-connected panel of globalist "wise men" that has been identified by former KGB agent Anatoliy Golitsyn as the new name for the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Napoleon Bonaparte warned that the purely defensive is doomed to defeat. Buchanan, unfortunately, takes a purely defensive approach to the UN and its appendages, insisting: "Any UN attempt to seize governmental powers should be resisted, especially any taxes for exclusive UN use or any plans for a UN army." He also says that we should oppose "any expansion of NATO," which has become the UN's most potent regional affiliate.

But despite the central role played by the UN in bringing about the crisis Buchanan describes, nowhere in Death of the West does he urge Americans to take part in a concerted, organized effort to liberate our nation from its clutches. Recommending such a positive, principled offensive strategy would be incompatible with the tone of stark, relentless defeatism that colors Buchanan's book.

Ideology vs. Conspiracy

Buchanan's book views the contagion infecting the West as an ideology (liberalism), not a conspiracy. He does devote an entire chapter to examining the work of one strand of that conspiracy -- the efforts of Communist theorist Antonio Gramsci and his disciples, the cultural Marxists of the "Frankfurt School" -- Georg Lukacs, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse. But Buchanan prefers to treat these figures as merely vessels of disembodied ideas, rather than as agents of a criminal conspiracy: "[Lukacs, Gramsci, Adorno, and Marcuse] put into circulation the ideas of how a successful revolution might be launched in the West, against the West."

How are concerned Americans supposed to combat Gramscian subversion? Unfortunately, Buchanan again suggests that it's too late, since "their ideas have triumphed." "Once an ideology takes hold of a society, only a superior force or a superior ideology can exorcise it."

Say again? Is not the ideology of Americanism superior to liberalism? Is not traditional morality superior to the "new morality"? If so, then way is the West in decline? If so, then way is the West in decline? In truth, Buchanan's statement illustrates the danger of perceiving the culture war as a purely ideological conflict, rather than a struggle against an amoral conspiracy. As JBS founder Robert Welch noted in 1966, "Many Americans feel that the whole battle is an ideological one. This is exactly what the Communists want us to believe. They will go to any lengths, and even subsidize their opposition, to maintain the appearance that his is a war of ideas. For the Communists wish above all else to distract your attention from the workings of the conspiracy."

Once Americans understand that our liberties are being destroyed through the depraved efforts of evil-minded individuals, rather than because of the influence of disembodied ideas, they will also understand the necessity of organizing to defeat that conspiracy. As Edmund Burke put it: "When bad mean combine, the good must associate." But such valuable insights are not found in Buchanan's book.

Nor does Buchanan discuss the role played by organizations of the internationalist Power Elite, such as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Trilateral Commission (TC) -- which didn't rate as much as a single mention in The Death of the West. This is a curious omission indeed, given that Buchanan's syndicated columns have been replete with mentions of such organizations and their efforts to undermine our national sovereignty.

This surprising amnesia is coupled with an unfortunate enthusiasm for the administration of George W. Bush, which -- like that of George Bush the elder -- teems with officials drawn from the CFR and TC. For example, Buchanan writes: "Mr. Gore may have slipped his Kyoto Protocol by customs, Mr. Clinton may have signed us on to the UN International Criminal Court, but Mr. Bush has repudiated Kyoto and he opposes the ICC."

However, while President Bush has (for now) rejected the Kyoto Protocol, he has embraced the radical environmentalists' global warming myth. For example, on February 14th, speaking at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the president pointedly expressed support for "the United Nations Framework Convention and its central goal, to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate. Our immediate goal is to reduce America's greenhouse gas emissions relative to the size of our economy."

Toward that end, continued Mr. Bush, "My administration is committed to cutting our nation's greenhouse gas intensity -- how much we emit per unit of economic activity -- by 18 percent over the next 10 years."

The Bush administration's treatment of the International Criminal Court -- which would claim jurisdiction to try Americans before panels of foreign judges for offenses against UN "international law" -- has been similarly equivocal. Comments Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas): "The Bush Administration has admirably stated its opposition to the International Criminal Court, but it unfortunately has taken no proactive measures to 'unsign' Clinton's initial signature or to make it known that the United States has no intention of cooperating with, providing funding to, or recognizing any authority of this international court." But it would be a mistake to suggest that the Bush administration's stance on the ICC has been purely defensive; in fact, it has actually surrendered vital ground.

Using the leverage provided by foreign aid, the Bush administration pressured the Yugoslav government into surrendering former Serbian ruler Slobodan Milosevic for trial before the UN's so-called tribunal in The Hague, thereby creating a dangerous precedent that may be used someday against Americans. The president also sent a significant signal by appointing Pierre-Richard Prosper, who served as a prosecutor in the UN's tribunal for Rwanda, to serve as special ambassador for war crimes issues -- a post created for the purpose of bringing about eventual U.S. involvement in the ICC.

In contrast to Buchanan's unwarranted degree of trust in President Bush and other establishment leaders, The John Birch Society has always understood that the conspiratorial Power Elite has long controlled the leadership of both the Democratic and Republican Parties, and had an effective stranglehold on the Executive Branch. As the Foreword to the August 2000 JBS Bulletin observed:

Realistically speaking, we doubt if the Insiders are trembling very much over this year's presidential election. Their control of the Presidency has become so total that they can now offer the nation a choice between the sons of two of their own. While it appears that Mr. Bush is the "favored son" this time around (probably by virtue of having a personality -- a decided asset in politics), the Conspiracy's agenda will move ahead with either a Bush or a Gore in the White House.

Where Buchanan's defeatism flags, he offers the reader illusive hope in the form of ill-considered strategic analysis -- such as treating the culture war as a battle of ideas, or depicting the "conservative" Bush administration as an ally. Buchanan's recommendations are tantamount to an offer to help the residents of an arson-plagued community by organizing fire safety seminars. Yes, fire safety seminars can help prevent accidental fires, but what the community needs to concentrate on first is identifying and arresting the arsonist.

"We are fighting an extremely powerful, vicious, well-entrenched Conspiracy," wrote Robert Welch in the June 1978 JBS Bulletin. "And nobody else except The John Birch Society will even mention the word. They are so deathly afraid that it might turn out to be true!" Just as the arsonist needs to be identified and arrested, the conspirators working to surrender our sovereignty to a dictatorial UN world government need to be exposed so that American voters will insist that Congress Get US out! of the United Nations. For reasons that he alone can explain, Patrick Buchanan flinched from presenting that fact to the readers of The Death of the West.

Life or Death?

In the last few pages of The Death of the West Buchanan summarizes his pessimistic projection of our future:

But what are the prospects for a renaissance of the West?

Candor compels one to admit the prognosis is not good....

So it may be that the time of the West has come, as it does for every civilization, that the Death of the West is ordained, and that there is no sense prescribing new drugs or recommending painful new treatments, for the patient is dying and nothing can be done. Absent a revival of faith or a great awakening, Western men and women may simply live out their lives until they are so few they do not matter....

Ironically, it has been spokesmen for the Marxist left who have insisted that certain outcomes are "ordained" by the iron laws of history. And it's worth asking why, if Buchanan is convinced that such a fate has been decreed for our nation, he devoted himself to a presidential candidacy in 2000. During that campaign he actually allied himself with Leonora Fulani, a militant Marxist who had twice been the presidential standard-bearer of the pro-homosexual, pro-Castro, pro-Farrakhan New Alliance Party - an outfit promoting the ideologies that Buchanan properly condemns in his new book.

Unfortunately, the reader of The Death of the West is left with a sense of paralyzing despair. Buchanan offers no action plan beyond the prospect of hospice care for a terminally ill society. If you would prefer to go on the offensive to retain your life, liberty, and property, then forget The Death of the West and read The Blue Book of The John Birch Society. (*) The Blue Book, despite being published 43 years ago, offers a better analysis of the greatest dangers facing the West. Best of all, it lays out a practical solution for these dangers: Organized, principle-based, offensive action through The John Birch Society. The JBS was created at a time when some members of the Power Elite openly boasted of imposing world government within years; the tireless, often sacrificial efforts of The John Birch Society are almost entirely responsible for slowing down that conspiratorial drive -- thereby demonstrating its potential for victory over the Conspiracy.

"We do not have to be too late, and we do not have to lose the fight," declared Robert Welch in the closing paragraphs of The Blue Book. He continued:

Communism has its weaknesses, and the Communist conspiracy has its vulnerable points. We have many layers of strength not yet rotted by all of the infiltration and political sabotage to which we have been subjected. Our danger is both immense and imminent; but it is not beyond the possibility of being overcome by the resistance that is still available. All we must find and build and use, to win, is sufficient understanding. Let's create that understanding and build that resistance, with everything mortal men can put into the effort -- while there still is time.

Then, while we are destroying and after we have destroyed the Communist tyranny, let's drive on towards our higher goals of more permanent accomplishment; towards an era of less government and more responsibility, in which we can create a better world.

(*.) The Blue Book (paperback, 202 pages, $5.95 plus $3.00 for shipping & handling) may be ordered from American Opinion Book Services, P.O. Box 8040, Appleton, WI 54912; by phone at 800-342-6491; or online at www.aobs-store.com (click on "Specials").