Bush: He's Not the Devil

Editors' Note: The Crimson will print its endorsement for the Democratic Primary tomorrow.

GEORGE BUSH has been and uncaring, irresponsible, visionless president. He has mismanaged the economy, screwed the poor, ignored the middle class, appointed frightening Supreme Court Justices, broken his promises. When his non-plan plans have gone awry, he has refused to acknowledge problems--recession? What recession?--or blamed them on Congress. At least on the domestic front, it doesn't take a lip-reader to realize that the While Horton president has no principles beyond ensuring his own reelection.

Clearly, George Bush needs to be sent a message.

So send him one. Send him a whole bunch. On Republican Party stationery, if you're so inclined. But no matter how badly you want to send Bush a message, you should NOT vote for Patrick J. Buchanan in the Republican primary tomorrow. Unless, as Dennis Miller has quipped, you want to send a message that you are a total idiot.

DAVID DUKE, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, an acknowledged neo-Nazi, had this explanation for his own campaign's lack of success: Pat Buchanan has coopted his message.

"I think Pat Buchanan sounds a lot like me," Duke said. "I'm glad to see it. I think Pat Buchanan sound more like me every day."

So do we. But we're sad, not glad. In fact, we're downright scared. A vote for Pat Buchanan is a vote for anti-Semitism (even his archconservative pal William Buckley Admits it), a vote for isolationism (Buchanan's spin on the Gulf War: a travesty planned and financed by Jews, fought by real Americans), a vote for Japan-bashing protectionism (America First, dammit), a vote for Dukesque racial codewords (what was that about Zulu immigration, Pat?).

The future of the Republican Party--admittedly, not usually a prime concern of The Crimson--is at stake. Bush is going to win the nomination in '92. But every Buchanan vote will drive him further to the right. Case in point: The day after Buchanan unleashed his delightfully subtle Georgia commercials lambasting Bush for funding art that "glorified homosexuality," Bush fired National Endowment for the Arts chief John Frohnmayer. And what will happen to the party in 1996?

Responsible conservatives should be alarmed by the groundswell of Republican support for reactionary bigots like Duke and Buchanan. If you really want to send a message to the bumbling panderer in the Oval Office, vote for a Democrat in the general election. Or write in another candidate in the GOP primary this Tuesday.

But if you're determined to vote for an announced Republican candidate Tuesday, we think you should send Buchanan a message. As much as we hate to say it, we think you should vote for George Bush.