Buchanan's Past and Future Collide

In an afternoon speech at the ARCO forum yesterday, Reform Party presidential candidate Patrick Buchanan attempted to establish himself as a viable third-party candidate, but an overflowing audience made it clear that it would not forget his controversial past.

Although the majority of Buchanan's prepared speech focused on the need for both campaign finance reform and a third party in American politics, he was unable to escape audience attack regarding his views on homosexuality, immigration, the Holocaust and women's issues.

"In his speech, he made himself sound reasonable," said Alvaro M. Bedoya '03. "But as soon as people started asking him questions about his record and what he really stood for, it was ridiculous and quite frightening."

In what has become something of a standard event in his recent speeches, Buchanan attempted to distance himself from the Republican party--in part because of what he sees as diminishing differences between the GOP and Democrats.

"The party of Ronald Reagan is dead," he said. "Its successor is little more than the bellhop stand of the business roundtable."

Buchanan said his move to the Reform Party came after he concluded that George W. Bush would win the Republican presidential nomination. In addition, he said he feared Democratic challenger Al Gore '69 would win in the November election and that conservatives "will go down for the third time."

After his formal statement, audience members took the opportunity to grill the candidate.

One questioner read an excerpt from of one of Buchanan's columns that which said that "Women are not endowed by nature with the will and ambition to succeed in the modern world."

Although Buchanan admitted that this position was extreme and "could have been better stated," he said many of his past comments regarding issues like women and the Holocaust had been taken "remarkably out of context."

Still, several audience members hissed in protest.

One male audience member even stood up and asked the presidential hopeful for a date.

"Can I ask Shelly?" Buchanan quipped, referring to his wife who was seated in the front row.

Before the speech, a group of students from the Harvard Law School (HLS) and the Kennedy School of Government (KSG) distributed packets of press clippings to people entering the forum, in protest of Buchanan's speech.

"The articles focused on the things we find objectionable about Buchanan: his bigotry against blacks, gays, women and Jews," Avi M. Bell, a student at HLS, wrote in an e-mail message. "One article focused on his praise for Adolf Hitler and his associations with the movement to deny the Holocaust. Another was an article by Buchanan from last year in which he wrote that Harvard has too many non-whites and non-Christians and that action must be taken to rectify the problem."

Helen Springut '03, who watched the event, said her fellow audience members were right to criticize Buchanan for his past statements and said she felt some of his current political opinions were just as disturbing.

"People attacked him for things like his position on women and the Holocaust about which he deserves to be picked on," she said. "But they are in the past. Things like his strict isolationist and economic policies are just as scary but were overshadowed by his sensationalist issues."

Prominent Reform Party member, Marxist and national Buchanan co-chair Lenora Fulani made the trip to Harvard to watch Buchanan's speech yesterday.

Fulani, who is black, said that while she disagrees with him on social issues, she will support him if he becomes the official Reform Party candidate in the 2000 election.

"He's not going to become president," she said. "This is not about a candidate's vote. A vote for the Reform Party lets Americans have a choice in the political process."

Fulani said that yesterday's speech was the first time that Buchanan specifically outlined his plan for campaign finance reform, calling for a ban on "soft" money.

Buchanan said donations should come from individuals, rather than large special interest corporations.

"There is an independent movement in America to clean up or clean out Washington," he said.

After the speech, Alan K. Simpson, director of the Institute of Politics (IOP) and a former Republican senator from Wyoming, said Buchanan's presence in the election, even as a third party candidate, will hurt Bush more than Gore

"I think [Buchanan] wants to keep himself in the limelight for his own personal needs," Simpson said. "But if he loves the Republican party as much as he said he did he's sure going to hurt it when he gets in this race. He will take many more votes from Bush than he will from Gore."