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Buchanan Speaks to America's Heartland

  • Fresh from his Federal Election Commission win, Reform Party presidential candidate Pat Buchanan stepped up his campaign by addressing issues important to America's farmers and middle class in the heartland.
Exclusive to The SPOTLIGHT
By Clayton Potts

Reform Party nominee Pat Buchanan made a pitch for the farm vote while denouncing the movement toward world government.

Buchanan said during the 15th Farm Aid Concert in a Virginia suburb of Washington on Sept. 17 that, as president, he will put the interests of American farmers ahead of those of multinational corporations.

Buchanan said he would cut off im ports of commodities whenever their price may fall below cost of production. So-called "dumping" -- selling exports at a loss until the domestic industry is des troyed, then price-gouging -- has closed steel mills, motorcycle plants and family farms in the United States.

The farmers' concert was shunned by Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.

"I think the farmers can call this election," said famed singer Willie Nelson. "The farmers and the ranchers, and you folks who really care about the farmers and ranchers, can decide who your elected officials will be. I can't tell you who to vote for, but it's not hard to figure out."

The bipartisan sellout on NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and the trade deal with communist China has hurt the family farmer, Buchanan said.

BOB JONES

Buchanan next traveled to Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., the Christian school widely denounced by religious bigots in both major parties, and promised to reclaim American sovereignty.

"I will get the United States out of the World Trade Organization, I will get the United States out of the International Monetary Fund ... and I will tell Kofi Annan up at the UN, 'sir, your lease on Turtle Bay has run out,' " Buchanan said.

Buchanan's speech was punctuated by hearty applause.

Buchanan also promised to eliminate the Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Buchanan chose Bob Jones as the site for his speech because "I want to stand with my friends ... and I think they have been beat up and piled on unfairly and unjustly by the national media."

Buchanan "cares more for the truth than his own image," University Pre sident Bob Jones III told the crowd of 2,000. While not formally endorsing Buchanan, Jones said, "I endorse so much of what he says" and "I endorse his courage."

In his speech, Buchanan denounced "intolerance" that has forced religion out of public life.

"They have dethroned our God, in my judgment. The principal culprit is the United States Supreme Court," he said.

Buchanan has, unfashionably, an nounced that he has a "litmus test" for Supreme Court appointees: they must oppose abortion.

Buchanan denounced "cultural Marx ism" that infects society because "polluters and politicians are the one and the same." He urged Americans to join him in a "Gideon's army" to fight for populist values.

Homosexuality "always has been associated with social decadence and national decline" but such groups dominate television and the movies, Bu chanan said.

"Instead of trying to break up Micro soft, why don't we break up Dis ney?" Bu chanan asked. Disney lost some of its Mickey Mouse innocence in recent years by warmly hosting homosexuals for "gay pride" events at Disney World, a theme park near Orlando, Fla.

Buchanan, who promised to bring U.S. troops home from far-flung missions and deploy them along the Mexican border to halt illegal immigration, said that Mexico has something to teach the U.S. government about free elections.

Referring to his exclusion from the presidential debates, which will feature only Bush and Gore, Buchanan pointed out that Mexico had six contenders in its early presidential debates and included third-party candidates to the end.

"I'm thinking maybe we ought to call the president of Mexico and see if he can send observers to the United States to show these Americans how they have to conduct free and fair and open elections," Buchanan said.

Meanwhile, the Buchanan campaign has cashed a $12.6 million check from the Federal Elections Commission, which will be used to buy broadcast time so voters can hear his message unfiltered by a hostile mainstream media.

"We're going to spend a million-and-a-half dollars a week," Buchanan said. "We're going to spend it on radio ads. We're going to spend it on television ads. We're going to go into states that Bush has written off."