Pat Buchanan Blames “Militant Gay Rights Groups” and “People of Color” for MSNBC Ouster

During a radio interview with Sean Hannity this week, the former politician-turned-commentator (who was reportedly dropped from MSNBC’s roster over inflammatory comments in his new book) says he knows who was really responsible for his apparent suspension.

“Look, for a long period of time the hard left, militant gay rights groups, militant — they call themselves civil rights groups, but I’m not sure they’re concerned about civil rights — people of color, Van Jones, these folks and others have been out to get Pat Buchanan off T.V., deny him speeches, get his column canceled.” 

Pat, who seems to have taken to referring to himself in third person, continues:

“This has been done for years and years and years and it’s the usual suspects doing the same thing again. But my view is, you write what you believe to be the truth.”

But just as Pat writes what he believes to be the truth (in chapters with titles like “The End of White America”) so do those of us who believe that divisive and discriminatory voices like his have no place in rational discussions about the issues facing our country. 

In his new book, Buchanan writes that marriage equality is “absurd” – that the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has led to “indoctrination” – and that the administration is “deeply-resented and widely detested” for its support of the LGBT community.  And that’s just in one chapter of his latest book. His history of vile and inflammatory anti-gay rhetoric goes back decades. According to Media Matters Buchanan has said:

"In A Healthy Society, [gay people] Will Be Contained, Segregated, Controlled, And Stigmatized, Carrying Both A Legal And Social Sanction."

"Promiscuous Homosexuals Appear Literally Hell-Bent On Satanism..."

"If The Gay Community Practiced [Catholic] Teaching, We Wouldn't Have An AIDS Problem In The First Place."

“[Being gay] Is An Intrinsic Disorder."

“[Gay people] Have Used Religious Groups To Successfully Treat The Problem."

And the LGBT community is just the tip of Pat’s intolerance iceberg. He has made equally vile statements against the black community:

“America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.”

Against women:

"The rise of women to power in a civilization is very often the mark of its decline."

Against Jewish people:

“(Holocaust Survivors have experienced) group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics."

Against Mexican Americans:

"(America) cannot survive a bifurcated culture or a heavily Hispanicized culture, tilted towards Mexico... I think that's the beginning of the end of the United States.”

It goes on and on, against countless other communities and individuals. 

Last year, ColorOfChange.org and CREDO Action collected 275,000 signatures of people who demanded that Buchanan be fired.  According to the petition, “Buchanan has a long and consistent history of peddling white supremacist ideology as legitimate political commentary, on your network and elsewhere.”  The petition says Buchanan has the right to his opinions, but adds “he’s not entitled to a platform. (…) If MSNBC and NBC want to be seen as trusted, mainstream sources of news and commentary, you need to fire Buchanan now.”

So maybe “blame” was the wrong word to use in the headline. Groups like Color of Change, CREDO Action, and any other LGBT movement organizations, civil rights advocates, and supporters of rational dialogue who had a hand in pressuring MSNBC to remove Buchanan from MSNBC should be given credit for improving the tenor of our national discourse.

We hope MSNBC stands by its decision not to lend its credibility to Pat Buchanan’s vile and anti-everything comments, and keeps him off the air.  (And of course, we look forward to seeing him become a regular on Sean Hannity’s show, likely within minutes of his removal from MSNBC becoming official.)