In this story, the second part of the interview, Dwight L. Schwab talks to F.H. Buckley about some big issues. Issues include trust in government, crony capitalism, class disdain and warfare, animosity towards Donald Trump, October surprise and the corruption of journalism.
Frank Buckley’s latest book – “The Way Back: Restoring the Promise of America” (Encounter) was published in May, 2016. The book explains how the Democrats won in 2012 over an issue that should have belonged to the Republicans: income immobility and the rise of a class society in America. Now, four years later, the same issues will determine the outcome of the 2016 election.
“The Way Back” provides an indispensable, nonpartisan road map for choosing the President in 2016, and a viable guide for restoring America’s promise. According to Frank Buckley, the solution lies in employing capitalist means to attain socialist ends.
F.H. Buckley is Foundation Professor at George Mason University School of Law.
Dwight L. Schwab, Jr, NewsBlaze.com: There are now eight days to the election. In a nutshell, how can Donald Trump bring his message to the American people?
Professor F.H. Buckley: There are a couple of big issues. The decline of trust in government is a big issue for Trump as well as crony capitalism; these are all Republican issues. The biggest scam in history was Joe Kennedy being named the head of the Security Exchange Commission. Someone asked FDR why he did that and he replied, “It takes one to catch one.” (laughter). There’s that feeling about Trump.
The other big issue is the subject of my book, “The Way Back.” We have become a class society with upper-class elites. They are not shy to express their contempt for ordinary Americans. That is a betrayal of what America is. We should all be able to get ahead, and that’s subject of my book, “The Way Back.”
Lately there is a vicious strain of political literature, which I call redneck porn. There are all these books about oxy-sniffing lower-class people from West Virginia. It’s kind of like blaming the victim. It’s like here I am in the front pew of the church and all these basket of deplorables people in the back. I have real contempt for those who are in the upper-class with their indignation of the lower-class. It reminds one of what Ann Richards said about George Bush, “He thought he was on third base and thought he hit a triple.” When the people start sneering at those at the bottom, we have a big problem.
Schwab: I’m trying to coordinate this question with your book, “The Way Back.” If Donald Trump loses this election, there will be enough on the other side in 2020 to defeat any Republican that runs. I don’t think the Republicans can rally from this election with a big enough base of voters to win again. What are the three things Trump must do to not let that happen?
Buckley: Number one, we are not the country of opportunity and the Democrats are responsible for that. It is their policies of economic malaise and taking jobs from Americans. They have created a class society. That is the first thing Trump will change and Hillary wouldn’t do it in a million years. He is the agent of change and that is the big one. Corruption in government has to be a big one. There is an issue that is a little of both of the above topics; immigration. She not only will not build a wall, she would use her executive authority to bring enough illegals into American society to turn elections into one-sided affairs since the government would feed, care, clothe and educate them and receive the gratitude of unsuspecting people.
Schwab: Was that three?
Buckley: Was I having a Rick Perry moment? (Laughter)
Schwab: I have been writing for many months about the correlation of this campaign to the 1980 campaign between former two-term California Governor Ronald Reagan and incumbent President Jimmy Carter. As in 1980, conservatives are less likely to express their opinion to pollsters because the Democrats have successfully with their political correctness, labeled any opinion but their own as anything from racist to bigot to Islamophobic, etc. In other words, liberals are the most intolerant of all Americans.
Whereas Reagan was labeled the reckless cowboy, warmonger, grade B actor, stupid, and on and on, Trump has faced an even more biased media through the social media on the Internet. Jimmy Carter had his Iranian hostage issue and Hillary Clinton has her untrustworthiness and scandals. The groundswell for Trump, not unlike Reagan, will not be seen until days or even hours before November 8th. Only the Rasmussen Poll correctly predicted the Reagan landslide leaving all other polls in the dust. Do you see that scenario happening for Trump?
Buckley: A couple of points here. The animosity toward Trump is much stronger than it was for Reagan. The intolerant left is into what they can do to punish “dissidents.” The complete decline in fair play, free speech is totally gone.
The other thing is the critical screaming pertaining to Carter, who was infinitely better than Clinton. He wasn’t a bad guy … I found his moral lectures nauseating, but he wasn’t corrupt like Hillary. You can point to a few good things he did like deregulation. The Carter campaign has some positives to point out while the Hillary campaign is 100 percent negative.
The shy voter effect is much like the Brexit vote. I think it is much stronger than in 1980.
Schwab: Aside from the FBI announcement concerning new emails, do you think a big October surprise awaits us in these last nine days?
Buckley: A year ago looking at this campaign, we would have thought it was a sitcom satire. Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) belongs in a Robert Ludlum novel. I don’t believe in paranoia, but he was going to give this speech from the Ecuador Embassy in London where he is holed up, then he decided not to for security reasons. A month ago someone was arrested climbing up the embassy wall and I think there was unknown pressure put on Ecuador to reel Assange in. Most likely they threatened to send him back to Sweden for rape charges. There’s more than enough to get a conspiracy theory on that one.
Schwab: Finally, I wanted you to touch on this point; The Fourth Estate (journalists). I am personally embarrassed to say I graduated from the journalism school at the University of Oregon. I do remember being the lone wolf among other students who mom and dad had coached to say what flowed from their illiterate mouths. The Parents were middle-age hippies and brainwashed an entire generation of baby boomers. They were almost like robots.
The left says they are the compassionate ones, but anybody with a differing opinion they are intolerant with, no matter what they need to do to silence that voice. They can see through a keyhole with two eyes, and I am wondering what damage is being done to this country in relation to what our forefathers envisioned a free press to be?
Buckley: The Washington Post, here where I live, has gone out of its mind with Donald Trump. Then they have nothing to speak of about Hillary. It’s a drumbeat like being bitten by these little mosquitoes. What’s to be done? One thing is the market. People have stopped reading newspapers because of their one-view slant that is grossly obvious.
Newspapers simply don’t provide any balance of issues and candidates. They are predictively far-left and pro-Hillary. If you don’t agree with them, you’re not favored on page one of their newspaper, period. There is a deep decline of civility. We know longer mix with people who disagree with us. Now there is a dividing of America where we are sorting each other out according to politics. We even sort each other in geographic terms. If you live in Mississippi, we know pretty much what you are and if you are in “ORYGONE,” … …
Schwab: That’s pronounced ORYGUN Frank! (laughter). It wasn’t that way when I was growing up there. It was a red state through and through. But by the time I got to journalism school at the U of O, the 1972 election between McGovern and Nixon was a landslide for Nixon and the school newspaper that reached 30,000 students printed a photo of dead Vietnamese on the front of the paper the day after the election with the boldfaced words, “Nixon Wins.” I went directly to my favorite professor at the journalism school and flatly stated I would never be a part in any way with what was nothing more than an opinion piece. The people from that incident 40-years-ago are now the same people working at the NY Times, Washington Post, etc. They have just gotten more sophisticated at hiding their leftist views.
Buckley: They live in a bubble. They see no one except others exactly like them. They socialize with them, marry them and live in that bubble. In religion you talk about forgiveness, but if you’re a Trump supporter there’s no mercy. (laughter).
Part Three of this interview will be published tomorrow.
