Happy Birthday to Pat Buchanan – an America First legend

November 2nd marked the 87th birthday of one the greatest Americans in modern American politics—Patrick J. Buchanan. Pat Buchanan is certainly a towering icon in the post-WW2 American conservative movement, and I hope that future American patriots continue to honor his legacy for generations to come.

For those who are newer to my writing, I’ve written several articles over the past few years (here, here, and here) that highlight Pat Buchanan’s enormous influence on the modern “America First” political movement. Many young, Generation Z conservatives owe our “America First” bona fides to Buchanan as he popularized and pioneered the “America First” intellectual ethos within the American conservative movement in the 1990s and 2000s.

Over the past sixty years, Pat Buchanan has been an accomplished author, syndicated columnist, media pundit, speechwriter, White House staffer, and presidential candidate. However, most of Pat Buchanan’s influence on American conservative politics stems from his writings and interviews. Buchanan’s many books, media appearances, and articles gave millions of Americans a deeper understanding of key political topics long ignored by the conservative establishment—such as economic nationalism, immigration restrictionism, and a restrained foreign policy.

Besides his many media endeavors, Pat Buchanan mounted three separate presidential campaigns between 1992 and 2000. In 1992, Pat Buchanan provided a serious challenge against incumbent President George HW Bush–garnering an unprecedented 23% of the primary vote against an incumbent president.

One of Buchanan’s most notable moments from the 1992 Republican presidential primary cycle came during the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas. Now known as the “Culture War” speech, Pat Buchanan gave one of the most memorable political speech in recent American history. His speech thematically focused on the political battle occurring between traditionalist Christians and America First patriots against Democratic party and its secular liberal backers.

The closing line of Buchanan’s “Culture War” RNC speech gave a prophetic glimpse into the future American “Culture War” that later unfolded during the 2010s and 2020s:

“There is a religious war going on in this country. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we shall be as the Cold War itself. For this war is for the soul of America.”

If you haven’t seen Buchanan’s complete speech from the 1992 RNC, then make sure to check out the video below:

Four years later, Pat Buchanan fared slightly better in the 1996 Republican presidential primary than in 1992—winning multiple state primaries but ultimately falling short to the Republican establishment candidate Bob Dole.

Ultimately, Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996 demonstrated that a sizable “America First” faction existed within the Republican party. These campaigns paved the way for the MAGA movement electing Donald Trump to the Presidency in 2016. In fact, Politico writer Jeff Greenfield called Donald Trump “Pat Buchanan with Better Timing” in a September 2016 article.

Over the past several years, many writers and political pundits have noted that Pat Buchanan’s unorthodox views on immigration, trade, and foreign policy in the 1990s eventually came to dominate the mainstream Republican party between 2016 and 2024. After the 2024 RNC, writer Chris Lehmann from The Nation bluntly stated that “The GOP Is Pat Buchanan’s Party Now”.

In honor of Pat Buchanan’s birthday, notable politicians and figures in the American conservative movement have started a campaign urging President Donald Trump to award Patrick J. Buchanan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Back in August, Congressman Riley Moore (R- West Virginia) published a letter in The American Conservative requesting President Donald Trump to award Pat Buchanan with the Presidential medal of freedom. Then in September, US Senator Eric Schmitt (R- Missouri) sent a similar letter to the President requesting this distinguished honor for Pat Buchanan.

The Heritage Foundation also published a moving video supporting the campaign for Pat Buchanan to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Without Pat Buchanan, the American conservative movement would have remained stuck in the neoconservative, establishment-oriented ways of George W. Bush, John McCain, and Bob Dole. Instead, Buchanan helped permanently shift the Overton Window within the GOP toward “America First” positions on trade, immigration, and foreign policy.

Pat Buchanan is certainly an “America First” legend, and we should be grateful for his all his work in helping put America First again!