Brandon Van Meter

Speaking against current trends in American culture and politics he feels are marred with “hubris,” Pat Buchanan called the Bush presidency’s condition “critical, if not grave.”

A former presidential candidate, adviser to President Nixon, author and commentator, Buchanan lectured about the failures of the current federal administration April 4.

His speech, the Griffith Honors Forum Lecture, took place at the Larson Memorial Concert Hall in the Performing Arts Center.

In “The State of the Bush Presidency in 2008,” Buchanan spoke of the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War and President Reagan’s “victory.” After the victory in the first Gulf War, which took around six weeks, “the United States was the king of the world.” Following these two victories, America was “the last superpower.” With these victories, however, the nation developed an “ignorance of history.”

He went on to describe an ideology among some Republicans and President Bush after 9-11 that mirrors that of Woodrow Wilson after World War I. The “neo-Wilsonian” idea is that “American-style democracy is for export, American-style democracy, overall, is to remain secure.”

However, Buchanan said, if there are hundreds of millions of people who hate America, if given the chance for free elections, they will elect people who also hate America.

“Not all people share our beliefs, our values and our convictions,” he said.

The current Bush ideology is “paradise will happen when we democratize the world, when free trade all over the world is possible, when all nations disarm.”

President Bush called Iraq, Iran and North Korea part of the “axis of evil,” and threatened to act against threats of violence. Bush’s foreign policy after 9-11, or “Bush Doctrine,” threatened these nations with war if they sought nuclear and chemical weapons, Buchanan stated. The doctrine has now been defined by North Korea, who “exploded a nuclear device in our faces.”

Meanwhile, the situation in Iraq is deteriorating. Although Buchanan feels that Iraq was not a threat and war was unwarranted, “We cannot just walk out,” he said. “What we will leave behind is infinitely worse than what was there before.”

#1.883551:1922615619.jpg:buchananchicoine.tm.jpg:SDSU President David Chicoine visits with Pat Buchanan at the Performing Arts Center April 4th. He addressed a near full-house crowd that night.:#1.883550:2802307152.jpg:patbuchanan2.jn.jpg:Former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan talks about the state of the Bush presidency April 4 at SDSU.: