On Your World, Buchanan claimed immigration "almost equals Iraq" as most "important" issue "in the minds of the American people"; polling refutes
SUMMARY: On Your World, Pat Buchanan claimed that immigration is "the most important domestic issue" to Americans and "almost equals Iraq in the minds of the American people." In fact, according to the most recent polling, the most important domestic issue to Americans is the economy.
On the August 25 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, MSNBC political analyst and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan claimed that immigration is "the most important domestic issue" to Americans and "almost equals Iraq in the minds of the American people." In fact, according to the most recent polling, the most important domestic issue to Americans is the economy. Further, in most recent polls, far more Americans said they viewed the war in Iraq as the most important issue facing the country, while a much smaller percentage of respondents pointed to immigration as the most important. Although a larger percentage of poll respondents cited immigration as a high priority issue in polling conducted in June and July than have done so in polls conducted in August, even then, other issues, such as the war in Iraq and the economy, polled significantly higher as a national priority.
According to the most recent polling data, respondents have infrequently cited immigration as a high-priority issue, while the war in Iraq and the economy have consistently remained two of the most important. In an August 10-11 Newsweek poll, respondents said that immigration would be one of the least important issues to affect their vote in the midterm elections -- 22 percent said the "most important" issue was "the situation in Iraq," 18 percent said "the economy," 15 percent pointed to "terrorism" and 14 percent said "health care." Only 9 percent of respondents said immigration was the most important issue when considering their congressional vote. An August 11-13 CBS News poll found results similar to Newsweek's when asking the open-ended question: "What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?" The three most important issues according to poll were "war in Iraq" (28 percent), "terrorism" (17 percent), and "economy/jobs" (11 percent). Only 4 percent of respondents believed "immigration" was the most important issue facing the country.
A larger percentage of respondents did cite immigration as their "most important" issue in polls conducted in June and July than did so in the most recent Newsweek and CBS News polls. However, these polls also showed that a larger percentage of respondents cited other issues, such as Iraq and the economy, as the "single most important issue" in their vote, over immigration. According to a June 22-25 ABC News/Washington Post poll, when asked, "What will be the single most important issue in your vote for Congress this year," 24 percent of respondents said the war in Iraq, 23 percent pointed to the economy, and 14 percent said health care, while 13 percent said immigration. A June 27-28 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that, when asked to pick from a list of "issues [that] will be the most important in deciding your vote for Congress this fall," 11 percent said immigration. However, more respondents pointed to the economy (19 percent), Iraq (16 percent), and terrorism (12 percent) as "most important." A July 7-10 Harris poll, asking the question, "What do you think are the two most important issues for the government to address?" found that 13 percent said "immigration," a decline of 7 percentage points from the previous Harris poll; the "war" and the "economy" ranked higher at 32 and 15 percent, respectively.
During the segment, Buchanan also asserted that "[t]he Mexican government is consciously pushing the[ir] people into the United States to get rid of their poor and unemployed and have the Americans take care of them and the Americans employ them." As Media Matters for America recently noted, Buchanan has said he "think[s] that the Mexican government has a direct program basically to push its poor, unemployed, and uneducated into the United States for a variety of purposes," adding that the "reconquista," a term associated with the movement to recapture the southwestern United States for Mexico, "is well underway." As Media Matters has also noted, Buchanan has previously claimed that immigration will result in the "complete balkanization of America" and an "invasion of the United States of America."
From the August 25 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:
NEIL CAVUTO (host): My next guest says that if we just keep letting illegals invade this country, America may not be the America we know in the year 2050. He's former presidential candidate in his own right Pat Buchanan, author of State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America [Thomas Dunne Books, August 2006]. It has already soared to the number-one spot on Amazon.com -- no easy task.
Pat, you heard [Rep.] Tom Tancredo [R-CO] before -- that this is going to be an issue that resonates, and maybe resonates enough for him to run for the White House, as did you. What do you think of that?
BUCHANAN: I think he's exactly right. I think it's the most important domestic issue in the country. It almost equals Iraq in the minds of the American people. Neil, I think it's going to be an issue in 2006, in 2008, and for the rest of our lifetimes, because Tom Tancredo is exactly right. America is in an existential crisis. I mean, the president himself admits, 6 million tried to break in across the border on his watch. By my count, 500,000 make it every year, which means 2.5 million have invaded. There are spies in there, undoubtedly saboteurs in there, probably Al Qaeda, probably Hezbollah.
And, if the president does not build that security fence on the border, and he grants amnesty, the whole world is coming, and this is going to be the end of the United States as people of my generation who grew up in another country knew it.
CAVUTO: All right, now, you -- one of the premises of your book is -- you talk -- we'll have better than 100 million Hispanics in this country by 2050. And you argue that with that power and clout comes a lot more power and clout. Explain.
BUCHANAN: That -- that's not my figure. That's the U.S. Census Bureau. There are 42 million Hispanics now, six million more than all the African-Americans in the country. There will be 102 million. They will be heavily concentrated in the American Southwest. The vast majority will come from Mexico, a country where 58 percent of the people believes the Southwest was stolen from them and belongs to them, and they have a right to be here.
The Mexican government is consciously pushing these people into the United States to get rid of their poor and unemployed and have the Americans take care of them and the Americans employ them. And, then, they get back $20 billion in remittances.
And, in addition to this, they get this huge cohort of people, loyal and faithful sons of Mexico, inside the United States. They urge them to become citizens and vote Mexico's interests. We will soon come to a point, Neil, where they will provide -- you don't need too many of them -- the swing votes in states like Arizona, New Mexico -- California's already gone for Republicans -- and Texas.
And, when they do, I don't think any Republican presidential candidate who's determined to secure and defend America's borders will be able to win the presidency of the United States.
And I dont find fault with it. Especially when he discusses how George Bush has performed an impeachable offense by not protecting America's borders. I dont know why MMFA has an issue with Buchanan and this subject. Even Paul Krugman agrees with Buchanan in that Bush has lied that illegals do the work Americans wont do. Buchanan and Krugman both believe this has been an attack on Americas working poor. George Bush and the Republican party continue to cater to big business and hurt Americas working poor and are causing a massive Human Rights issue with how immigrants are being treated.
you think that Buchanan isn't wrong about everything, and because Paul Krugman agrees with some of what Buchanan says, that makes it wrong for Media Matters to point out when Buchanan is inaccurate and misleading?
I don't think so.
The problem is that Buchanan and Co keep talking about Hispanics like the rightwingers used to talk about communists - as this large, scary blob that will roll over America and kill the honest, Godfearing "real" Americans.
They just use the current hot topic of illegal immigration as a new way to hide their real message.
Let's cut the crap and call this immigration business what it is. It's a fight between the ranchers and businessmen who write the checks and who desire a steady supply of cheap, compliant labor and who comprise this administration's core constituency and the ignorant, bigoted white trash base that worships them.
Who writes the checks? That's who they care about. The rest of you are just dumb schmucks.
This is a republican squabble. Let them destroy themselves.
They keep obfuscating
The problem is that Buchanan and Co keep talking about Hispanics like the rightwingers used to talk about communists - as this large, scary blob that will roll over America and kill the honest, Godfearing "real" Americans.
- fawltylogic / Tuesday August 29, 2006 12:56:02 PM EST
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Hey, they know their target market. They can't grasp complex problems with equally complex solutions. I mean, C'mon. We're talking about republicans here. Ignorant white trash republicans.
Buchanan is not a Republican he is an independent who ran for President in 2000 as a Reform Party candidate and has opposed the war in Iraq. He has called for the impeachment of Bush and he is correct in that and how the Presidents immigration policy is destroying the working class Americans.
an independent Xenophobe- European Supremicist. I can't believe you're actually defending Pat's bigoted beliefs. Pat may not HATE Blacks or Hispanics but he certainly has proven that he believes he and his fellow citizens of European decsent are a superior people.
Sorry, I dont get that from him. I see someone who understands what damage this President has caused our national security and not defend our borders.
Buchanan must've been scared scatless by a Latino at some point in his life.
Either that, or he and Lou Dobbs are really twins who were separated at birth.
This is not up to mmfa standards. Armbruster blathering about polls now...polls then...polls here...polls there...
The summary and links to the polls would have been sufficient...without Armbruster's ramblings. Most here are capable of reading poll numbers.
Armbruster deserves a "tsk tsk".
I really enjoy media matters, and overall I think they present great information for all to ponder. However, the divison of blue and red, north and south, "conservative" and "liberal" are weaking this country to its very foundations, allowing a very small group of people(whomever you think they are) to continue to "create" whatever world they want for us to see. Media matters didnt call out Pat Buchanon as right or wrong, simply posted what he said. And you know what? I think there is something fundamentally wrong in having 12 million illegal aliens in this country. I dont think their recent entrance into this country in the numbers they are is an accident. Or an act of incompetence. The idea that the Democrats want them for votes, and the Republicans want them for cheap labor is just another tactic to divide us, while the few that are making these wheels turn are getting whatever outcome they want through this "exodus" from Latin America. Before its said, let me say that I have no issue with men and women from another country trying to better their lives. That is not the issue. The issue should be why are they not going through th proper channels to be legal citzens, and why are we turning a blind eye/wink-wink to this? I'm not worried about assimilation. I'm worried about what happens after the latin exodus. Who is going to be our next fruit picker/dishwasher/cleaner/laborer/minum wage earner? Who is going to be our next cheap labor? And if you dont consider minum wage slave labor, go try and support yourself on it for a month. Are we a Republic with a system of laws or is this a dictaorship? Because the way this is going clearly is not lawful in any way. People that want to come here need to do so by our laws. Doesnt seem very controversial to me. Or racist for that matter. If I'm a nut in believeing there is something sinister going on, whether it be the invention of the federal reseve, or creation of the corporation, please do your homework and prove me wrong. I would sleep much better. Maybe. I look at the divison between rich and poor, and the continued squeeze on the middle class and cant stop thinking there is something awful afoot. There was a time in this country that ONE income could support a family, that time appears to be in the past. And we should all be scratching our heads trying to figure out where it went. In the meantime start looking at why minimum wage hasnt increased, who wants to abolish the minimum wage and why. You can call Pat a Racist for alot of things, but not pointing out statistical facts. I dont know about the moral fiber being broken by an influx of latinos, but I do know our econmy will be. We need to stand up and take our country back, and we cant do that till we are all on the same page. Ask yourselves again what happened to the one income family. Ask why our manufacturing jobs are being sent overseas. why everything we buy doesnt say "made in America" anymore. You really buy the "service industry" answer? Ask yourseslves again why we are so in debt. Then after your research please, please, lets figure out what the hell we are going to do about it. Cause I dont know what the heck to do. I wish I did. Where the hell are our leaders, and who is going to buy them flack jackets once they stand up?
The issue is not illegal aliens. Almost everyone from every spectrum of politics agrees that something should be done about it. No one with any influence is advocating an open border. The problem is: 1. What do you do with those already here and 2. how do you better regulate the labor market so that if there is an economic rationale for immigrants, it can be done above board, thereby securing our border.
If our media and politics were functional and healthy, we could come up with solutions to these problems. Instead we get a lot of fear mongering and rhetoric - the result of which is that many of the reasons why our middle class life is going down the tubes gets obscured and meaningful debate gets trampled on.
So take notice that such issues as the fiasco in Iraq, energy depletion, global warming, economic inequality, trade deficit, consumer debt... gets pushed aside while the emphasis moves toward demonizing immigrants.
Oh yes, I know!!!!! This is the end of America. Our flag is doomed. We will be speaking strange tounges with our newly imported twisted morals. Our precious and superior culture is very fragil and is easily rejected by those that prefer poverty and tyranny when given the choice.
And demonizing immigrants makes some of you out there feel real good. Complex problems seem to only require simple and emotionally comforting solutions.
Ah, the old can't we all just get along song and dance. Thanks anyway, Rodney. I'll pass.
I have no intention to go along and get along with the illegitimate trash in the White House and their brain-dead acolytes. Thanks, all the same.
Keep tryin', JLyon. Nobody's buyin'. Pat was a reptile when he worked for Nixon and Reagan. He's a reptile now. Maybe you can convince yourself otherwise. I doubt anyone else is buyin' it. I sure as hell ain't.
I dont expect close minded people like you to buy anything other than the same old partisan hatefilled line.
Still defending this bigot?
I dont believe he is a bigot, he is making a valid point that Bush should be impeached for not protecting the borders.
I doubt any reasonable people who look at the evidence could find fault with this.
I wonder what is it in our human nature that has this need to believe that the only REASONABLE people are the people that agree with us. You and I OFTEN disagree and I must admit there have been times when I couldn’t follow your logic or your perspective on something perplexed me; nevertheless I’ve never questioned that you weren’t a reasonable person. I know there may have been times when I didn’t articulate my viewpoint adequately and that led to confusion about what I was attempting to say; but all in all I consider myself pretty reasonable. And I have now reached what feel is a reasonable conclusion about Pat B. Pat's feelings about people of non European ancestry has a huge bearing on his stand on illegal immigration, I really honestly think he would not be AS upset if the illegal immigrants if they were British, Irish, Scottish or any other European nationality he finds acceptable . I have consistently across the threads stated that I am no proponent of uncontrolled borders; but I'm sick of the racist rhetoric that accompanies the debate and now damn if Pat didn't go and write a whole book perpetuating the xenophobia that unfortunately reflexively rears it’s ugly head when many from the right want to discuss illegal immigration. I wish they would shut up about the Hispanics and talk about the real problems of illegal immigration. Your know, it's ironic but if Pat’s viewpoint on immigration had been the prevailing viewpoint in the 1900’s a lot of you on this board wouldn’t even be here to talk about how the Mexicans are changing your AMERICAN way of life. BTW, Bill Maher said Pat should have titled his book I Hate Brown People.
I do find you reasonable, no disrespect was intended.
This isnt the 1900s however , the world and nation have changed. Pat may have other motives , I didnt get that after reading his book.
I Strongly believe he is correct in his discussion about how George W Bush has failed to protect America.
There was a very good expose on illegal border crossings in the latest "Mother Jones"(sept/oct '06) entitled "Exodus: Coyotes, pollos, and the promised van" by Charles Bowden. You'd think that having been Guv of TX before his ascent to the throne, Bush would have been working to solve this border crisis years ago. Um, Nat'l Guard? What happened to border patrol funding? The border towns are in a crisis of criminal networking, not cultural upheaval.
Why is Pat Buchanan intent on insisting that the immigration issue is more important in the minds of the American public , when the evidence points to the Iraq war and the economy in the forefront? Why does Pat (the "independent") worry that Latino/Mexican immigrants will throw the "swing states"?
Y'all need to quit eating chicken and a lot of other food if you abhor cheap Lationo labor.
grow my own damn vegetables.
the swing votes in states like Arizona, New Mexico -- California's already gone for Republicans -- and Texas.
Only let those vote that have a form of ID. Period.
concerning immigration in the media, are against pat buchanan? hahah. that's like attacking michael savage everytime he makes a comment about homosexuality.
the issue is not about Latino labor, cheap or otherwise. it's about ILLEGAL labor. as much as the not-so-progressives love to denounce everyone against illegal immigration or liberal/lax immigration policy as closet racists, for the most part, it's just not the case.
immigration and border security easily holds as an important issue in the top 10 polled issues. top 5? maybe. cerainly not number one, i'll admit that. doesn't make it any less important.
i can never take media matters seriously. making a website to point out when conservative pundits say dumb things. one form of bias is ok to MM, if it's biased to your liking...haha.
Anybody notice the dollar lost 17% against the yuan last week? Or India's GDP runs over 8% annually? How about housing bubble bursting? Or foreclosures up 120% in Frisco? When the Fed stops publishing the M3 numbers, it means they're printing fiat currency 24/7. The Cons are lying about everything else, yet they're giving us factual data about the economy? Come on, boys and girls. Buchanan just hawking a book ala Annie.
"The Mexican government is consciously pushing these people into the United States to get rid of their poor and unemployed and have the Americans take care of them and the Americans employ them."
Shoot me, but I think Pat's correct here for the most part. I do think Vincente Fox wants very much for his disenfrachised people to leave his country. He doesn't want them making trouble.
" I dont know why MMFA has an issue with Buchanan and this subject."
Because he keeps making racist remarks, and therefore hurts the argument that illegal immigration is a problem that needs to be dealt with. It just makes the people who oppose illegal immigration and want to fix it in a positive way look bad.
And it's a shame that Pat has that streak in him. He can actually make sense when he's not going on bigoted, bug-eyed, intolerant tirades.
Has Felipe Calderon taken office yet? I keep saying Vincente Fox. I know Manuel Obrador was challeging the results.
Don't need racism to work out adjustments between neighbors.
In the meantime realize that especially with NAFTA, pushing Mexico's unemployed our way is just their way of salvaging a sour deal. Remember in NAFTA, we got access to their markets, resources and finance and they were supposed to get their country developed.
Of course the main players on that deal were more concerned with their portfolios than with who would end up moving into your neighborhood looking for a job.
There is a great article regarding Pat Buchanan you must read. Read it here: [link to www.saneworks.us]