Mr. Buchanan and His Friends

IMAGINE the headquarters of a Latin American Communist Party. Around the table are veteran revolutionaries—grizzled and plump now but still cherishing the memory of their fighting youth—when the news arrives that the North has fallen to a new band of rebels. They claim allegiance to the Party and are led by an old Party hand, but they also show worrying signs of deviationism and the cult of personality.

“I have seen them, comrades,” reports one apparatchik nervously. “They are like we were in the pampas, young, tough, and so certain of everything. They say they support the Party, but when they speak of us they smile. A smile of pity, comrades. As if we were women.”

About the Author

John O’Sullivan

John O’Sullivan is a senior fellow at National Review Institute and a contributing editor of National Review.

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George H. W. Bush

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Presidential Election

IMAGINE the headquarters of a Latin American Communist Party. Around the table are veteran revolutionaries—grizzled and plump now but still cherishing the memory of their fighting youth—when the news arrives that the North has fallen to a new band of rebels. They claim allegiance to the Party and are led by an old Party hand, but they also show worrying signs of deviationism and the cult of personality.

“I have seen them, comrades,” reports one apparatchik nervously. “They are like we were in the pampas, young, tough, and so certain of everything. They say they support the Party, but when they speak of us they smile. A smile of pity, comrades. As if we were women.”