The Brawlers

Pat Buchanan tells his people to “mount up and ride to the sound of the guns.” (Buchanan likes bellicose locutions; men who actually served in the military and have experience of war—John McCain, say, or Colin Powell, or, for that matter, Jesse Ventura—do not use such expressions.) The question remains: Once Buchanan and his irregulars are mounted up, what flag are they fighting for? The Republican? The Reform party’s? Merely . . . the wild-hair tribe of Pat Buchanan? What exactly is their business, once they get to the place where the guns are going off?

Buchanan may not know precisely, or much care. The noise and smoke are enough.

About the Author

Lance Morrow

Mr. Morrow, an essayist, is the Henry Grunwald Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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Pat Buchanan tells his people to “mount up and ride to the sound of the guns.” (Buchanan likes bellicose locutions; men who actually served in the military and have experience of war—John McCain, say, or Colin Powell, or, for that matter, Jesse Ventura—do not use such expressions.) The question remains: Once Buchanan and his irregulars are mounted up, what flag are they fighting for? The Republican? The Reform party’s? Merely . . . the wild-hair tribe of Pat Buchanan? What exactly is their business, once they get to the place where the guns are going off?

Buchanan may not know precisely, or much care. The noise and smoke are enough.