MSNBC is shocked, shocked to discover that Pat Buchanan is a racist, rightwing, Nazi-loving asshole.

I know, who saw that coming?

In 1977 he wrote: "Those of us in childhood during the war years were introduced to Hitler only as a caricature…Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic to the core, a man who without compunction could commit murder and genocide, he was also an individual of great courage, a soldier’s soldier in the Great War, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him. But Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path." (St. Louis Globe – Democrat, Aug 25, 1977)

In 1997 he said: “If we had to take a million immigrants in, say Zulus, next year, or Englishmen, and put them in Virginia, what group would be easier to assimilate and would cause less problems for the people of Virginia?” (On This Week With David Brinkley, December 8, 1991)

In 2008 he wrote: “…America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.” (In “A Brief for Whitey.” Keep in mind he also said “The War Between the States was about independence, about self-determination, about the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance…”)

And here it is 2012. In Suicide of a Superpower, published in 2011 he said:
“[W]hite America is an endangered species. By 2020, whites over 65 will out-number those 17 and under. Deaths will exceed births. The white population will begin to shrink and, should present birth rates persist, slowly disappear.”

“Mexico is moving north. Ethnically, linguistically and culturally, the verdict of 1848 is being over-turned. Will this Mexican nation within a nation advance the goals of the Constitution -- to ‘insure domestic tranquility’ and ‘make us a more perfect union’? Or have we imperiled our union?” (Page 134)

The quote is from chapter 4, “The End of White America.”

MSNBC heaved a great sigh of sadness and regretfully canned his racist ass. Good riddance.

Hold on.

According to at least of couple of sources (Chris Matthews and Andrew Sullivan, both of whom are, ah-hem, white) he was a cordial and loyal friend. In person, he was a damn decent guy. So what if Buchanan thinks Hitler was a snappy dresser and a good dancer?

Hold on!

MSNBC couldn’t be seen as giving an approving platform to someone who would start a chapter of the KKK Historical Reinactment group with Herman Cain and Michael Steel as charter members.

They were paying him to give the “conservative” viewpoint on whether or not we should have sided with Hitler against Stalin during WWII. Buchanan wrote an entire book on Hitler, the Reluctant Warrior.

So this guy, who put the “paleo” in “paleoconservative,” deserves to get the boot, right? We don’t agree with hardly anything he says. He has an essay on race posted on David Duke’s white supremacist website. We can’t have that. We can’t give those views oxygen. Right?

Wrong. The general reason for an asshole can be simplified down to “better out than in.” Give it some thought.

It’s better to hear these views and argue with them than shut them up. The answer to bad speech is more speech.

The loudest outraged question was/is “How can you pay that creep to spout such horrible ideas?” The answer is “because it allows us to pay a lot more people to argue back at him.”

It’s not hard to silence someone you don’t want to listen to, someone who has bad ideas. Then you get peace and quiet and only good ideas. Your own. It’s not too hard to find places that mirror your own thoughts back to you perfectly. But it’s not a good idea. It’s not good for you. It leaves you living on brain candy and that will rot your brain’s teeth.

I like to argue. Almost everything Pat Buchanan says is wrong. But I can’t argue against his ideas unless he can express them. I can’t gleefully point out how wrong he is if he’s not allowed to be wrong. I can’t point out the flaws in his reasoning unless he is allowed to present his reasoning. I can’t provide the facts he is ignoring. I can’t expose the falsehoods he is spouting unless he is ignoring and spouting in public for all to hear.

There aren’t many places where you can debate ideas. You can invade one of the right wing echo chambers and try to present dissent but you’ll be kicked out before you can draw breath. Try posting mild, polite dissent on redstate.com. Not only will you be blocked from posting again but you will be blocked from even accessing their website for several days. ExposeObama.com not only will block you, they will delete the offending post.

Yes, MSNBC was paying Pat Buchanan to say ugly, sexist, racist, theocratic, horrible, nasty stuff (he wasn’t actually THAT bad, but you get the idea). And they were also paying people to argue back. That’s how it’s supposed to work.

Firing Buchanan was a serious mistake. It’s an easy mistake to make, but eating candy is always easy. The problem is, because he was fired, now our minds are going to be a little more toothless.