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American Morning

Buchanan Blames Death of Countries on Lower Birth Rates

Aired January 09, 2002 - 08:22   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: All right speaking of books, we're going to talk about one right now, a brand new one.

The Justice Department is making the deportation of some 600 Middle Eastern men a top priority. Authorities are preparing to search for people who have ignored orders to leave the U.S. and who may fit the profile of a terrorist.

The deportation plan may well have the support of former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan and his new book, "The Death of the West", Buchanan says the U.S. must protect itself against what he calls the greatest global threat.

Pat Buchanan joins us from Washington. Good to see you again Pat. Happy New Year.

PAT BUCHANAN, AUTHOR, "THE DEATH OF THE WEST": Hi Paula.

ZAHN: This is the first time I've had a chance to talk to you this New Year.

BUCHANAN: Well, thank you. Same to you.

ZAHN: So let's talk a moment about the premise of your book, "The Death of ...

BUCHANAN: Sure.

ZAHN: ... the West". Whose fault is it, in your judgment, that it's dying?

BUCHANAN: Well quite frankly, it's the fault of western people. There's not a single western nation Paula, or Japan, I might add, that has a birth rate now that will now allow it to survive as it exists through this century.

Two-thirds of the European people in the world will die out by the end of the century, which is the larger death rate, quite frankly, than the Black Death or the black plague of the 14th Century. And why is it happening? It's because western people are not having children.

ZAHN: So what do you want people to do about that?

BUCHANAN: I -- this is why I say it -- the book is very pessimistic. There's nothing that will change that. The birth rates have been dying, in Europe especially, in Russia especially, but also in the United States of native-born people have been below replacement levels for almost 25 years and they keep getting lower and lower.

My analysis is more why it happened, and I have found basically that when a nation loses its fundamental faith, its religious faith, the culture dies and then the people die and the country die. So I think that's what's happening in Europe, Russia, and the United States and the places in this country reserved for the children who were not born are obviously being taken over by immigrants from non-western nations who I think will dominate the United States and Europe by the end of this century.

ZAHN: All right, but Pat, people hear this and they basically think you're preaching a message of hatred here. Are there any immigrant groups that you like?

BUCHANAN: Well look I like all -- if anybody had read the book out there they would see that I say all these people are good people. They come here to work hard -- in themselves they are good folks, but the problem is they come with a -- without an American identification; many of them with no desire to become Americans. They come from other cultures, from Asian cultures or Islamic cultures, which are not western cultures, and they're going to change this country.

Now Paula, the problem in your question, let me say this, America's elites are very much responsible for this -- media elites I would include in this sense, that any people wants to preserve itself, whether it's a clan or a family or a tribe in Africa, and when the Americans stand up and say we want to preserve ourselves and who we are, the media elites say you're a bunch of racists. My view ...

ZAHN: I don't think anybody is saying this here, but Pat, you've got to acknowledge that when you make these very pointed comments about Hispanic, Americans in particular, some of them might feel that you're not too crazy about their being here.

BUCHANAN: Well look, Mexican individuals who come here to become Americans are welcomed as immigrants. What we have in the southwest is tens of millions who are coming here simply to work and remain part of Mexico.

We have a nation within a nation building up in this country and the refusal of our elites to look at this, media and political, is in my judgment act of moral treason to this country. Seventy-five percent of the American people agree with me on issues -- this issue, and they are demonized simply because they want to preserve the country they grew up in.

ZAHN: Well let me ask you this, why is that any different than from like your parents or my grandparents who came here from you know Czechoslovakia who didn't have an American ...

BUCHANAN: Two things.

ZAHN: ... identity when they arrived on our shores. BUCHANAN: Two things, when your folks -- if they came from Czechoslovakia or Ireland or Germany or Czarist Russia, they came here first legally and secondly they came here desperately wanting to be part of the American family to learn our language, our history, our heroes, to make George Washington the father of their adopted country.

The folks from Mexico, as I say, are good folks, but their loyalty is to Mexico. The president of Mexico comes to the United States and says listen, you folks in America, you are Mexicans who live north of the border. The question is do they want to become Americans.

Look and if we don't Americanize an assembly folks, we are going to lose the greatest country on our earth and become what Theodore Roosevelt says was just a tangle of squabbling minorities and we will lose this great country. The melting pot, Paula, is cracked and broken.

ZAHN: Well you've certainly have hit a raw nerve in some parts of America with this new book called "The Death of the West". Pat, I need a quick yes or no -- completely on another subject. Do you think the ...

BUCHANAN: Sure.

ZAHN: ... U.S. is ever going to get Osama bin Laden?

BUCHANAN: Yes. I do think we're going to get him or we're going to find out that he's dead or we're going to get him.

ZAHN: All right. We appreciate your dropping by.

(CROSSTALK)

ZAHN: Pat Buchanan just out with the new book, "The Death of the West". Thank you very much for joining us this morning.

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