Pat Buchanan and Ron Paul Deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Buchanan and Paul are two figures who have been repeatedly vindicated over time, and it is time for these legends to be properly honored.

Before the rise of President Trump, neoconservative political theory dominated the Republican Party for decades. At their zenith, the neocons were almost solely responsible for the policies of President George W. Bush. The Bush administration gave the country two trillion-dollar foreign wars, massive debts and deficits, proposed amnesty for illegals, a domestic police state, and a global recession.

During the Bush years, virtually every mainstream Republican politician marched in lockstep to the lies and propaganda pushed through elite media organs by the neocons. Most conservatives were too cowed and afraid to be stigmatized as being “with the terrorists” to cry foul at heinously unconstitutional Bush-era decisions such as the Patriot Act that have had cascading negative ramifications still plaguing the country to this day.

There was only one outlier, an obscure Texas Congressman with economic and foreign policy stances far outside the realm of mainstream political opinion by the name of Ron Paul.

Paul took the 2008 presidential debate stage as the candidate with the least fanfare. He railed against the FBI, the Federal Reserve, deficit spending, the North American Union, the military-industrial complex, and basically every guiding principle the Republican Party has followed since the days of Robert Taft. It seemed highly unlikely that following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks and the ubiquitous submersion of jingoistic propaganda that a candidate with these positions could ever gain traction within the Republican Party, but Paul defied the odds and leveraged the internet and social media to amass surprising momentum that proved not to be a fluke.

Paul gained a cult following in 2008 and after the nomination of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s Vice President, a tea party movement ruptured nationally to change the nature of the Republican Party. As a result, Paul’s son, Rand was elected to the U.S. Senate in Kentucky, and the type of politician demanded by Republican constituents changed immediately across the country. Paul ran for president again in 2012, substantially increasing his level of support but ultimately losing to Mitt Romney who would be trounced in the general by Obama. Paul may have lost but his presidential runs helped to change the DNA of the Republican Party as the tea party movement would serve as the forerunner for President Trump’s MAGA ascension to the helm of politics.

Paul was not the only political figure who served as a precursor to Trumpism. Pat Buchanan, an alumnus of the Nixon and Reagan administrations, was able to tap into populist sentiment that was building in the early 1990s. Unsatisfied with George H.W. Bush’s co-opting of Reaganism into a backslide toward weak moderatism, the Buchanan brigades wanted an heir to Reagan who build upon the 40^th President’s successes to restore American greatness. Buchanan was a man who was up to the task, and he gave an intellectual opposition to the free trade and free market consensus that had come to dominate the Republican orthodoxy. Departing from Reaganism in certain ways, Buchanan presented a staunchly protectionist vision for America’s future.

Moreso than Paul, Buchanan laid out a set of policies that were remarkably similar to what put President Trump espoused to assure his victories in 2016 and 2024. Buchanan decried the raw deal that Americans were getting with NAFTA, predicted that so-called “free trade” would destroy jobs, and called for permanent tariffs to protect American industry. Buchanan spoke of shadowy conspiracies of insiders and elites who wished to tear away U.S. sovereignty and make the people of America subservient to a globalist order, wishing to draw the country back from international entanglements. Buchanan had his finger on the pulse of the systemic problems that were contributing to America’s demise and was ahead of his time in calling for the proper solutions.

Buchanan was able to gain a nationwide following but like Paul, fell short of being able to defeat Bush in 1992 or Bob Dole in 1996. The machine was too powerful for Buchanan to overcome. The power was concentrated in the hands of a select few who controlled the airwaves and successfully shaped the minds of the masses. Buchanan and Paul uttered verboten thoughts that were outside of this engineered consensus. They were widely mocked and ridiculed, but they inspired the hearts and minds of the Remnant – an irate, tireless minority of Americans who retained their long-stated principles and values. Because of the efforts of Buchanan and Paul, the flame of liberty remained glowing just enough for the right leader in President Trump to pour gasoline upon that flickering ember and ignite a blistering inferno upon political establishment.

Buchanan and Paul were similar on certain issues, particularly foreign policy where they were skeptics of military interventionism. However, they differed on quite a few crucial topics. Paul was a sharp critic of central banking as a driver of inflation and big government whereas Buchanan believed the institution was necessary to sustain American prosperity. Buchanan supported tariffs to protect industry while Paul opposed tariffs due to his intransigent opposition to all forms of taxation as part of his Austro-libertarian mindset. But despite their differences, both men tapped into the same populist mindset, striving to renew America during the darkest of times, helping to sustain a base of support that an enigmatic personality like Trump could eventually revive and achieve tangible electoral success.

Buchanan and Paul each deserve the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, for doing yeoman’s work to put America First. This would serve many important functions. Affirming the legacies of Buchanan and Paul as national heroes further cements President Trump’s own legacy as the master and commander of the Republican Party. It throws more dirt on the neocons who destroyed America for their own megalomaniacal ambitions. It makes abundantly clear which trajectory the Party is heading. And most importantly of all, it is the right thing to do. Buchanan and Paul are two figures who have been repeatedly vindicated over time, and it is time for these legends to be properly honored for showing that good men of conscience fighting against the odds and toiling in the shadows can help change the course of history.