By Tom Piatak
Rod Dreher is singing the praises of Eric Zemmour’s announcement of his candidacy to be president of France. Understandably so. It is a powerful, moving speech. It is so powerful, in fact, that YouTube has “age restricted” it. We can’t have the kids listening to Zemmour without a warning!
In any case, Dreher also composed his own version and asked readers to imagine the impact that would have here. It is a good speech; Dreher is a talented writer. Dreher also likens Zemmour, as others have, to Tucker Carlson. Well enough.
But something must be said. Eric Zemmour is not the first Western journalist turned politician to give that speech. And I know what impact that speech had on Rod Dreher. None.
This journalist-turned-politician ran for president of the United States three times. Some journalists quit their jobs to work on his campaigns. Other journalists did what they could, in their own jobs, to help. Rod Dreher was not one of them.
And when National Review gave Dreher posting privileges at its then-popular blog, then published a cover article denouncing this man and his supporters as “unpatriotic conservatives,” Dreher did nothing.
Worst still, Dreher defamed this man as a “white supremacist” at the very website that would not exist without him. That would be The American Conservative.
My country would be in a much better place today if that man had been elected president. Which is why I did all I could to help him become president. As did the other two founders of this website. Before Eric Zemmour, before Tucker Carlson, there was Pat Buchanan.
And some of us who knew Pat Buchanan was the real deal when many of our current problems could have been avoided, or at least ameliorated, would find Dreher’s pro-Zemmour hosannas more credible if he would apologize for slandering Buchanan, point out how wrong the many other slanderers of Buchanan are and have been, and recognize that the fight to save the West is not a new one, but an old one.
Dreher might add that no one has fought that fight longer, or better, than Patrick Joseph Buchanan.
Expecting Dreher to apologize, and I know you don’t, would require Rod to have a shred of conviction and honesty. He doesn’t. The man is a political, religious and cultural chameleon, shifting his colors to match the current zeitgeist so he can keep the hustle alive. The man is a snake and that is putting it as charitably as I can muster.