It’s Time for Dole to Lead --and Buchanan to Follow : Nominee-to-be needs all the Republican forces to battle Clinton, but ‘Pitchfork Pat’ is waging war against Reaganism.

I was always a fan of Pat Buchanan’s. Champion of the underdog. Conservative pit bull “on the right” at CNN. Loyal and accomplished conservative lieutenant during the Nixon and Reagan administrations. Defender of the unborn.

Like many fellow Orange County Republicans, I too am a friend of his capable sister, Bay. Indeed, there is much to admire about the distinguished Buchanan family.

I appreciated Buchanan’s courage in launching his 1992 campaign. And I do now confess to being one of those who voted for him in the 1992 California Republican primary in the hope that the hapless Bush campaign would ultimately take a hint and find its conservative compass. It never did.

And from the floor of the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, I applauded much of Buchanan’s speech as a welcome reaffirmation of many Reagan principles, which had been largely abandoned by the Bush administration.

Fast forwarding to 1996, however, I find that as a conservative Republican, I haven’t left Pat Buchanan, Pat Buchanan now has left me.

With great rhetorical ferocity, Buchanan’s peasants with pitchforks would have us believe that America, Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill,” is now some shantytown along the swamp. His mean-spirited, divisive and exclusionary campaign threatens to undermine decades of conservative electoral and policy accomplishments that redefined the Republican Party away from its pre-World War II narrow-minded, elitist, “fortress America” underpinnings and into the majority status we now enjoy.

One of the most inspirational speeches given by President Reagan was his “Farewell Address to the Nation” of Jan. 11, 1989. Metaphorically, it captured so much of what Reagan conservatism is about and, substantively, what the Reagan administration achieved. Rereading it, the contrast between Reagan conservatism and this newly emerged Buchanan populism could not be more dramatic.

Where Reagan always spoke of hope and optimism and delivered on the promises of growth and opportunity, Buchanan panders to fear, economic anxiety, class warfare, cultural discord and xenophobia.

Reagan’s “city with open doors” and “free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity,” is vastly different from “Fort Buchanan,” an embattled outpost constructed within tariff walls.

Reagan’s “freedom man” who would welcome “anyone with the will and the heart to get here,” would shed a tear over the fence and immigration controls that Irish American Buchanan would erect. The enormous cultural and economic contributions historically brought about through immigration means little in his white-bread America.

And when Reagan said, “We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world,” he recognized America’s domestic successes meant we could not escape from leadership abroad. Reagan so clearly demonstrated America’s ability to change permanently and peacefully the course of world history by peace through strength. Buchanan would hide from that responsibility, unable to achieve domestic security while wedded to his insecure isolationism.

Reagan called upon his fellow Americans to “believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours.” Buchanan would have us fear ourselves believing that despair and danger lurk around every city corner and beyond each shore.

Buchanan’s defeated--but not yet dead--presidential campaign represents the dark side of Republicanism that leaders beginning with William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan on through Jack Kemp, William Bennett and the congressional leaders of the Conservative Opportunity Society fought to deliver us from. He recently stated that, “We are tomorrow,” but we now know he is yesterday’s bad news.

Bob Dole has remarked that Buchanan’s message “has struck a nerve.” Maybe so. His 20% to 30% tallies in several states, particularly his showings in New Hampshire and Michigan, should not be dismissed. But the messenger should be. Now that California has sealed Buchanan’s fate, it’s time to ignore his divisive rhetoric and a campaign platform that is at great variance with modern conservatism. For clearly, within the conservative ranks of the Republican Party today we have leaders with the capacity to create and the skill to deliver the solutions to America’s problems. Some of them ran for the nomination, most did not. But now all Republicans must help Dole win the presidency.

To do this, the Reagan Republican Party platforms must be reaffirmed by Dole. Don’t tinker with what’s worked. The Reagan doctrines of limited government, less regulation, reduced taxes, personal accountability and, yes, strong defense are not out of style. They just languished during four years of the Bush administration and two years of the Clinton administration until boldly resurrected by congressional Republicans in January of 1995.

Move forward with the flat tax long supported by steadfast conservatives like Bruce Herschensohn, Dick Armey, the Kemp Commission and, of course, Steve Forbes. And throw out the IRS, as the chairman of the Way and Means Committee proposes.

Select a vice president like conservative Dan Lungren. His personal, political and policy strengths, well known in California, will be quickly embraced by Republicans and Reagan Democrats alike.

Above all, show leadership, resolve, trustworthiness and conviction. Character counts a lot. People just didn’t realize it until we lost it four years ago.

While Buchanan says he is fighting for the heart and soul of the Republican Party against a reemerging Rockefeller Republican establishment, in fact, Buchanan’s Brigades have waged war against “Reagan’s Regiments.” Now he is our Benedict Arnold.

Don’t look back, Sen. Dole. The battle lies ahead against King Willie and Lord Perot. Your West Point is over. Yorktown awaits you.