Buchanan Decries "Old Heroes" Like Robert E. Lee Being "Replaced By Dr. King"

In his latest column -- which is available all over the web -- Pat Buchanan asks, "Is America Coming Apart?" After pointing out some obvious issues where the American people are polarized (abortion, gay marriage, etc.), Buchanan delves into an amateurish dissertation about what makes a nation.  Predictably, Buchanan's argument quickly becomes about race and heritage.  In Buchanan's mind, a nation must be unified by "common ancestry, faith, culture and language," as well as "the same God." He goes on to imply that Mexican-Americans who celebrate Cinco de Mayo aren't really Americans at all:

In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays, and share the same music, poetry, art and literature?

Yet, today, Mexican-Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a skirmish in a French-Mexican war about which most Americans know nothing, which took place the same year as two of the bloodiest battles of our own Civil War: Antietam and Fredericksburg.

Buchanan rambles in a similar vein for some 800 words.  However, one passage really stands out, as he decries "old heroes" such as Robert E. Lee being "replaced" by the likes of Martin Luther King:

One part of America loves her history, another reviles it as racist, imperialist and genocidal. Old heroes like Columbus, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee are replaced by Dr. King and Cesar Chavez.

The fact that Buchanan identifies more with a man who fought for secession over one who fought for equal rights surely won't surprise anyone.  Indeed, after his recent defense of Hitler, this will barely register.  Yet, still, Buchanan is given a megaphone in the mainstream media on a near daily basis.