William F. Buckley, Jr. is dead, and modern American conservatism has lost its chief intellectual spokesman and leader.
Buckley is one of the main reasons that I became a conservative. It wasn't just the influence of God and Man at Yale, Buckley's first and seminal book that made the case that Yale had abandoned its conservative Christian roots. Buckley had the novel idea that private colleges don't belong to their administration and faculty; these are the employees. Rather, colleges belong to the students who pay the tuition and who are there to learn. They along belong to the alumni, the living body of graduates who represent what the institution has produced; alumni also largely fund their alma mater and thus maintain their ties even when they have left.
I learned all this from Buckley, and our renegade newspaper The Dartmouth Review was patterned on Buckley's National Review. But there was more to Buckley than his books and writing. Interestingly Buckley never produced an important book after God and Man at Yale. His real influence was in who he was and what he represented. He was a suave, erudite and generous man, and he represented a conservatism that was witty, iconoclastic and fun. In my teens I had envisioned conservatives as stuffy and narrow-minded businessmen who upheld the status quo. Buckley showed me an irreverent conservatism that enjoyed life and fought to change the liberal status quo, especially on the college campus.
Before Buckley, there was no conservatism in America. The literary critic Lionel Trilling once famously remarked that America has a single political tradition and it is liberal. Conservatism, to the degree it exists, is only reaction. The conservative is not a man of ideas but simply twitches and barks in response to the inexorable march of liberal change. The conservative is against progress. Buckley himself played with this idea, and once described the mission of National Review as one of "standing athwart history, yelling Stop!" With this remark Buckley appeared to confirm the stereotype while in fact exploding it. An unthinking, unimaginative conservative would not have devised such a pithy, witty formulation.
Buckley may not have single-handedly invented modern intellectual conservatism, but he certainly made it respectable. He became the chief intellectual spokesman of the movement that culminated in Ronald Reagan. I never knew him well, although every few months I received an autographed Buckley book--typically about spies or sailing--in the mail. When Alan Wolfe launched his pompous and ignorant fusillade against my book The Enemy at Home, even suggesting that I was not a real conservative, Buckley rushed to my defense, noting that he was a far better authority on conservatism than Wolfe. In the end, it is these little kindnesses that you remember the most.
Today modern American conservatism is at the crossroads, and it's not clear what it's future will be. Oh, if only there were another young Buckley to gallantly lead the intellectual brigade. Still, what Buckley's movement accomplished, both through its intellectual and political successes, is nothing less than the transformation of American politics, even world politics. Buckley's life proves that ideas have consequences, and many of us continue to walk in the path that this far-seeing man cleared for us.
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How William F. Buckley Changed America
Posted Feb 27th 2008 1:11PM by Dinesh D'Souza
Filed under: Breaking News
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Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 13)
61. i do not confuse liberalism in the political sense and liberalism in the cultural sense. its the cultural sense that i do not like. i have lunch with a guy once a week who is a flaming liberal in politics but a very conservative moral outlook and fiscal views. he just thinks "the state" ought to solve our woes. its the immoral liberal left that has trash our airwaves with smut and i protest that. there is nothing wrong with the traditional sense of being a democrat, i would vote for one if there were one. on the local level democrats are from that old school but you get to the national level and the cowtoe to the liberal agenda and that where i lose them. i do not get the two confused. no its you liberals who do because there are no liberals who are not democrat there are no liberals who are republican
brian at 7:37AM on Feb 28th 2008
62. brian, Really? You mean there are no liberal independents? ANYWHERE?? None? Be careful with those absolutes....or maybe it's the Absolut.
Oh, and do you not think fox pushes the envelope on smut and indecency on our airwaves? Or perhaps you think fox is too liberal.
America's Most Gangsta at 8:42AM on Feb 28th 2008
63. Sad, but true Mr. Dinesh...the last great men of God...Who will take their place when they pass on? I see the church on the brink of extinction...this can be based on the condition of the heart of christians alone...Do we have hearts that are obedient to God? Or are we rebellious, even in the church realm? Jesus said, the heart that is obedient to Him, and OBEYS His words, is like the man who built his house upon the stone...when the floods and storms come, his house will stand! Those who don't, Jesus said, are like the man who builds his house upon the sand...when the waves crash in, their house will not stand...
Bridget at 8:55AM on Feb 28th 2008
64. I have been through everything you can imagine, yet, I put my faith in Christ, and I stand! He is the lover of my soul! NOTHING OR ANYONE can EVER take that away!
Bridget at 8:59AM on Feb 28th 2008
65. amg,
i choose not to watch much television it is generally a waste. does fox push crap? i cannot answer that sense i do not watch it. but the media slants our politics and the entertainment industry pushes violence,sex, and immoral crap and we wonder why we are so messed. you can be an atheist all you want but society must run on morals or it will turn to anarchy. and those morals have to be self-induced not legislated by the goverment at every turn, and sense we cannot seem to decide on whats right and wrong we litigate ourselves into oblivion. you should be happy gangster we have just what liberals want, no right no wrong,settle it in court. why are you not happy? is it not liberal enough?
brian at 9:00AM on Feb 28th 2008
66. bridget,
amen!! where have you been? these atheist liberals are hammering away. firing their missiles in the "cloak of tolerance" of coarse. have you ever seen such an intolerant response to those who disagree with the liberal agenda? called everything!!! but decent
brian at 9:03AM on Feb 28th 2008
67. bridgett,
the church has lost its voice in part because they have abdicated to the state what they should be doing and that is taking carre of the needs of the peope, the poor the hurting the homeless. instead they have opted for programs that insulate from the world.
brian at 9:05AM on Feb 28th 2008
68. Ah, William Buckley. The man who once called Truman Capote a sexual slur on live TV and all but invented the modern Conservative Juggernaut of Intolernce. Good riddence. Of course D'Idiot would love him...he was a puffed up pompous tub of bird vomit with polysyllabic tendencies.
TIM at 9:09AM on Feb 28th 2008
69. Good morning brian ((HUGS)) God bless you!
Bridget at 9:06AM on Feb 28th 2008
70. brian,
a) why do you assume I am not happy?
b) why do you assume I am an atheist?? Is it because I do not espouse what you believe in?
America's Most Gangsta at 9:28AM on Feb 28th 2008
71. Bridget - "I see the church on the brink of extinction..."
And to that, I say, hallelujah!
brandon at 9:19AM on Feb 28th 2008
72. It's ironic brian is so opposed to liberal television. He is just like Cartman.
Mokele-Mobembe at 9:21AM on Feb 28th 2008
73. Grrrr... it ate my comment.
Anyway, brian, just wanting to clarify before I fire my missile.
You have no problem with social liberalism (aka freedom, civil rights, equal treatment of the sexes, yadda yadda yadda) but your problem is with the attitude of permissiveness and irresponsibility in the public and with dependancy on government services?
just want to make sure.
Somber at 10:15AM on Feb 28th 2008
74. Somber: Your 5-pt plan for conservatives is pretty good, but I disagree on #4. The solution to every public education failure in this country has been to throw more money at the system. Our schools are fantastically well-funded compared to Europe, yet we don't turn out acheiving students the way they do. The problem is not funding, nor has it ever been. The problem is that our society does not value an education.
TIM: I didn't know Buckley called Capote a slur, but he did say to Gore Vidal: "Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face." I can picture Dinesh getting a good chuckle out of that.
AndrewV at 10:20AM on Feb 28th 2008
75. somber,
you are correct. i have a brother is is dis-abled. he is shizophrenic, he cannot work. i think the goverment as well as the community have an obligation to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves. my wife teaches special ed. most of her students come from a housing project. most of the students don't know their dad. the mother has 2,3,4 kids byu different men all to get a bigger check, how responsible is that? the goverment promotes it. the kids suffer, not becomes they are dumb but because their home life is so horrible. special ed kids trouble is 99% home-life
brian at 10:28AM on Feb 28th 2008