The Day the Perspicacity Died
A word of warning, this post is a little lachrymose and a very verbose, and full of big words. Today, William F. Buckley, Jr. died, very fittingly, in his study writing. He was 82 years old and was diagnosed with emphysema. He is best known for the past five decades for his very conservative opinions and founding of the conservative bible National Review. This magazine was founded in 1955, the height of the Eisenhower administration, as a beacon and clarion call for the reformation and re-emergence of the Republican party and conservative idealism as a whole. He brought together conservative ideals that are now falling apart. He, unlike the current crop of conservative commentators, was unafraid to demonstrate his intelligence and use words only normally found on SAT study courses. He made his arguments for the erudite, not the early edition. He wrote his articles for the sapient, not the soundbite. The master sesquapedalian has now passed, and so with him, the era of conservative unity.
William F. Buckley, Jr. was a legend and leviathan of the Republican party and movement. He helped transform the Republican party from FDR's bitch to a united orthodoxy ready for the 20th century. That he was a Republican was remarkable his early day. He was a practicing Irish Catholic, which in the 1940s was almost automatically meant he was a Democrat. Most of his writing was post World War II, in the era of Truman, a Democrat and Eisenhower, a Republican because it was the best party for him, not because he was a decades long ideologue of the party. Every Republican who thought about running had gotten crushed, except for the old guard WASPy in bed with big business Republicans. Nelson Rockefeller was the closest thing to a diehard Republican at the time, and he was not a party prophet, he merely profited from the party. William F. Buckley wrote a book immediately after his graduation from Yale decrying Yale for teaching, what he believed, was secular, anti-religious material. He foresaw a future of conservatism that embodied small government, individual power, and anti-Communism. He sought to change the image of Republicans of fat cat politicians in the pocket of business after being Teddy Roosevelt style populists. They stagnated and needed a new infusion of ideals to invigorate them to invincibility, or at least evenly matched combat with the Democrats.
So, he put forth his magazine and it was unabashedly conservative. He made no plays to mitigate his views to mollify the majority of America, which was Democratic (again, FDR not too long in the distant memory, and he ruled for almost decades). He sought to bring his libertarian views into the more mainstream. He sought to bring his educated mind to those who agreed. He sought to re-inject the Republicans into the political process, so he published a monthly manifesto to put forth in most auspicious of terms the new thoughts, beliefs and policies of what being a Republican conservative should be. He made no apologies for his views, even when they became very unpopular. And he was wrong on some things, but never apologized for his opinions. He never apologized for his support of Joe McCarthy, his opposition to American involvement in World War II and other arch-conservative causes. Even when history was to prove him wrong, he declared himself a conservative yelling for history to stop. What we now call the base of the Republican party, the libertarians, the religious, those concerned with national security and those who want to defeat liberals through intellectual might were all to be found in the man of William Buckley.
He was, unlike his political descendants, not just interested in scoring cheap points at the expense of his ideals. Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity were all very quick praise lavishes on the man, but they disagreed with him on the current state of affairs. Buckley said Bush had failed America's objectives in Iraq, a heresy among those three. He celebrated the deth of hussein, but took no pleasure in its more salacious or sadistic aspects: "It was rumored, in 1946, that the hangman in Nuremberg adjusted the nooses of some of the condemned to magnify the pain of suffocation. Such sadism was not called for then and is not called for now. But if fornication is wrong, there is no denying that it can bring pleasure. The death of Saddam Hussein at rope's end brings a pleasure that is undeniable, and absolutely chaste in its provenance." He also wasn't in favor of making marijuana illegal saying: "Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." Could any of them think of saying that? No. He himself managed to bring all the warring parties of the Republican party behind his ideological banner, and it was in this unity the Republicans came back from destruction by FDR to become the party of Reagan.
And now, those days are over. It is almost fitting and prophetic that Buckley should die during this campaign. The Republican party is tearing itself apart in the wake of George W. Bush's presidency. Many republicans are trying to reclaim the heart of the party, but instead of remember that a heart that has many chambers that beat as a unified unit, each wing has declared itself the right and proper heir to all things that are Republican. So, sic transit Republican and sic transit gloria dexter. While the Republicans in the next few years search for another man to embody the soul of the party and ideology, they will tear each other part for seeming to be sport of it in political conventions more in common with the Grand Guignol than the Grand Old Party. He was what all republicans claim to be: a man of conviction, unafraid of liberals, a man of high debate who can still fight, a man of faith, a man who loved small government and a man willing to fight for his country and ideals. He didn't contradict himself, which means he often had to stand by some odious statements, but did so proudly. He didn't try to insult his enemies when he was wrong, he just stood by himself. He saved insulting his enemies for the times when he was doing nothing but insulting enemies. He knew how to unite friends with his words and drive off his enemies with equal wit.
And the Democrats are lucky no one can rightfully claim his mantle.
So it is written, so do I see it.
William F. Buckley, Jr. was a legend and leviathan of the Republican party and movement. He helped transform the Republican party from FDR's bitch to a united orthodoxy ready for the 20th century. That he was a Republican was remarkable his early day. He was a practicing Irish Catholic, which in the 1940s was almost automatically meant he was a Democrat. Most of his writing was post World War II, in the era of Truman, a Democrat and Eisenhower, a Republican because it was the best party for him, not because he was a decades long ideologue of the party. Every Republican who thought about running had gotten crushed, except for the old guard WASPy in bed with big business Republicans. Nelson Rockefeller was the closest thing to a diehard Republican at the time, and he was not a party prophet, he merely profited from the party. William F. Buckley wrote a book immediately after his graduation from Yale decrying Yale for teaching, what he believed, was secular, anti-religious material. He foresaw a future of conservatism that embodied small government, individual power, and anti-Communism. He sought to change the image of Republicans of fat cat politicians in the pocket of business after being Teddy Roosevelt style populists. They stagnated and needed a new infusion of ideals to invigorate them to invincibility, or at least evenly matched combat with the Democrats.
So, he put forth his magazine and it was unabashedly conservative. He made no plays to mitigate his views to mollify the majority of America, which was Democratic (again, FDR not too long in the distant memory, and he ruled for almost decades). He sought to bring his libertarian views into the more mainstream. He sought to bring his educated mind to those who agreed. He sought to re-inject the Republicans into the political process, so he published a monthly manifesto to put forth in most auspicious of terms the new thoughts, beliefs and policies of what being a Republican conservative should be. He made no apologies for his views, even when they became very unpopular. And he was wrong on some things, but never apologized for his opinions. He never apologized for his support of Joe McCarthy, his opposition to American involvement in World War II and other arch-conservative causes. Even when history was to prove him wrong, he declared himself a conservative yelling for history to stop. What we now call the base of the Republican party, the libertarians, the religious, those concerned with national security and those who want to defeat liberals through intellectual might were all to be found in the man of William Buckley.
He was, unlike his political descendants, not just interested in scoring cheap points at the expense of his ideals. Limbaugh, O'Reilly and Hannity were all very quick praise lavishes on the man, but they disagreed with him on the current state of affairs. Buckley said Bush had failed America's objectives in Iraq, a heresy among those three. He celebrated the deth of hussein, but took no pleasure in its more salacious or sadistic aspects: "It was rumored, in 1946, that the hangman in Nuremberg adjusted the nooses of some of the condemned to magnify the pain of suffocation. Such sadism was not called for then and is not called for now. But if fornication is wrong, there is no denying that it can bring pleasure. The death of Saddam Hussein at rope's end brings a pleasure that is undeniable, and absolutely chaste in its provenance." He also wasn't in favor of making marijuana illegal saying: "Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could." Could any of them think of saying that? No. He himself managed to bring all the warring parties of the Republican party behind his ideological banner, and it was in this unity the Republicans came back from destruction by FDR to become the party of Reagan.
And now, those days are over. It is almost fitting and prophetic that Buckley should die during this campaign. The Republican party is tearing itself apart in the wake of George W. Bush's presidency. Many republicans are trying to reclaim the heart of the party, but instead of remember that a heart that has many chambers that beat as a unified unit, each wing has declared itself the right and proper heir to all things that are Republican. So, sic transit Republican and sic transit gloria dexter. While the Republicans in the next few years search for another man to embody the soul of the party and ideology, they will tear each other part for seeming to be sport of it in political conventions more in common with the Grand Guignol than the Grand Old Party. He was what all republicans claim to be: a man of conviction, unafraid of liberals, a man of high debate who can still fight, a man of faith, a man who loved small government and a man willing to fight for his country and ideals. He didn't contradict himself, which means he often had to stand by some odious statements, but did so proudly. He didn't try to insult his enemies when he was wrong, he just stood by himself. He saved insulting his enemies for the times when he was doing nothing but insulting enemies. He knew how to unite friends with his words and drive off his enemies with equal wit.
And the Democrats are lucky no one can rightfully claim his mantle.
So it is written, so do I see it.