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You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / RIP, William F. Buckley

RIP, William F. Buckley

by John Cole|  February 27, 200811:23 am| 122 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Politics, Popular Culture

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The NY Times is reporting that William F. Buckley has died. Probably heart-broken at what his party has become.

As always with obits, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

*** Update ***

Link to the NY Times Obit added. I really am sad.

*** Update #2 ***

Watching the right-wing lunatics who destroyed conservatism wrapping themselves up in Buckley’s cold, dead embrace over the next few weeks will be disgusting. Start here, where K-Lo asserts she and the band of frothing brothers at NRO will continue Buckley’s “work”, and then read Malkin. And yes, you are reading Malkin correctly– she did just take the death of one of society’s most privileged members of the last century and use it to… declare that conservatives are victims.

These people are a disgrace and a sick joke.

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Reader Interactions

122Comments

  1. 1.

    4tehlulz

    February 27, 2008 at 11:25 am

    Probably heart-broken at what his party has become.

    Not a fan of either Buckley or the GOP, but that was a little low.

  2. 2.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Oh man. Buckley was a giant. Even though I seldom agreed with his politics, he took us all to school on the nexus between intellect and integrity. And you could get a degree in English by proxy just listening to him speak, or reading his books.

    Sad to hear this.

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    February 27, 2008 at 11:28 am

    Not a fan of either Buckley or the GOP, but that was a little low.

    Buckley hated this administration and the current incarnation of the GOP. The only time he ever wrote at the National Review any more was to step in every now and then and call them all idiots.

    And you could get a degree in English by proxy just listening to him speak, or reading his books.

    Firing line and Buckley helped to get me interested in politics.

  4. 4.

    Tim F.

    February 27, 2008 at 11:31 am

    Heartbroken sounds about right.

  5. 5.

    Zifnab25

    February 27, 2008 at 11:31 am

    The NY Times is reporting that William F. Buckley has died. Probably heart-broken at what his party has become.

    The death of the GOP corresponding with the death of its salesman. :P It’s nothing if not poetic.

  6. 6.

    Punchy

    February 27, 2008 at 11:32 am

    As always with obits, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

  7. 7.

    Con Mhac

    February 27, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Rest well, Mr. Buckley. Be at peace.

  8. 8.

    Jake

    February 27, 2008 at 11:36 am

    A long time ago the President of my college encouraged the dirty fucking hippies that made up the student body to seek out and engage intelligent conservatives and Republicans in frank, but friendly discussion.

    Well, I didn’t heed her advice and now it’s too late.

    RIP to the last class act in conservatism.

  9. 9.

    The Other Steve

    February 27, 2008 at 11:36 am

    I used to read National Review back in the high school library, and it was Buckley’s writing that I found most interesting.

    He was able to argue. He didn’t resort to baffoonery to try to make a point.

  10. 10.

    capelza

    February 27, 2008 at 11:36 am

    Wow…I hated his politics, but from the time I was little I remember watching, in black and white in the beginning, his shows.

    And the times that he and Vidal went at each other…priceless.

    These days, it’s all so Jonah Golbergesque…that probably hastened Buckley’s death. One of the last things of his I read was at NR where he came in to essentially tell the kidlets at the Corner they were full of shit.

  11. 11.

    Josh

    February 27, 2008 at 11:37 am

    Well…(trying to be nice)…while I abhor everything the man stood for, he was always thought-provoking and entertaining. A man of great wit and humor, too bad he played for the wrong team.

  12. 12.

    F

    February 27, 2008 at 11:37 am

    I have nothing to say

  13. 13.

    Dork

    February 27, 2008 at 11:39 am

    Clearly this a big blow to the Democratic Party.

  14. 14.

    Mr Furious

    February 27, 2008 at 11:40 am

    I always used to refer to the “F” in his name as akin to Bucky F. Dent.

    His courage to call out the current bullshit raised his stature in my eyes. It’s too bad. His was a voice of reason for a party left with few.

  15. 15.

    Face

    February 27, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Who the hell is Bill Buckley, and why should I care? I’m being serious.

  16. 16.

    Jake

    February 27, 2008 at 11:43 am

    The lying has begun already.

    And our fervent prayer that we continue to do WFB’s life’s work justice.

    Dear God in Heaven. Look ya’ll, if you find yourself tempted to rag on Buckley, keep in mind that the freaks on the Corner will be waving his corpse around for decades.

    Personally, I hope he gets in KLo’s computer and administers a painful shock every time she assaults the language.

  17. 17.

    Svensker

    February 27, 2008 at 11:44 am

    Wolcott’s “Ship of Ghouls” showed the current RW’s approach to Buckley.

    Buckley was always a little too authoritarian for me, but he was intelligent, well-read and honest, none of which can be said for the current Cornerites.

  18. 18.

    numbskull

    February 27, 2008 at 11:45 am

    I encourage everyone to view the youtube vids of his “debates” with Chomsky. Watch them all the way through. I think you’ll understand where Limbaugh, Hannity, and similar ilk learned their craft.

  19. 19.

    zzyzx

    February 27, 2008 at 11:46 am

    I always had issues with him, but the last few years have been quite impressive. He showed that he had principles and would stick by them even if it meant hurting the movement he helped to create.

  20. 20.

    The Moar You Know

    February 27, 2008 at 11:51 am

    “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.”

    That’s all I’ve got to say.

  21. 21.

    SGEW

    February 27, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Well, this seems to be the end of the “American Conservative” movement, IMHO.

    Seriously. Mr. Buckley’s death, while only marginally affecting events (due to his relegation to the sidelines recently, alas), has a tremendous symbolic effect. End of an Era sort of thing.

    The team brandishing the label “conservative” nowadays (NRO, WND, RedState, Rush, etc. etc. etc.) need to come up with a new word for their philosophy. Just make one up. (I like “Freeperism,” myself).

    And I would loooooove to know what was on his desk when he died. Was it Liberal Fascism? I will choose to believe so, and that reading it killed him.

  22. 22.

    Davis X. Machina

    February 27, 2008 at 11:53 am

    Reprehensible politics, but a.) he taught me celnav and b.) he discovered Garry Wills.

  23. 23.

    bob

    February 27, 2008 at 11:53 am

    We do not forgive. We do not forget. See you in hell, Billy.

  24. 24.

    Gus

    February 27, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Face, how old are you? He was definitely an intelligent man with a set of principles (most of which I disagreed with).

  25. 25.

    SGEW

    February 27, 2008 at 11:58 am

    We do not forgive. We do not forget.

    Someone needs a pony.

  26. 26.

    gypsy howell

    February 27, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    crickets

    crickets

    crickets

  27. 27.

    Lavocat

    February 27, 2008 at 12:02 pm

    I’m glad the motherfucker is dead.

    But I won’t say it.

  28. 28.

    Face

    February 27, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    Face, how old are you? He was definitely an intelligent man with a set of principles (most of which I disagreed with).

    #1, probably not old enough, and #2, i didn’t really care about politics–abhorred it, actually–until about the start of the Iraq war.

    So anything this Buckley guy did before that time is something on which I have no idea. Hence, my question…what’s he most known for?

  29. 29.

    capelza

    February 27, 2008 at 12:06 pm

    Face…read the obit, check wikipedia…

  30. 30.

    Alan

    February 27, 2008 at 12:07 pm

    Probably heart-broken at what his party has become.

    I don’t know what he thought. Personally, I think he is partly responsible for the direction of the Right and the GOP. He embraced Rush Limbaugh back in the early days of his show giving Rush legitimacy. And I personally hold Rush responsible for taking the GOP off the cliff.

  31. 31.

    Con Mhac

    February 27, 2008 at 12:07 pm

    Lavocat Says:

    I’m glad the motherfucker is dead.

    But I won’t say it.

    How witty.

  32. 32.

    wvng

    February 27, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    My very first real exposure to politics was during the Nixon-Kennedy election back in 1960. I still vividly remember the W.F. Buckley vs Gore Vidal debates that accompanied that election, where one would make a subtle point, followed by a slow smile, and wait for the other to respond. It was wonderfully civil and cerebral, with the two men lounging in comfortable chairs, and mightily impressed a 7 year old boy. It must have, because I remember very little of my childhood – but I do remember this.

  33. 33.

    libarbarian

    February 27, 2008 at 12:08 pm

    These days, it’s all so Jonah Golbergesque

    Jonah is a oh-so-serious scholar who has produced an oh-so-serious work that will be taken oh-so-seriously by other oh-so-serious people, like his fellow Cornerites.

    After all, he did invent the Goldberg Equation: S->LC=LF*

    *Saurkraut -> “Liberty Cabbage” = Liberal Fascism.

    I encourage everyone to view the youtube vids of his “debates” with Chomsky. Watch them all the way through. I think you’ll understand where Limbaugh, Hannity, and similar ilk learned their craft.

    From Chomsky?

  34. 34.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    Who the hell is Bill Buckley

    Okay, he is not the first baseman who let a routine grounder go through his legs in the NLCS back in 1986.

    That’s the only clue I can give you.

  35. 35.

    sean

    February 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    And he isnt the actress who played the mom on “Eight Is Enough.”

  36. 36.

    slippytoad

    February 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    I would like to add my lack of anything nice to say about Buckley.

  37. 37.

    Buck

    February 27, 2008 at 12:13 pm

    Buckley (about appearing on Laugh-In): I decided to do it when they promised to fly me out to Hollywood on an airplane with two right wings.

  38. 38.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Can’t say his culture is anything to laud. His and his magazine’s unnecessary support of bigoted White groups was rather petty and tribal. But his conservatism was of a sane quality, instead of this Chinese knock-off shit these neocons are peddling.

    Also, I wouldn’t know the terms “Locust-Valley Lockjaw” nor “Cryptofascist” without him.

    Overall I’d say he was a small net positive, but he could’ve gone out with far, far more of a bang if he just destroyed the NRO in one sweep, declaring it an absolute failure to its cause.

  39. 39.

    Vlad

    February 27, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    I was sadder about Myron Cope.

  40. 40.

    Tim

    February 27, 2008 at 12:14 pm

    Face:

    He was a much more thoughtful conservative who actually articulated opposition to the new deal programs beyond just the usual libertarian canards, he also had a lot to do with the effort to fight the antisemitism that was part of the conservative movement present in the 1950s and early 60s.

    He was much more in the Barry Goldwater school of conservative thought (which sadly included a great deal of indirect racism) than the Fundamentalist/Kleptocrat Bush school of thought.

  41. 41.

    DougJ

    February 27, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    He was saddened by what conservatism became. That’s not a low blow, it’s a compliment.

    Bill is sitting forlornly in his cabin, scribbling in a notebook. In 2005, at an event celebrating National Review’s fiftieth birthday, President Bush described today’s American conservatives as “Bill’s children.” I ask him if he feels like a parent whose kids grew up to be serial killers. He smiles slightly, and his blue eyes appear to twinkle. Then he sighs, “The answer is no. Because what animated the conservative core for forty years was the Soviet menace, plus the rise of dogmatic socialism. That’s pretty well gone.”

    Link.

  42. 42.

    CaseyL

    February 27, 2008 at 12:19 pm

    The rest is silence…

  43. 43.

    Pb

    February 27, 2008 at 12:20 pm

    Well, this seems to be the end of the “American Conservative” movement, IMHO.

    Seems so; or, as the NYT quoted in their obit:

    Without Bill — if he had decided to become an academic or a businessman or something else — without him, there probably would be no respectable conservative movement in this country.

    I’ll just note that what W.F. Buckley and friends were doing for the conservative movement 50 years ago is also what some Democrats are just starting to figure out now. To quote Buckley’s brother-in-law (L. Brent Bozell Jr.) in the National Review:

    A conservative electorate has to be created out of that vast uncommitted middle—the great majority of the American people who, though today they vote for Democratic or Modern Republican candidates, are not ideologically wedded to their programs or, for that matter, to any program. The problem is to reach them and to organize them.

  44. 44.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    So anything this Buckley guy did before that time is something on which I have no idea. Hence, my question…what’s he most known for?

    As far as I’ve read, he was loosely a proto-libertarian, but stained by his stupid relations with groups too-comfortable with White supremacy. If you listened to him talk on policy, and just policy, he was quite competent and spoke with dignity. (It could also be considered that he may have been a necessary counterweight to FDR and left-wing momentum) If he strayed, he started to sound like your average prick-with-an-education. So it depends where you look. If you look too broadly, he comes off rather unimpressive.

  45. 45.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:23 pm

    he also had a lot to do with the effort to fight the antisemitism that was part of the conservative movement present in the 1950s and early 60s.

    OK, I want a link to that. There have been a bunch of references to His and NRO’s write-ups showing an unbalanced preference for indignant White groups (I’ll go look for one). So, this statement is a bit dissonant with the pattern I’ve seen.

  46. 46.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:24 pm

    OK, I want a link to that.

    please.

    forgot my manners, sorry.

  47. 47.

    capelza

    February 27, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    I’ll tell you the difference bewtween Buckley and the modern “conservative” movement.

    The fact that he would sit down with Chomsky and Vidal and actually talk/debate/insult. etc..for longer than the a segment between commerical breaks..oh and actually let them talk..oh and actually sit down with them period.

    The Rush’s. the Hannity’s..etc..they only snipe and slander form a distance. They wouldn’t be caught dead in the same room with men they villify for commerical gain and GOP talking points.

  48. 48.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    he started to sound like your average prick-with-an-education

    Um, no, he never sounded like that. He always sounded like the guy who invented education, and erudition.

    His massive powers of knowledge and intellect and diction were just something to sit back and admire and enjoy, like Richter on the piano, or Pavarotti on the stage. He was a one-off. There’s nobody to replace him.

    Mind, I pretty much hated his politics. But politics is a shitty business and can turn people into shitty.

  49. 49.

    rawshark

    February 27, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    ThymeZone Says:

    Who the hell is Bill Buckley

    Okay, he is not the first baseman who let a routine grounder go through his legs in the NLCS back in 1986.

    That’s the only clue I can give you.

    Bad Clue.

    That was the World Series and it was Bill Buckner.

    My God. Bill Buckner and Bucky F%#@^ Dent mentioned in the same post. Are you people trying to give me a heart attack. Anyone want to make a reference to a reciever catching a ball on his helmet just to kill me completely?

  50. 50.

    Jamey

    February 27, 2008 at 12:29 pm

    Sorry, John, I came to bury him, not praise him:

    Buckley, on race: “The central question that emerges…is whether the white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.The sobering answer is YES — the white community is entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.” The only conceivable reason I can imagine for Buckley to have changed his views is, what, that his was no longer the advanced race?

    Remember that line from the movie, Chinatown, “Politicians, ugly buildings and whores all get respectable if they last long enough.” That’s Buckley in a nutshell.

    He had a great speaking voice, though. And the comments on The Corner are priceless. Only there, among the affirmative action hires, Kathleen Lopezs, and second-gen mouthbreathers, can the death of an 82-year-old man be considered, “shocking.”

  51. 51.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    Bad Clue.

    Actually, it was a joke clue.

    It was Bill Buckner, you say? Really, I wasn’t aware of that. I thought it was Henry Kissinger.

  52. 52.

    wvng

    February 27, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    My very first real exposure to politics was during the Nixon-Kennedy election back in 1960. I still vividly remember the W.F. Buckley vs Gore Vidal debates

    . . . perhaps the debates were in 1968. My mind editing again.

  53. 53.

    Grand Moff Texan

    February 27, 2008 at 12:35 pm

    One less intelligent voice on the right. It’s sad when the world becomes dumber.

    He’ll be missed.
    .

  54. 54.

    SGEW

    February 27, 2008 at 12:39 pm

    It’s sad when the world becomes dumber.

    It’s been a sad, sad, sad couple of years, no?

  55. 55.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Um, no, he never sounded like that.

    That’s OK; I’m not stating I’m solid on this, it’s just the impression I’ve collected over the previous years.

    In fact, going over quotes, I think I gathered that impression when I was younger and an indignant — and absolute — anti-conservative. So, I was probably getting offended because I was being an inflexible pile of Stupid.

    so nm, then.

  56. 56.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 12:44 pm

    One less intelligent voice on the right. It’s sad when the world becomes dumber.

    Of course the Dumb don’t know they just got dumberer, because RedState banned his account 2 years ago.

  57. 57.

    Billy K

    February 27, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    I’ll always remember him from my childhood as the funny-talking guy (was he English?) on PBS with wird ideas who always seemed to be totally on his own, yet totally confident he was right.

  58. 58.

    scrutinizer

    February 27, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    Buckley and Firing Line both energized me to take a more rational approach toward politics and political theory. At an instinctive level I opposed most of Buckley’s positions, but Buckley forced me to think about politics. As a result, my political philosophy is still pretty much opposed to classical conservatism, but I have a more rational basis to hang it on beyond “those guys suck.”

    Unlike today’s neo-cons, Buckley was a gracious debater, a sharp intellect, and defined erudition. Beyond politics, I loved his sailing books.

    It’s too easy to cast Buckley in the role of evil mastermind of modern Conservatism. The real Buckley was much more complex, and we are sorely in need of people with his style on both sides of the aisle today.

  59. 59.

    demimondian

    February 27, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    I’m sorry, John, but after what he published after the assassination of the Prime Minister of Sweden, I’ve always wanted to write an equally cruel obit for Buckley.

    Unlike the one he wrote, though, mine would be factual and correct.

    May he receive justice from the Lord, and may his eternal fate be what he deserves.

  60. 60.

    tBone

    February 27, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    It’s sad when the world becomes dumber.

    The world overall may be slightly dumber, but the collective IQ of the conservative movement just went screaming into (very large) negative digits. Buckley must have felt like he was living in Idiocracy the past few years.

  61. 61.

    FDRLincoln

    February 27, 2008 at 12:53 pm

    Buckley. Hmmm.

    There is no question at all that Buckley was a monstrous racist bigot in the 1950s and 1960s….an articulate one, but a monstrous racist bigot nonetheless.

    He gradually seemed to grow out of this and over the last few years he seemed to have understood that Dubya and Limbaugh and Rove and their ilk were destroying conservativism. The problem is, it was Buckley who gave bigoted ideas an intellectual veneer in the first place. He helped create the monster. Perhaps he regretted this towards the end…surely he was intelligent enough to understand that much of it was his own doing.

    God is more forgiving than I am. . .I suspect Bill has some things to work off in purgatory.

  62. 62.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 12:55 pm

    It’s sad when the world becomes dumber.

    Well, the silver lining is that it makes us look smarter.

    Okay, some of us.

  63. 63.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    May he receive justice from the Lord

    I think you meant The Mighty Phlbog.

  64. 64.

    Gus

    February 27, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Anyone else remember Joe Flaherty’s hilarious, spot-on Buckley impersonation on SCTV?

  65. 65.

    demimondian

    February 27, 2008 at 1:02 pm

    I think you meant The Mighty Phlbog.

    Nope. I meant my particular form of the Sky Ghost.

  66. 66.

    dnA

    February 27, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    I have no sympathy or sadness for a man who believed that the South had a “right” to treat my family like animals.

    A brilliant man, and an important an eloquent voice for the conservative movement.

    But my eyes are dry.

  67. 67.

    canuckistani

    February 27, 2008 at 1:04 pm

    I’m reminded of The Remains of the Day, the story of a butler who devotes his life to the service of a British lord only to discover at the end that his master was a Nazi sympathizer and a potential traitor, and that he had wasted his life serving him and his corrupt cause.

    Maybe Bill would have appreciated a nice literary reference to see him off.

  68. 68.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 1:06 pm

    But my eyes are dry.

    Totally understandable.

    It’s odd that Buckley acted like a classic early 20th-century southerner … when he grew up in the northeast and went to school in England but talked with a thick Southern accent. It’s almost like he was torn between two versions of himself.

  69. 69.

    Bubblegum Tate

    February 27, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    He was a one-off. There’s nobody to replace him.

    Agreed.

    As others have stated, he was a very smart, insightful guy who, sadly, happened to represent some pretty deplorable politics. He was, however, an honest man the likes of which have become scarce-to-nonexistant in today’s movement conservatism.

  70. 70.

    Kynn

    February 27, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face and you’ll stay plastered.”

    William F. Buckley to Gore Vidal.

    Nothing to say, so I’ll let his own words suffice.

  71. 71.

    Jake

    February 27, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    It’s odd that Buckley acted like a classic early 20th-century southerner … when he grew up in the northeast and went to school in England but talked with a thick Southern accent. It’s almost like he was torn between two versions of himself.

    Heh. You know who else you’re describing, don’t you?

  72. 72.

    Lit3Bolt

    February 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    Buckley was mellowed by age and the Bush admin., and by the fact that near the end of his life, he cursed the cigarettes that gave him emphysema and led him to die slowly, by inches, and be robbed by the most cherished right of all…the right of oxygen. Which makes his son’s movie, “Thank You for Smoking” just a little bit more ironic now. So I’m a little bit more forgiving to Buckley than many other conservative or reactionary icons, because in his twilight years, he saw more clearly the mutated beast that his beloved political faction had become.

    Here’s Buckley’s article on smoking. It’s pretty heart rending as you see this intelligent man struggle with what he has done to himself. But he came around in the end.

    http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YzRhMDI1YTdiMjRjM2FkODBkMTg5ZmU3YTVkOGJhNTQ=

  73. 73.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    You know who else you’re describing, don’t you?

    Super Dave Osborn?

  74. 74.

    Kynn

    February 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm

    The central question that emerges…is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes—the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.
    —William F. Buckley, National Review, August 24, 1957

    Hat tip to Making Light.

  75. 75.

    Shygetz

    February 27, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    William F. Buckley is like that ordinary looking girl (or guy) with a really fugly best friend. He only looks good by comparison with the current crop of conservatism. Next to Barry Goldwater, he comes off more poorly.

    And as far as his debates with Vidal, they weren’t as cordial or as eloquent as some remember.

    “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered.” William F. Buckley to Gore Vidal

  76. 76.

    Shygetz

    February 27, 2008 at 1:18 pm

    Damn you, Kynn.

  77. 77.

    rawshark

    February 27, 2008 at 1:19 pm

    ThymeZone Says:

    Bad Clue.

    Actually, it was a joke clue.

    It was Bill Buckner, you say? Really, I wasn’t aware of that. I thought it was Henry Kissinger.

    Yes I got the joke. Buckley/Buckner, haha. I used it to make my own joke not to attack you. You still got the event wrong though. Unless you’re going to say you were joking about that part too.

  78. 78.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 1:20 pm

    Here’s Buckley’s article on smoking. It’s pretty heart rending

    It is indeed. That last sentence is something I will remember for a long time.

    I will also remember the smiley face with the Hitler moustache that adorns the ad for Jonah Goldberg’s book, and the ad above it for Newt Gingrich’s latest bullshit.

    Those two things represent quite well the other disastrous failure in Buckley’s life, the creation of a great machine of bullshit that has nearly wrecked our country.

    Buckley was a giant, but he created an army of pygmies.

  79. 79.

    gypsy howell

    February 27, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    To steal a phrase from the old bastard himself:

    His death is a personal tragedy, but his life remains a public tragedy.

  80. 80.

    Billy K

    February 27, 2008 at 1:27 pm

    I’m reminded of The Remains of the Day, the story of a butler who devotes his life to the service of a British lord only to discover at the end that his master was a Nazi sympathizer and a potential traitor, and that he had wasted his life serving him and his corrupt cause.

    Oh, thanks. Thanks a lot. It just arrived from Netflix today!

  81. 81.

    jack fate

    February 27, 2008 at 1:33 pm

    An intellectual giant, for sure. (That’s putting it mildly.) I’ll be sure to tip a few back at my commie-pinko-dirty-fuckin’-hippie rock band’s rehearsal tonight in his honor. He will most definitely be missed. *frown*

  82. 82.

    4tehlulz

    February 27, 2008 at 1:35 pm

    lol Malkin. Reading the National Review as an act of defiance? She can’t be fucking serious, can she?

  83. 83.

    k

    February 27, 2008 at 1:36 pm

    He made intelligence sexy. The fact that there are few people around as intelligent, or at least seemingly so, has been a disappointment.
    Never could stand his politics, but the fact that he seemed to think was enough. Could he be the butterfly’s wing that started the anti-intellectualism that’s so rampant?

  84. 84.

    Bubblegum Tate

    February 27, 2008 at 1:37 pm

    Watching the right-wing lunatics who destroyed conservatism wrapping themselves up in Buckley’s cold, dead embrace over the next few weeks will be disgusting.

    It would be funny if it weren’t sad. They’re all going to claim that they are continuing his work; none of them will acknowledge that they are, in fact, destroying his work. Fuck ’em.

  85. 85.

    Ken Bingham

    February 27, 2008 at 1:44 pm

    William F. Buckley Jr, Founder and Editor of National Review Magazine and father of modern conservatism died today at 82. Buckley was a giant intellect that articulated the conservative cause like no other possibly could. Back in 1996 I was a member of the Convocations Committee at Weber State University, We invited Mr. Buckley to speak and I had the honor of having lunch with him and listen to him speak. His speaking style required the listener to think about the words spoken because they were delivered at a higher level than most political speakers of today. He spoke in a manner remenisent of some of the great orators of history. He never talked down to his audience, and assumed thier intellengence. All conservatives owe him a debt of graditute. He is in company the giants such Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh. Conservatism has lost another one of its great mouth peices but his words and ideas, which are based on eternal principals and natural law, will endure beyond any of us.

  86. 86.

    libarbarian

    February 27, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    May he receive justice from the Lord

    For three sins of the conservative Movement,
    even for four,
    I will not turn back my wrath.

  87. 87.

    canuckistani

    February 27, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    Oh, thanks. Thanks a lot. It just arrived from Netflix today!

    Relax, nothing is spoiled. I was referring to the book. The movie ends with the discovery that Stalin was the butler’s father, and he is asked to join the Communist Party and rule the world at his father’s side.

  88. 88.

    Gus

    February 27, 2008 at 1:54 pm

    Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh…One of these things is not like the other/One of these things doesn’t belong.

  89. 89.

    capelza

    February 27, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    Ken Bingham…you consider Rush Limbaugh a “giant” of conservatism? You compare him to Buckley and for crying outloud, Barry Goldwater?

    That’s just sad. That’s like comparing “War and Peace” to “My Pet Goat”.

  90. 90.

    libarbarian

    February 27, 2008 at 2:00 pm

    I encourage everyone to view the youtube vids of his “debates” with Chomsky.

  91. 91.

    August J. Pollak

    February 27, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    I suppose it would violate the “can’t say anything nice” rule to point out that Buckley’s first years at the National Review were spent writing about how a mixed-race marriage like Malkin’s was an abomination, right?

  92. 92.

    capelza

    February 27, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    Speaking of youtube, view the debates with Chomsky and Vidal and then take a gander at Limbaugh “spassing out”, in his imitation of Parkinson’d victim Michael J. Fox. Yes indeedy, now there’s a “giant”…

    Meh, that might not be on youtube, but I hope I make my point.

  93. 93.

    Cyrus

    February 27, 2008 at 2:05 pm

    His Wikipedia page is informative, just like always. It refers to the same quotes as Kynn, and it has a lot more as well. I found Dustin Hoffman’s opinion in the pop culture references section especially funny — not meaningful, not actually relevant to whether Buckley was a good person or whatever, but entertaining.

    To this 25-year-old, his selling point seems to be that he was very eloquent, and much more thoughtful and honest than today’s conservatives, and even back in the day was at least a little more open-minded than his fellow travelers (Opposing the John Birch society, for example).

    Also at Wikipedia, I liked this bit.

    In 1965, he ran for mayor of New York City as the candidate for the young Conservative Party, because of his dissatisfaction with the very liberal Republican candidate and fellow Yale alumnus John V. Lindsay, who later became a Democrat. When asked what he would do if he won the race, Buckley issued his classic response, “I’d demand a recount.” (During one televised debate with Lindsay, Buckley declined to use his allotted rebuttal time and instead replied, “I am satisfied to sit back and contemplate my own former eloquence.”)

    30 years from now, we’ll probably be talking just like this about Huckabee.

  94. 94.

    Punchy

    February 27, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Of course the Dumb don’t know they just got dumberer, because RedState banned his account 2 years ago

    Are you fucking serious? A conservative blog banned the icon of conservatism?

    Please tell me this is hyperbole and/or snark.

  95. 95.

    Hypatia

    February 27, 2008 at 2:15 pm

    As far as I’ve read, he was loosely a proto-libertarian, but stained by his stupid relations with groups too-comfortable with White supremacy. If you listened to him talk on policy, and just policy, he was quite competent and spoke with dignity. (It could also be considered that he may have been a necessary counterweight to FDR and left-wing momentum) If he strayed, he started to sound like your average prick-with-an-education. So it depends where you look. If you look too broadly, he comes off rather unimpressive.

    That’s about right. Buckley was a contrarian, an entertainer, a publicist. Not a deep thinker.

    The ‘contrarian’ part deserves some qualification, however. Buckley had it both ways: he was a contrarian in the terms of the largely Cold War liberal discourse of the days when he first rose to prominence, but quite in the stream of things among the reactionary rich people with whom he spent a lot of his social time.

    It’s odd that Buckley acted like a classic early 20th-century southerner … when he grew up in the northeast and went to school in England but talked with a thick Southern accent. It’s almost like he was torn between two versions of himself.

    Garry Wills once said Buckley’s accent was acquired mainly through association with his, Buckley’s, intellectual mentor Willmoore Kendall, who talked that way.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willmoore_Kendall

    Apologies for the unembedded link.

    If the path of the conservative movement truly caused Buckley any grief, I’m pleased to hear it. Hoist with his own petard, etc.

  96. 96.

    tBone

    February 27, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    All conservatives owe him a debt of graditute. He is in company the giants such Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh.

    Are you fucking kidding me?

  97. 97.

    Bruce Moomaw

    February 27, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Well, he certainly turned a lot more agreeable in the 1970s (reportedly due to the influence of his son Christopher). On the other hand, his main legacy is that — literally — morally loathsome magazine; and that’s not a phrase I use lightly, having followed the damn thing for decades. Conservatism — or even social Darwinism — is one thing; enthusiastic long-time praise of both explicit fascism and explicit racism is another.

  98. 98.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    He is in company the giants such Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh. Conservatism has lost another one of its great mouth peices

    Yeah, here’s the thing. We are accustomed to Class A spoof here on this blog, and this is really second rate spoof.

    Please see the cashier on your way out.

  99. 99.

    Tom S

    February 27, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    I loved his Blackford Oakes series of spy novels. There is also Evelyn Waugh’s letters and diary, where he recounts Buckley’s attempts to get him to contribute an article to the National Review. Paternally noncommittal, then referring to him as a persistent bore.

    I found his way of speaking to be pompous and sometimes unintelligble.

  100. 100.

    jcricket

    February 27, 2008 at 2:34 pm

    I don’t know what he thought. Personally, I think he is partly responsible for the direction of the Right and the GOP. He embraced Rush Limbaugh back in the early days of his show giving Rush legitimacy. And I personally hold Rush responsible for taking the GOP off the cliff.

    You dance with the devil, the devil don’t change, he changes you.

    It also (as others have pointed out), cuts both ways. The mouth-breathers like Hannity and Rush are able to get away with advancing fringe ideas they are because there was supposedly an “intellectual core” behind conservatism. You need the party apparatus and the shock troops. I can’t count how many times people like Sullivan (who thinks of himself as an heir to Buckley) couch their defense of reprehensible ideas with people like Buckley (i.e. “if he talks so good, it can’t be all racist spew”), or limit their repudiation of the worst ideas by trying to point to some intellectual core where they are right.

    Honestly, I think it’s sad when anyone (short of Hitler types) passes away, so I’m not going to be nasty. Let’s just be sad that Buckley’s erudition and excellent command of the English language weren’t put to better use, advancing more noble causes than racism.

  101. 101.

    D-Nice

    February 27, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Grace is one of the best albums ever, Last Goodbye has to rank in the top ten all time break-up songs. Buckley will be missed.

  102. 102.

    bartkid

    February 27, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    >He always sounded like the guy who invented education, and erudition.

    Sorry, it came across to me only as sophistry.

  103. 103.

    demimondian

    February 27, 2008 at 2:48 pm

    He is in company the giants such Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and Rush Limbaugh. Conservatism has lost another one of its great mouth -peices- pieces, and now has only mouth breathers.

    Here, fixed that for you.

    I honestly hope that Buckley, like Goldwater, did come to understand his role as Dr. Frankenstein to the conservative monster. If so, then he found redemption, just as Goldwater did — certainly, his understanding, however late, of how wrong he’d been about smoking shows some hope. Sadly, on the basis of his youth and midlife, I doubt it.

  104. 104.

    calipygian

    February 27, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    Malkin likens reading the National Review in college to reading “samizdat” (I dont know where she gets “samizdata” from – samizdat is from the Russian words “sam” (self) and “izdat'”(to publish)). By comparing the National Review to samizdat, she shits on the tens of thousands of Soviet dissidents who, in some cases, were killed for what they read or wrote, in some cases spending years in a soviet prison camp and painstakingly recopying a book by hand onto a roll of toilet paper or the backing of cigarette packs, or on the cigarette papers themselves.

    God I hate Malkin.

  105. 105.

    Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    February 27, 2008 at 2:57 pm

    Please tell me this is hyperbole and/or snark.

    T’was snark. Sorry, I thought with all the BJ conversations about infiltrating RedState and subsequently getting booted, that would be poignant.

  106. 106.

    Kathy

    February 27, 2008 at 5:09 pm

    John wrote: “Probably heart-broken at what his party has become.”

    4tehlulz replied: “Not a fan of either Buckley or the GOP, but that was a little low.”

    John’s line was actually a compliment to Buckley, as it implies Buckley was a true conservative, unlike the total imposter conservativism has become today.

    I am not a conservative, but I have some respect for conservative principles when they are applied consistently and with integrity. The current Republican Party’s brand of “conservatism” stands less for limited government than it does for big government used for the purpose of hurting and harming anyone who isn’t wealthy and powerful.

    Also, considering some of the values that Bill Buckley supported (McCarthyism, racial segregation, and denying both blacks and uneducated whites the right to vote), I think John’s “heartbroken” comment was actually quite restrained.

  107. 107.

    Whammer

    February 27, 2008 at 5:11 pm

    It was Bill Buckner, you say? Really, I wasn’t aware of that. I thought it was Henry Kissinger.

    Thymezone, there is no way Henry Kissinger played on that team. He actually played shortstop for the ’69 Cubs.

  108. 108.

    Kathy

    February 27, 2008 at 5:22 pm

    “Who the hell is Bill Buckley.”

    And he isn’t the former basketball player who ran for senator in New Jersey.

    But seriously. If the above is a serious question, it’s pretty scary.

  109. 109.

    ThymeZone

    February 27, 2008 at 5:42 pm

    He actually played shortstop for the ‘69 Cubs.

    That’s right, curly-haired kid who really flashed the leather. Batted around .240-.250 and stole a few bases.

    Whatever happened to him?

  110. 110.

    demimondian

    February 27, 2008 at 5:57 pm

    Whatever happened to him?

    He bombed in Cambodia and Vietnam.

  111. 111.

    Tim

    February 27, 2008 at 6:17 pm

    For Caidence (fmr. Chris)

    Here’s what I could find off the top of my hat. For what it’s worth I do think he played to racist fears in the 60s It’s just he didn’t hate the Jews and felt the publicly agreeing with the Nazis was a poor strategy.

    http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-11810733.html

    and here

    http://volokh.com/posts/1204148005.shtml

  112. 112.

    TTT

    February 27, 2008 at 6:52 pm

    I guess you had to be there. The guy just sounds like the sort of effete snob that modern anti-intellectual conservatism has dedicated itself to hating.

  113. 113.

    jcricket

    February 27, 2008 at 8:31 pm

    I guess you had to be there. The guy just sounds like the sort of effete snob that modern anti-intellectual conservatism has dedicated itself to hating.

    He was one of those “coastal elites” that was grandfathered in before the pogrom, er, “righteous purge of the homo-like” from the Republican party.

    I do love that the party that makes fun of coastal elites counts people like Bush (the elder), Reagan and Buckley among their heroes (remind me again where these people are from and what schools they went to?)

    And honestly, even when applied “logically”, I just think conservativism is a failed movement. It’s failed to demonstrate that getting rid of social programs (i.e. Goldwater’s opposition to the New Deal) helps society in any way. Sure, it helps further line the pockets of the already wealthy, but in every other way, liberal political programs have proven (across the world) to better serve society.

    So while this isn’t an indictment of people that espouse conservative policies, per se, I don’t think Buckley’s “good sounding” defenses of his views make him any sort of genius. Just well-read and good with verse.

  114. 114.

    TenguPhule

    February 28, 2008 at 12:01 am

    As always with obits, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

    ….

    ….

    ….

    ….

    -Fin

  115. 115.

    Tax Analyst

    February 28, 2008 at 1:55 am

    Whatever happened to him?

    Sex-change operation, I think.

    Then he/she went on to play the Stepmother in “Eight Is Enough”. I thought he/she was kinda cute, too, but then I always have gone for those intellectual red-head types.

  116. 116.

    Cyrus

    February 28, 2008 at 9:35 am

    I do love that the party that makes fun of coastal elites counts people like Bush (the elder), Reagan and Buckley among their heroes (remind me again where these people are from and what schools they went to?)

    To be fair, Reagan went to Eureka College, a small college outside, I swear to god, Peoria, Illinois.

    And is George the first really counted among their heroes? “Read my lips, no new taxes” and all that.

  117. 117.

    jcricket

    February 28, 2008 at 10:49 am

    To be fair, Reagan went to Eureka College, a small college outside, I swear to god, Peoria, Illinois.

    And is George the first really counted among their heroes? “Read my lips, no new taxes” and all that.

    My point generally being that before the last 5 years or so, the recent republican big-wigs (including a couple of presidents) were from the coasts, and were most definitely elites. Reagan was a frickin’ actor and Californian (he probably even visited San Francisco a couple of times) for crissakes.

    Cognitive dissonance leads to cheeto-loving, I think.

  118. 118.

    Peter C. Way

    February 28, 2008 at 2:54 pm

    Yeah, every Red Sox fan remembers Bill Buckner. The saddest thing about it all was that it made him so despondent that he tried to commit suicide by stepping in front of an MBTA bus. But it went between his legs, so he’s still alive.

    The monumental nastiness and downright idiocy contained in most of these comments is mind-bending. When are you people going to start learning real history instead of making it up yourselves?

    1. Bill’s accent was pure upper-class New York. (I grew up hearing it from some of my neighours.) It was (is) NOT a Southern accent.
    2. “The central question that emerges…is whether the white community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not predominate numerically.The sobering answer is YES — the white community is entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.”
    I never saw this in any of Buckley that I read, but if it’s not just “made up” up by the poster, can anyone really dispute its’ veracity, given the rap/hip-hop/gangsta phenomena of today?
    3. Reagan was most definitely NOT a Californian.
    4. Nothing wrong with supporting Joe McCarthy. Tail Gunner Joe was RIGHT, as has been conclusively proven by the recent declassification of the “Venona” decypts. Back to school kids. You have some reading to do.
    5. Socialism brought all of the most extreme practitioners nothing but diastrous poverty, coupled with a privileged class of extremely RICH masters.(Cuba, USSR, etc.) Milder forms have brought France endless economic stagnation, Britain the Brain Drain, Sweden and Norway to the brink of bankruptcy. Where are the successes? Unless you are a nihilist, there aren’t any.
    6. Your “right-wing lunatics” didn’t “destroy the party.” The Rep party has been co-opted by Big Government types that cannot be told from Democrat socialists with an electron microscope. How this happened is going to be the stuff of historians and political scientists. It will be taught in the future, as an example of how to destroy individual freedom and bring about the Communist Millenium by working from within. Like cancer.

    Bill Buckley had read a Hell of a lot more than all of you put together, and even in languages that none of you know. Maybe you should be learning from him, rather than desparaging what you know nothing about.

  119. 119.

    gary

    February 28, 2008 at 4:22 pm

    face…..all that stuff that happened before your time ,i think that is called history..you should check it out

  120. 120.

    DAVID FOGLIETTA

    March 1, 2008 at 9:42 am

    William F. Buckley, Jr., R.I.P……

    I was deeply saddened by the news that Bill Buckley died at his home in Stamford, Connecticut. I knew he was very ill for the past few months through some brief on-line correspondence with Joe Sobran, former Senior Editor of the National Review. (Sobran himself is barely clinging to life – complications of severe diabetes – and asks for your prayers; you can reach him at [email protected]). During the late Eighties Buckley graciously published some of my letters in NR, a few of which he thought fit for the elite “Notes & Asides” section, usually reserved for the High Brass of conservatism and many noted liberals. Milton Friedman, Charlton Heston, Kenneth Galbraith, Arthur Schlesinger, Henry Kissinger, et al. You cannot imagine the joy I felt seeing my name cheek by jowl with these prominent intellectuals and preeminent scholars! (But though I often bang out some pretty fancy paragraphs, I certainly could never stand toe to toe with these giants of learning). [I never met Chairman Bill, came close once though]. Buckley was a deeply religious and generous man, a gifted polemicist, a brilliant wit and flawless epigrammatist, who was profoundly misunderstood and who was often subject to venomous attacks by the Left. But he prevailed by sheer cerebral puissance and that inimitable Buckley charm, which often won the respect of even some of his most outspoken critics……My sincerest gratitude, Mr. Buckley, wherever you are….I will never forget…..DEF

Comments are closed.

Trackbacks

  1. William F. Buckley, R.I.P. « The Elvisberg Report says:
    February 27, 2008 at 11:41 am

    […] William F. Buckley, R.I.P. John Cole attributes to the NYT the sad news that William F. Buckley has died. […]

  2. The Last True Conservative Has Died « Liberty Street says:
    February 27, 2008 at 6:10 pm

    […] Last True Conservative Has Died Jump to Comments John Cole thinks Buckley’s “[p]robably heart-broken at what his party hasbecome.” And he has a few choice words for the ones who are putting themselves forward as Buckley’s ideological heirs: Watching the right-wing lunatics who destroyed conservatism wrapping themselves up in Buckley’s cold, dead embrace over the next few weeks will be disgusting. Start here, where K-Lo asserts she and the band of frothing brothers at NRO will continue Buckley’s “work”, and then read Malkin. And yes, you are reading Malkin correctly- she did just take the death of one of society’s most privileged members of the last century and use it to… declare that conservatives are victims. […]

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