R.I.P, Bill. And thank you so much for the National Review, especially its online presence. Buckley and NR have been among the most intelligent and articulate voices for conservative principles during the past five decades.
-------------------- "The Light shines on in darkness . . ." - John 1: 3 - Posts: 7539 | From: Wichita, KS | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I agree, Phil! He was a brilliant guy! I looked the Wiki piece; I didn't really know much about his background, but he seems to have lived a pretty interesting life, as well. He will be missed!
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Thanks, Bill, for the most eloquent articulation of why, other things (i.e. efficacy & competence) being equal, conservatism should be our bias, subsidiarity our default. May perpetual light shine upon you in the same measure of brilliance with which you lighted our path. Rest, eternally, and pray for our peace.
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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HeartPrayer
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I remember WF Buckley as a man who presented his views, even when those views were frightening, in the most erudite and entertaining language. And for this reason, it was always worth listening to him, also for those of us who did not agree with him.
Whatever his views, he was a man of intellectual integrity.
posted
I've watched "Firing Line" many times through the years (he hadn't done it for the past several) and was always led to the dictionary, at some point. Sort of like reading Johnboy's posts. Buckley challenged me to rethink quite a few things during years when I was a naive liberal. He wrote some pretty good novels, too.
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Kind of reminds me of the day JFK died. Did you know that C. S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died the same day? Talk about the day the music died!
[ February 27, 2008, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Phil ]
-------------------- "The Light shines on in darkness . . ." - John 1: 3 - Posts: 7539 | From: Wichita, KS | Registered: Aug 2001
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If anyone finds a tribute from Obama, Clinton, or any leading Democrat, please post a link to it.
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Here's an index of WFB's recent articles published at NRO -- all the way to 2-2-08, which is a critique of debate tactics used by Obama and Clinton. - http://author.nationalreview.com/?q=MjE0Ng==
[ February 28, 2008, 10:11 AM: Message edited by: Phil ]
-------------------- "The Light shines on in darkness . . ." - John 1: 3 - Posts: 7539 | From: Wichita, KS | Registered: Aug 2001
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Buckley was credited with providing coherence to the conservative movement, bringing together Free Market Libertarians, Traditionalists and Anti-Communists, which I reckon we might consider the equivalent of our present-day coalition of economic, social and national defense conservatives, our new battle with IslamoFascism replacing the communist, and before that, the Nazi threat.
He was also credited with providing respectability to conservatism as he purged it of unsavory elements, specifically, the John Birch Society, Ayn Rand libertarians and religious conservatives with a theocratic bent. Our new battle is over against such distinctly unconservative thrusts as the neoconservative-influenced Bush Doctrine and such theocratic bents as urged by some elements of the Religious Right.
To wit:
quote: The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geostrategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country. So it is not conservatism. A conservative always measures capabilities and resources, and these are simply incapable--now, even as they were in the 1919--of bringing on democracy.
quote:Buckley rejects neo-conservatives who favor a more interventionist foreign policy, including a pre-emptive air strike against Iran and its nuclear facilities.
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Liberal Tributes to WFB Yes, he was just that kind of fellow.
WFB's good friends included George McGovern, John Kenneth Galbraith, David Niven, Murray Kempton, Norman Mailer, Allard Lowenstein, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. and Michael Harrington.
I understand that Chris Dodd, former 2008 presidential candidate, who just endorsed Obama, gave some very gracious comments on CNN re: WFB.
U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, D-Colorado, who is running for the state's open U.S. Senate seat, released the following statement Wednesday on the death of conservative icon William F. Buckley Jr.
quote: "Any American who reveres our constitution and admires intelligence, wit and integrity in public life will mourn the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. Like many others who grew up the 1960s and 1970s, I appreciated the provocative conversation in Mr. Buckley's interviews on his television program 'Firing Line' - where he challenged political leaders from across the political spectrum. America's conservative movement obviously owes a great deal to the intellectual foundation of William F. Buckley's writing and philosophy, but his contributions to public life were not just ideological. Mr. Buckley was a grand debater, a great thinker and a brilliant personality. He will be missed."
Mario Cuomo said:
quote: “I was privileged to know William Buckley for more than 20 years and was in fact his opponent in his last public debate.
He may not have been unique. But I have never encountered his match. He was a brilliant, gentle, charming philosopher, seer and advocate.
William Buckley died … but his complicated brilliance in thought and script will survive him for as long as words are read. And words are heard.”
Joe Leiberman wrote:
quote: "America has lost a great patriot with the passing of William F. Buckley Jr. and I have lost a dear and cherished friend who I have known for more than 40 years. Bill was a man of considerable wit, charm, and grace who contributed so much to the intellectual debate and discussion in our country for many decades. He was truly an intellectual giant of the past century.
"Bill Buckley was not only a national treasure but one of the most distinguished longtime residents of Connecticut. He was a man of principle who recognized that civility in our political life was a virtue. Regardless of where you stood in the political spectrum, you marveled at Bill's ability to make a point with humor and aplomb. Indeed, all of our vocabularies were bolstered by his erudite analysis!
quote:William F. Buckley Jr. died this morning at the age of 82. While liberalism was his favorite target, liberals could not find a more gracious intellectual opponent than WFB. He disarmed even the most radical activists. He seems so anachronistic now, in this age of blogs and non-stop cable news. Amidst the shouting matches, spin, and ad hominem attacks that dominate our political debate today, it's difficult to remember that a man like Buckley and forums such as Firing Line ever existed.
It's an axiom that political writers hope to influence politics, and I think it's safe to say that no American writer of the last half century had a more significant impact on our politics than he. Whether one believes that influence was for better or worse will, of course, be determined by political sympathy. But mere partisanship ought not prevent one from relishing Buckley's intellect, style and the voluminous service he performed on behalf of the English language.
quote: It was in high school that I came under the charm and the influence of William F. Buckley Jr., the dashing, charismatic young conservative who wrote God and Man at Yale, McCarthy and his Enemies, and founded the wistful, precocious, companionable monthly, National Review. [...]
It was from National Review that I gained my early affection and appetite for political philosophy and argument. To start out as a young conservative is not — let's look at the facts — to end up there. But you have to start somewhere.
quote: He had a gift for friendship, and his warm friends included such luminaries of the left as Murray Kempton, Norman Mailer, Allard Lowenstein, and Michael Harrington. He could not have been happy with the vulgarity of the movement he did so much to spawn, and he was quite thoroughly out of sympathy with messianic, militaristic neoconservatism.
quote:He knew exactly what my politics were about—he knew I was an implacable ideological adversary—yet he offered his friendship to me nonetheless. He did the honor of respecting his ideological adversaries, without covering up the adversarial nature of the relationship in false bonhommie.
quote: And that's certainly how a lot of us on the Left feel about the legacy of William F. Buckley, Jr. (see progressive historian Rick Perlstein's tribute to WFB's decency and generosity at the Campaign for America's Future site). He made us laugh, and made us think, and above all, taught us the value of the English language as a deft and infinitely expressive instrument of persuasion. I'll miss him, and so should you.
quote: With William F. Buckley's passing yesterday, perhaps the time has come for progressives to stop fearing him and learn from him. Not from his ideas, of course, but from his tactics.
quote:buckley constantly reverted to using ideas over invective, logic over lambast, and over reason over ridicule. we wish his gentlemanliness had rubbed off on his heir apparents.
quote: I don't know if famed conservative commentator William F. Buckley, who died Wednesday at the age of 81, had much contact with presidential hopeful Barack Obama. But I suspect the two might have gotten along nicely.
That thought occurred to me Thursday afternoon as the Enquirer Editorial Board conducted a phone interview with Sen. Obama. I asked the senator how he would make his case to more conservative voters and embrace the nation's diversity of opinion.
"I am not somebody who believes one party has a monopoly on wisdom," Obama said. "I'm a proud Democrat, but I'm not an ideologue." Today, what passes for political debates seems to comes from ideological fringes populated by characters pursuing agendas that perhaps only a psychoanalyst could begin to understand. The aim is not to enlighten, but to demonize, dehumanize and humiliate the "other" side.
Buckley operated on a much higher plane, and Obama seems to get it, too. If Obama becomes president, I like to think that William F. Buckley would be among the sort of folks he'd want to bring to the table.
Please post any videos or quotes from McCain or Huckabee "denouncing" and "rejecting" John Hagee. See this, too .
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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He lured us to his side, at first, by showing us that upsetting the conventional wisdom was, as Socrates said, "an activity not without its amusing side" and naturally appealing to the young.
Once he had our attention he taught us that we were in a deadly serious game. For then as now the Sophists were serious about seizing power, and then as now their way of doing so was to discredit the very notion of truth and make their power the only reality.
Jacques Maritain famously said that there were never more than three schools of philosophy:
The idealists who believe that getting the truth was easy. These are the conventional liberals, whom Bill gently mocked.
The nominalists, the Sophists, who deny truth altogether; these are the hard Left, the true enemy he rallied us against.
And finally the realists, who accept that the truth is out there but is fiercely difficult to lock down.
Bill's most enduring achievement was to identify and shape conservatism as the political expression of philosophical realism in our time
And so simultaneously, he gave us a vision of the intellectual life well lived, and put us in the field against the great enemy of our time.
He did what Socrates dreamed of: made philosophers of citizens and citizens of philosophers.
I hero-worshipped him. I am not ashamed to say it, because I chose my hero well, and my life has never been the poorer for it.
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote: The neoconservative hubris, which sort of assigns to America some kind of geostrategic responsibility for maximizing democracy, overstretches the resources of a free country. So it is not conservatism. A conservative always measures capabilities and resources, and these are simply incapable--now, even as they were in the 1919--of bringing on democracy.
That is a rather interesting point, JohnBoy!
Does it not follow, then, that by this measure and at least in this regards, that William Clinton was a Conservative, whereas George W. Bush has proved to be anything but that?
If you prefer to take on that point in a different thread, please feel free to do so.
Respectfully, HeartPrayer
PS. That is quite a list of Liberal tributes to William F. Buckley! Re: Phil’s request.
"Even some of his liberal targets, like Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd, paid him grudging honour on Wednesday. In broadcast remarks, Dodd called him an 'icon' of the conservative movement who also happened to be a neighbour."
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quote:Originally posted by HeartPrayer: Does it not follow, then, that by this measure and at least in this regards, that William Clinton was a Conservative, whereas George W. Bush has proved to be anything but that?
As Bill Buckley said re: Dubya's Dad, the indefinite article, a, should not be used to describe the Bush legacy, for neither Bush was a conservative, which is to say that the Bush family was not conservative as in the noun but conservative as in the adjective. WFB noted that, while they did conservative things, they were not conservative vis a vis any core philosophy rooted in conservative principles.
It is toward this same end that I have found myself backing Obama this year, believing as I do in a smaller government footprint overseas over against the more fundamentally liberal neoconservative project and consistent with political realism (while not in any way otherwise isolationist), believing as I do in a smaller government footprint at home, on the social front vis a vis values implementation over against the more fundamentally liberal social conservative activism and moral statism of the radical Religious Right and, again, consistent with political realism, which knows the limits of what can be effected, politically, and doesn't squander its political capital with intractably hard lines drawn in the sands of moral discourse. Now, I also believe in a smaller government footprint on the economic scene; alas, as the Rolling Stones sang: you can't always get what you want.
Gregory M. A. Gronbacher, Ph.D. Director, Center for Economic Personalism Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty
quote: Statism is defined as a society’s unhealthy reliance on the political structures to solve what are essentially moral and social problems. All possible concerns are deemed within the competence of the government, be they concerns of national defense, economic regulation, or the minutiae of child rearing. The natural limitations of government are ignored, and thus government grows out of control, accepting no limitations upon its scope of powers, usurping the functions and rightful claims of other mediating institutions.
quote: As a Christian I tend to side with many of the social and moral views of conservatives, especially in its paleoconservative forms. Their usual grounding in a transcendent morality and their strong defense of basic Judeo-Christian principles are not only encouraging, but commendable. Yet my point of contention with many conservatives is not a mater of ends or values, but a matter of means to achieve and preserve those values.
Often, and especially recently, conservatives are viewed as the enemy of big government. Many conservatives adopt non-statist rhetoric in their political speech. The desire to cut taxes and government spending, limit the regulatory scope of government, and revive many of the mediating institutions of society are dear to the hearts of conservatives. Indeed, many conservative politicians and social theorists even speak out against excessive government intervention in the marketplace.
The problem is that many conservatives, while speaking against government interventions of one sort or another, energetically call for government intervention in social and moral issues. Conservatives are often guilty of practicing a moral statism.
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:A conservative always measures capabilities and resources ...
That is not so much conservatism per se. That is more accurately called political realism, something we Catholics subscribe to in principle. Even a liberal had best also be a political realist.
The proper gauging of capabilities and resources also informs the Church's pastoral response when, due to human finitude and original sin, our existential realizations of Church-articulated essentialistic idealization are necessarily frustrated. In simpler words, people's failings deserve a compassionate response, as John XXIII said, the medicine of mercy.
Don't you know it's gonna be alright-John Lennon And you will know that all manner of things shall be well-Julian of Norwich Posts: 2881 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
HP wrote: Does it not follow, then, that by this measure and at least in this regards, that William Clinton was a Conservative, whereas George W. Bush has proved to be anything but that?
Clinton was more in the "center" than many conservative critics give him credit for.
Balancing a budget is not necessarily a sign of a conservative leader, however. A socialist state might have a balanced budget, but it comes at the cost of high taxation, which is not a conservative value. Clinton's budget surplus was due in no small part to the higher taxes he pushed through early in his Presidency.
I'll grant that Bush hasn't been the best of conservatives. He failed to cut spending, allowed congress to bloat the budget with earmarks, and foisted No Child Left Behind on America's education system, thus upsetting subsidiarity principles in the education realm. He was also lax in enforcing immigration laws. That's just a start!
Evidence of his conservatism can be found in - the tax-cuts he pushed through early on to stimulate business (it worked), - faith-based initiatives to provide social services, - the variety of private-sector solutions for insurance and retirement (health savings plan, SEP IRA), - his effort to allow some private investing in social security, - his staunch anti-abortion values, - opposition to embryonic stem cell research, - Supreme Court Justice appointments - strong emphasis on national security.
WFB had no problem with these emphases, although the execution of them was often another matter.
[ March 04, 2008, 04:48 PM: Message edited by: Phil ]
-------------------- "The Light shines on in darkness . . ." - John 1: 3 - Posts: 7539 | From: Wichita, KS | Registered: Aug 2001
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Buckley challenged me to rethink quite a few things during years when I was a naive liberal. He wrote some pretty good novels, too.![[Frown]](frown.gif)
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