“All great biblical stories begin with Genesis,” George Will wrote in the National Review in 1980. “And before there was Ronald Reagan, there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry Goldwater there was National Review, and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley with a spark in his mind, and the spark in 1980 has become a conflagration.”It’s impossible to exaggerate his importance to the politics of the last half-century. After World War II statism was ascendant, its extreme forms manifested in totalitarian Communism and to a lesser extent in the West by our readiness to seek state solutions to society’s problems.
Mr. Buckley founded the National Review in 1955 and wrote:
It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.Through the National Review and his support of critics of the statist consensus, Mr. Buckley helped reverse the tide. But ideas alone weren’t the measure of the man. His upper-crust demeanor, arching eyebrows, million-dollar vocabulary, rapier wit, and graceful manners overturned attempts to stereotype conservatives as troglodytic reactionaries. The publication that he founded pays tribute:
Buckley has had more of an impact on the political life of this country — and a better one — than some of our presidents. He created modern conservatism as an intellectual and then a political movement. He kept it from drifting into the fever swamps. And he gave it a wit, style, and intelligence that earned the respect and friendship even of his adversaries.Although he was the fountainhead of ideas that animate Republicans today, William Buckley was never a creature of the party. He came to believe that the Iraq war was a mistake and published his conclusion, regardless of the effect upon his ideological allies. His intellect until the day he died was formidable, but his intellectual courage was unique. RIP, Mr. Buckley, you left the scene too soon. © 2008 Stephen Yuen
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