Bill Buckley, Jr. is gone but will not die. Like Reagan and John Wayne and Garbo, he will live on in his and other people’s writings and continue to influence those on the right for decades to come. And to help us, we need more memoirs and biographies of this remarkable man.
I admired Buckley the debater, who with Brent Bozell routed the Oxford University debate team which had won against every other Ivy League university team save these two Yalies, so I joined my university’s debate team and did well. More importantly, I learned that a case can be made for both sides of a question, something the academic left has forgotten and almost forbidden.
Because I admired Buckley the columnist, like him I became a columnist for my school newspaper and did well. My column also acted as a magnet for people who shared my views, very important to an isolated conservative on a large and intellectually hostile campus.
More importantly, these two extracurricular activities had a greater educational effect on me than most of the courses I took.
I always stayed at arm’s length from the National Review conservatives since I had no interest in revisiting Catholicism and that seemed a central part of their thinking. I’d like to replace the “3 legged stool” with a sturdy bench supported by the twin stone planks of national security and fiscal restratint. I adhered to Lady Nancy Astor’s libertarian principle that she didn’t care what people did so long as they didn’t do it in the street and frighten the horses. And found that by doing so many conservative democrats joined us in battle.
When WFB ran for Mayor and his wife was first mentioned my heart fell, I expected a bland page boy wearing Blonde with bobby sox and penny loafers under her satin debutante gown (an Ethel Kennedy or Mary Lindsay type) What a shock! His wife was a North American version of the veddy stylish and glamorous Kay Kendall. Bill and Patricia Buckley were perhaps Manhattan’s most stylish couple which did much to overcome liberal disdain for conservatism.
Today, we have brilliant right wing columnists and brilliant right wing magazines for them to publish in..
What we don’t have today is a television debate show in which the likes of Victor Davis Hanson, Ann Coulter, Christopher Hitchens, Mark Steyn etc. can raise and debate the issues that we know the lame stream press will never raise in the upcoming presidential debates.
Just a few classical televised debates on the crucial topics facing us: the war in Iraq, the fair vs. flat tax etc. and have the televised debates put on DVD. Have them paid for by 527′s. We can all donate in WFB’s honor. Looking down on us from above, WFB will be delighted. And we will prevail in the coming election, which will make him and Pat dance for joy.
