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William F Buckley: RIP

From the Corner:

William F. Buckley Jr., died this morning in his study in Stamford, Connecticut.

He died while at work; if he had been given a choice on how to depart this world, I suspect that would have been exactly it. At home, still devoted to the war of ideas.

Buckley was not as important a figure in my own development as a conservative as were folks like Russell Kirk, Richard John Neuhaus, and Michael Novak, but Buckley ploughed the fields in which their ideas could later bloom. In recent years, moreover, I deeply admired his principled opposition to the war in Iraq. RIP

Of course, the nutroots are being typically smallminded and vicious, as illustrated by all too many of the comments at Kevin Drum’s place.

As for serious left-liberals, expect to see much commentary on the left that links Buckley’s passing to the probable Democratic sweep coming in the Fall. There will be a lot of “end of the era” claims that Buckley’s death coincides with the demise of the movement he founded.

Don’t buy it. Buckley knew that the movement was in the long haul business. He also knew that there would be reverses. But he never gave up hope. As liberal columnist Rick Perlstein writes in a moving tribute:

The game of politics is to win over American institutions to our way of seeing things using whatever coalition, necessarily temporary, that we can muster to win our majority, however contingent—and if we lose, and we are again in the minority, live to fight another day, even ruthlessly, while respecting our adversaries’ legitimacy to govern in the meantime, while never pulling back in offering our strong opinions about their failures, in the meantime. This was Buckleyism—even more so than any particular doctrines about “conservatism.”

We will need to emulate that spirit in the next few lean years.

In any case, it is good to see so many on the left acknowledging the achievements and basic gooness of the man himself. For example, Perlstein also wrote that:

I’m hard on conservatives. I get harder on them just about every day. I call them “con men.” I do so without apology. And I cannot deny that William F. Buckley said and did many things over the course of his career that were disgusting as well. I’ve written about some of them. But this is not the time to go into all that. My friend just passed away at the age of 82. He was a good and decent man. 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. A remarkable quality, all too rare in an era of the false fetishization of “post-partisanship” and Broderism and go-along-to-get-along. He was friends with those he fought. He fought with friends. These are the highest civic ideals to which an American patriot can aspire.

As another example, although she’s unable to resist the temptation to include a dig, Jame Hamsher wrote that:

I grew up watching Buckley, and I have to admit there was something appealing about how strongly he cut against the grain of conventional political wisdom of the time. He spoke and argued well and was extremely charismatic, which often masked how impoverished his ideology was.

I remember (hazily) the arguments between Buckley and Gore Vidal on television during the 68 convention, and how charged and relevant they seemed. Watching the intellectually shiftless hackery of Tim Russert and Brian Williams last night I thought “Jesus, have we become this stupid?”

The comparison is telling, isn’t it? In fact, few people on either side of the aisle have had a better talent for the intelligent quip than Buckley, as illustrated by the quotes Shaun Mullen pulled together. A few personal favorites:

• I’d rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.
• Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.
• 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.

I’d add a few more to Mullen’s list of great Buckley quips:

• “To buy very good wine nowadays requires only money. To serve it to your guests is a sign of fatigue.”
• “The majority of the senior class of Vassar does not desire my company and I must confess, having read specimens of their thought and sentiments, that I do not desire the company of the majority of the senior class of Vassar.” ATTRIBUTION: Withdrawing as commencement speaker after students protested his conservative record, NY Times 20 May 80
• ”[Norman Mailer] decocts matters of the first philosophical magnitude from an examination of his own ordure, and I am not talking about his books.”

And now some commentary from our side of the aisle. James Joyner:

Buckley’s intellectual leadership, judgment, and tone were cornerstones in building the modern conservative movement. His good sense in denouncing the John Birchers and distancing himself from the excesses of Pat Buchanan and others earned him respect on both sides of the aisle.

Jacob Sullum:

William F. Buckley Jr., ... did more than any other intellectual to create a conservative alliance between traditionalists and libertarians (an achievement that seems more impressive with each passing day)