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Line 3: − − In apparent appeasement of the [[liberal media]], beginning in the mid-1960s Buckley embarked on a smear campaign against the [[John Birch Society]]. Buckley hosted a show on public television called ''Firing Line'' and used that to try to discredit JBS, as he did at 30 and again at 31 minutes after the hour in his December 1, 1966 interview of an unrelated guest.<ref>http://scottlazarowitz.org/blog/2013/11/1966-william-f-buckley-jr-interview-of-mark-lane-warren-commission-critic/</ref> Line 33:
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William F. Buckley, Jr. (view source)
Revision as of 23:47, October 31, 2017
, 23:47, October 31, 2017Opposition to the Republican Establishment, expanded legacy, same old same old playbook from the progressives
Buckley's political views did not represent the future of the conservative movement as much as its past, and he did not speak out much about the big social issues that would dominate the future of politics. For example, he was mostly silent about [[ERA]], the defining issue for the modern conservative movement. Buckley was a [[globalist]], contrary to modern conservatives. For example, Buckley supported [[NAFTA]] and giving away the [[Panama Canal]], despite its strategic significance and how the [[United States]] had built and paid for it. Buckley also favored legalizing [[marijuana]].
Buckley's political views did not represent the future of the conservative movement as much as its past, and he did not speak out much about the big social issues that would dominate the future of politics. For example, he was mostly silent about [[ERA]], the defining issue for the modern conservative movement. Buckley was a [[globalist]], contrary to modern conservatives. For example, Buckley supported [[NAFTA]] and giving away the [[Panama Canal]], despite its strategic significance and how the [[United States]] had built and paid for it. Buckley also favored legalizing [[marijuana]].
Buckley was against [[collectivism]], as he summed up in his book "Up From Liberalism" (1959):<ref>http://www.politico.com/blogs/joe-scarborough/2013/08/conservatism-defined-170716.html</ref>
Buckley was against [[collectivism]], as he summed up in his book "Up From Liberalism" (1959):<ref>http://www.politico.com/blogs/joe-scarborough/2013/08/conservatism-defined-170716.html</ref>
Buckley liked to go yachting, twice crossing the Atlantic himself, and playing the harpsichord. He married Patricia Alden Austin Taylor in 1950.
Buckley liked to go yachting, twice crossing the Atlantic himself, and playing the harpsichord. He married Patricia Alden Austin Taylor in 1950.
===Opposition to the John Birch Society===
In apparent appeasement of the [[liberal media]], beginning in the mid-1960s Buckley embarked on a smear campaign against the [[John Birch Society]]. Buckley hosted a show on public television called ''Firing Line'' and used that to try to discredit JBS, as he did at 30 and again at 31 minutes after the hour in his December 1, 1966 interview of an unrelated guest.<ref>http://scottlazarowitz.org/blog/2013/11/1966-william-f-buckley-jr-interview-of-mark-lane-warren-commission-critic/</ref>
===Opposition to the Republican Establishment===
Buckley founded National Review in an atmosphere where RINOs ran the show. In the 1955 Mission Statement for NR, he lamented the "well-fed right" (who at that time was a combination of Eisenhower Republicans and Rockefeller Republicans) for their smears and mistreatment of rock-ribbed, future Reaganite and Tea Party conservatives.<ref name="mission">[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223549/our-mission-statement-william-f-buckley-jr Our Mission Statement], by William F. Buckley</ref> To be a conservative meant to be a "non-licenced nonconformist" in an atmosphere dominated by conformist RINOs.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=etQ6AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT213 The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945]</ref> At the time of its founding, National Review was not popular among liberal republicans, notably Allen Tate, mainly because of the magazine's strong support of [[Joe McCarthy]],<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=I03qCQAAQBAJ&pg=PT142 The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought]</ref> and Peter Viereck<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pQMAsT7HlEsC&pg=PA168 Why Americans Hate Politics]</ref>
Within a decade of the magazine's founding, the GOP would nominate a candidate strongly opposed by members of the Rockefeller wing of the party, [[Barry Goldwater]].<ref>[http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/obit/2008/02/william_f_buckley_rip.html William F. Buckley, RIP]</ref> Again, in 1980 [[Ronald Reagan]] was nominated to the consternation of Establishment Republicans wherever they could be found.
==Death and legacy==
==Death and legacy==
Historian [[George H. Nash]] wrote of him that ''William F. Buckley Jr. was arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century. For an entire generation he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure. He changed minds, he changed lives, and he helped to change the direction of American politics.''<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223788/simply-superlative-george-h-nash Simply Superlative]</ref>
Historian [[George H. Nash]] wrote of him that ''William F. Buckley Jr. was arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century. For an entire generation he was the preeminent voice of American conservatism and its first great ecumenical figure. He changed minds, he changed lives, and he helped to change the direction of American politics.''<ref>[http://www.nationalreview.com/article/223788/simply-superlative-george-h-nash Simply Superlative]</ref>
Shortly after Buckley's passing, Establishment Republicans began their attempts to co-opt the Buckley legacy by various means, most notably the ill-named "[[Buckley rule]]". Members of the Establishment have conducted similar activity with former President Reagan as well. Likewise, progressives have engaged in their own efforts to re-invent history, proclaiming how much they miss well-reasoned Buckley,<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/opinion/where-have-you-gone-bill-buckley.html Where Have You Gone, Bill Buckley?]</ref> even though they engaged in efforts at the time to smear him as a Nazi<ref>[http://livinginphilistia.blogspot.com/2015/02/william-f-buckley-was-nazi.html William F Buckley was a Nazi!]</ref> and things no different than what you can hear in the news this very week.
==Quotes==
==Quotes==
* "There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance."
* "There is an inverse relationship between reliance on the state and self-reliance."
* "Conservatives in this country — at least those who have not made their peace with the New Deal, and there is serious question whether there are others — are non-licensed nonconformists; and this is dangerous business in a Liberal world, as every editor of this magazine can readily show by pointing to his scars. Radical conservatives in this country have an interesting time of it, for when they are not being suppressed or mutilated by the Liberals, they are being ignored or humiliated by a great many of those of the well-fed Right, whose ignorance and amorality have never been exaggerated for the same reason that one cannot exaggerate infinity."<ref name="mission" />
== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Young Americans for Freedom]]
* [[Young Americans for Freedom]]
* [[Duty]]
* [[Duty]]
* [[Russell Kirk]]
* [[Russell Kirk]]
* [[Kate O'Beirne]]
* [[Kate O'Beirne]]