Death of a conservative pioneer

William F. Buckley Jr., American conservative pioneer, has died. He was 82. He was found at his desk where he had been writing a column.

I think Buckley has a good claim to having been one of the most important and influential public intellectuals in the world in the last 100 years.

But not really because of anything he wrote or said.

It was because of what he did. In founding the National Review he rescued conservatives from their schisms and arcane disputes. He rooted out, for instance, anti-semitism and brought different wings of the movement together.

The result was the creation of the defining force in US politics over the last three decades. Hence my claims on Buckley's behalf.

What Buckley had above all was drive and spirit. It is that - rather than ideological consistency - that marked him out and means that he will be missed.

Buckley's impact is captured well in Sam Tanenhaus's New York Times piece entitled The Buckley Effect and in a Salon piece by Buckley friend Chris Weinkopf.

You can read the New York Times obituary here.

And you can read the words of the man himself:

--William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review: Fowlerspeak-Goodspeak

--William F. Buckley Jr. in The Atlantic: Bush for President

--William F. Buckley Jr. in National Review: It didn't work (in Iraq)

--William F. Buckley Jr. in The Atlantic: A master and commander decides, after a lifetime on the water, that he will no longer go down to the sea

Comments

[Desmond Taylor]

The man was pure genius. Compare him to any of todays pundits. There is only one man who writes with anywhere near the erudition and wit. Thomas Sowell.

[John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada]

Buckley was an articulate and rather disingenuous man, one who truly was a bit off his rocker.

Anyone who watched Buckley on television, flicking his tongue almost like a rattlesnake and rapidly blinking his eyes, couldn't doubt he was a bit unbalanced and simply enjoyed conflict and argument for their own sake.

He was a vital part of what critic Robert Hughes has called "America's culture of complaint."

The culture of complaint is one in which the combat is enjoyed for its own sake with little meaningful discussion happening and little desire to achieve understanding or change.

It is a verbal form of Rome’s gladiator battles, and just about as intellectually meaningful.

Buckley’s television show also frequently put up debaters who were supposed to represent two sides of an issue but, to the observant watcher, clearly did not. That is to say, Buckley often loaded the dice.

[John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada]

Further note on the infamous Buckley-Gore Vidal exchange many years ago on American television, tapes of which the American network likely will never release or has destroyed out of fear of lawsuits.

Vidal did call Buckley a "crypto-nazi," a personal attack which at least had the merit of being about politics (as well as being true).

Buckley called Vidal "faggot" on national television, a personal remark having nothing to do with politics and revealing very clearly the kind of prejudice that motivated Buckley.

He had no class, except an assumed fake-quasi-British accent which he managed to permanently acquire from a short stay in Britain.

The man was a fraud, a second-rate intellect, and not especially ethical.

[Luis Campalans]

He will be missed immensely! I was a fan of his T.V. show many years ago, and credit them with helping educate a hungry mind. Rest in peace.

[o.u.]

Gore Vidal was trying to wind Buckley up by calling him a crypto-Nazi, and it worked.

However, it was Buckley who turned out to be right in the long run, and Gore Vidal's output descended into conspiracy theories and pseudo-history.

Vidal is still obsessesive and dishonest in his need to show the US as the primary evil in the world, the villain of the Cold War.