RIP William F. Buckley Jr.

[impressive]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/27/buckley.obit/index.html

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Although she wasn't a conservative, my mom used to love to watch him on TV back in the 1960s because he was a genuine thinker, and for the vocabulary lessons he unconsciously gave with almost every paragraph (later I think he became self conscious about it and laid it on a bit thick).

As a member of the free market movement (which half the time is allied with "conservatives," few of whom are as thoughtful and principled as Buckley) some of those I respect would not hesitate to render his admonition to "police your movement" when seeing some individual or group going off he deep end in some area. It was wise advice then and now.

RIP.

 

[trysail]

William F. Buckley was a truly extraordinary and accomplished man; he defined the words polymath and erudite. I was first introduced to him through his celebrated televised debate with Gore Vidal (if you want a measure of the level to which public debate has declined, this is a good benchmark). His narratives of his sailing adventures made fabulous reading and encouraged me to take up the study of celestial navigation (something that never would have happened if Buckley's exposition of its essential simplicity hadn't given me some assurance that it was possible to master what appeared hopelessly daunting and arcane). As I read his narratives, I kept a pad and a dictionary to hand in order to write down the definitions of spectacularly delightful words I had never encountered before. As a result, my vocabulary includes words that owe their presence in my quiver to Buckley.

 

[shereads]

The best thing he ever did was write a foreword for one of the Doonesbury books, in which he described cartoonist Garry Trudeau as one of the most brilliant political satirists of our time.

That's when my dad, God bless him, decided that Buckley had gone over to the left.

 

[Pure]

Rip

he was that rarest of breeds, the conservative intellectual; lots of class. fine writer and speaker!

he will be missed.

 

[shereads]

he was that rarest of breeds, the conservative intellectual; lots of class. fine writer and speaker!

he will be missed.

Of course, there was that one time when he said that AIDS victims should be forced to wear tattoos.

 

[rgraham666]

I'm with Pure. The man was a thoughtful conservative, not blinded by his beliefs.

I, at least, will miss him.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

I usually disagreed with his positions, but his clearity of mind and statement were hard to argue with. We are worse off with him gone

 

[DesertPirate]

I usually disagreed with his positions, but his clearity of mind and statement were hard to argue with. We are worse off with him gone

I agree with most of your comment

The exception is that I mostly agreed with him

 

[shereads]

Buckley, at various times, advocated not only mandatory tattoos for people with AIDS but the right of Southern segregationists to impose their will on their black inferiors.

A charming, witty, erudite bigot is a bigot.

 

[DesertPirate]

Buckley, at various times, advocated not only mandatory tattoos for people with AIDS but the right of Southern segregationists to impose their will on their black inferiors.

A charming, witty, erudite bigot is a bigot.

That is why I said most

Of course you have never been wrong so you wouldn't understand

 

[Roxanne Appleby]

Buckley, at various times, advocated not only mandatory tattoos for people with AIDS but the right of Southern segregationists to impose their will on their black inferiors.

A charming, witty, erudite bigot is a bigot.

I rather suspect that his views were more nuanced than this.

Lord, make my unnuanced characterizations of my political adversaries tender and sweet, because the other side's unnuanced characterizations of positions of people on my side can be a real bitch too. A good thing to remember, along with granting the presumption of good will to one's adversaries, which is a necessary component of civility. (Where the presumption is absent people settle their political differences with violence, so it's quite an important democratic habit to inculcate, and not just some nicey-nice "can't we all get along" conceit.)