Thursday, February 28, 2008
Ruminations about Bill Buckley
The Conservative movement lost their last intellectual, “William F Buckley Jr.” With the exception of George Will, all that remains on the right is collections of loud mouth broadcasters, scheming left wing apostates, “known as Neo-Cons”, greedy corporate magnates, Religious fanatics, reactionary lumped males and publicity whores. All these years of right wing protestation about Marxist college professors, it is oblivious that any university no matter how liberal they are pegged by right wing critics would have been more than happy to have Mister Buckley as a residential professor. The academic world admired him. Me, as many people who respected him, thought he was really a left wing intellectual playing the devils advocate. Buckley was no puritanical scold. He smoked pot, rode a Harley Davidson bike, and listened to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. Ok, one out of two is not bad.
The only living person who could match wits with Buckley were Gore Vidal, Vidal intimated Buckley so much that he resorted to homophobic ad homonyms. Buckley didn’t suffer modalities from the religious right or the Neo-Conservative movement; he was a maverick in his own way.
Buckley didn’t do so well in his emeritus years. His speech became lethargic and his physical posture got really poor. He was last seen on the Hannity show, Fox News. He used his appearance to sell his latest book. He dodged question from Hannity because Buckley knew that he was a Conservative hack. He didn’t suffer fools. Hannity was fawning all over Buckley like a pre-teen girl with a pop idol, but Buckley continued hawking his book.
William F.Buckley was a enigma. Some of reaction to his death from the left ranges from vehement denouncements to respectful condolences. Me, I will miss him. It sickens me that the only voice for Conservatism is the likes of Rush Limbaugh. Paleo-Conservatism is becoming extinct. When that political ideology dies, then it will be the Anti-Authoritarian left will be the only ideal promoting freedom. Maybe that is a good thing?
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