Goodbye, Bill Buckley, gone to educate the saints
National Review founder and conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr. was found dead Wednesday in the study of his Stamford, Connecticut, home, officials at the magazine said.
He was 82.
Buckley died while at work," said Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor of the National Review Online, in a written statement. "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."
It may be a bit unexpected to see praise for William F. Buckley here, but I can't not speak. Bill Buckley helped make me what I am today.
Buckley, and my father, who led me to Buckley's columns, they challenged me, the high school student, to push my political thinking up a notch. Knee-jerk reactions weren't good enough, think, Janet, think. Think first, lay your arguments carefully, think again. Do your arguments lead to what you think you believe, or are they leading somewhere else completely? Are your arguments true? What do you really think?
I almost never completely agreed with Buckley, not on any topic. Some topics I couldn't find any common thoughts with him. But such was his skill that even when I KNEW I was going to disagree, because I disagreed with the headline, I'd read and nod, oh yes, that makes sense, read and nod, I can see that, and then hit the conclusion and say "no, that's not right!" And it was usually his unstated premise, the "we take this to be self-evident so I'm not going to write it out" part, that part was the part I couldn't believe. Even studying this out, even knowing this, he'd rope me in, column after column.
And I'd love it. Buckley was such a good writer, as he was a thinker, just studying his columns taught me so much. And it turns out I agreed with him a lot more than you'd think. He expanded my vocabulary, I think he did that for anyone reading him, or at least the ones who couldn't let it go until they knew the meaning of every single word used. (That would be me.)
I'll miss you, Bill Buckley. I'll miss the intelligent conservative voice in my world, in my newspaper. The conservatives, whether they realize it or not, have lost something very precious and irreplaceable. The tone of the collective conservative voice will change. And I don't think we'll like the change.
Conservative or liberal, and those in-between, we'll all miss you, Mr. Buckley. All the saints in heaven are richer tonight, they now have you.
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Bill Buckley and George Will
I always disliked Buckley's work. God and Man at Yale came out when I was in college and I thought his argument was weak and biased. But he was worth reading for honing one's own arguments and counter-arguments.
I found George Will useful in much the same way until he got really close to Reagan and lost his perspective. He's come to his senses regarding Bush-in-Iraq, but otherwise I agree with you, Jim. My local newspaper carries his columns and I read them in order to keep up with the latest in intellectual spin. Sometimes it moves me to write him an email. It does no good but it does brings down the blood pressure. I feel a little bit connected with him -- he grew up in the house right across the street from where I lived in Champaign IL for 26 years, although he had moved away long before I moved there. It one of the first things I saw when I got out of bed in the morning. Two of my sons went to his high school which was run by the U of Illinois, where he was recognized as one of the Notable Alums. Still, he has written some of what I consider to be the most intellectually dishonest things I've read. His recent piece on the sub-prime mortgage mess was a great example: see The New Entitlement.
he's worth reading
Anything non-fiction by Bill Buckley is good. I have to admit, while I love spy novels, I never enjoyed Blackford Oakes, I think that's the Buckley character. your mileage may vary, of course.
Good word for Buckley
This is a good tribute to William Buckley, Janet. I've never read his articles, but the library carries the National Review and I've read it a few times. Buckley represents a more civilized conservative voice than the shrill voices we hear today.
Buckley
Janet I came on the site to say something about Buckley also.I was growing up about the time he was in his heyday. Oh to have some conservative voices like his today. His opinions were not shrill, not nasty, just a reasoned conservative opinion.They are entitled to a point of view too. He was always intelligent in his analysis.The conservatives could use a voice like his today.
I picked up a newspaper recently with a piece by George Will. I remeber thinking, sometimes he is not too bad, a modern day Bill Buckley perhaps. Then I read his piece and it was the same old Neo-con garbage that ones sees and hears continuously, only with a better vocabulary. Buckley has no peers in the conservative world today.