I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition…. I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?’ I couldn’t think of anyone.
[William F. Buckley, Jr. in the New York Times Book Review 1986]
By today’s standards, William F. Buckley, Jr. (WFB) was a man of unique talents and unparalleled accomplishments. For example, he was an editor, a columnist, a novelist (of 50 fifty books), a talk show host (for 23 years of Firing Line), a harpsichordist, a transatlantic sailor, and, most enviable, a connoisseur of peanut butter.
What I admired most about him was that, on almost every subject, WFB was always as glib as he was right in proffering his views – even when the subject was himself.
Alas, he was no less glib when he was wrong – as was the case when he argued that people who are HIV positive should be tattooed. But, to his credit, he was not above admitting when he was wrong.
All the same, I shall leave it to blowhard conservatives like Rush Limbaugh to wax sentimental about this “intellectual founder of the modern conservative movement.”
Instead, I shall suffice to note that WFB was conspicuous by the fact that he personified so much of what is missing in his conservative acolytes, namely: intelligence, wit, tolerance, and a healthy skepticism of orthodoxy (political and religious).
Of course, many of the conservatives eulogizing him today will manifest selective amnesia. After all, they’ll be loath to note that, like me, WFB supported such liberal causes as abortion rights, gay rights, and the decriminalizing of drugs and prostitution.
He reportedly died at his home yesterday from complications of emphysema. He was 82.
RIP, WFB
Related Articles:
Times Obit of WFB
William F. Buckley, Jr
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