Posted by
GunnyG© on Saturday, March 01, 2008 4:47:14 AM
William F. Buckley (RIP)
The Father of Modern Conservatism as we all know, passed away at his desk, at 82 years of age, STILL HARD AT WORK! But it should be noted that he was a countermoonbattery warrior before we even KNEW we were at war with them. In June of 2004 (below link), he wrote:
"NATIONAL REVIEW is out of place, in the sense that the United Nations and the League of Women Voters and the New York Times and Henry Steele Commager are in place. It is out of place because, in its maturity, literate America rejected conservatism in favor of radical social experimentation. Instead of covetously consolidating its premises, the United States seems tormented by its traditions of fixed postulates having to do with the meaning of existence, with the relationship of the state to the individual, of the individual to his neighbor, so clearly enunciated in the enabling documents of our Republic.
'I
happen to prefer champagne to ditchwater,' said the benign old wrecker of the ordered society, Oliver Wendell Holmes, "but there is no reason to suppose that the cosmos does." We have come around to Mr. Holmes' view, so much that we feel gentlemanly doubts when asserting the superiority of capitalism to socialism, of republicanism to centralism, of champagne to ditchwater of anything to anything. (How curious that one of the doubts one is not permitted is whether, at the margin, Mr. Holmes was a useful citizen!) The inroads that relativism has made on the American soul are not so easily evident. One must recently have lived on or close to a college campus to have a vivid intimation of what has happened. It is there that we see how a number of energetic social innovators, plugging their grand designs, succeeded over the years in capturing the liberal intellectual imagination. And since ideas rule the world, the ideologues, having won over the intellectual class, simply walked in and started to run things."
In just two paragraphs, this countermoonbattery warrior savaged the left. This is the man who CREATED Nation Review back in a time when rampant liberalism was the "future" or so the pablum-pukers touted. THEY tore down capitalism and touted the joys of Socialism even as millions of humans were being slowly strangled to death by it in the former USSR, Cuba, Chad, Libya, East Germany, and now in places like Zimbabwe. In his lifetime, this warrior wrote more than 4.5 million words in 5,600 newspaper columns, on a BI-WEEKLY scale! This would fill about 30 large-sized books!
The right-wing of America should remeber that in the 50's, Conservatives were wandering in the wilderness and like Rodney Dangerfield said, "We got no respect!" We were the underdogs in America as the liberal media was busy touting FDR's socialist legacy even as many in the Truman Administration were bending over eagerly for the Soviets. We were on the right track with McCarthy but the libs managed to squash that with their media buddies. Americans DID NOT want the liberal pablum that scum like Acheson were pouring down their necks with the creation of the UN! The Right had great thinkers, with great ideas, but with no way to promulgate them. Enter William F. Buckley who slapped down the bones and added the flesh of ideas and thus, created the National Review. The Father of Modern Conservatives, of which the Gunny is a proud member, opened the vault of conservative thinking to America.
Perhaps this countermoonbattery warrior's GREATEST achievement was infusing conservatism with life and vigor, and creating a respectable system of conservative ideas, values, and beliefs that went TOE-to-TOE with the pablum-pukers in a liberal post-World War II America. Almost single-handedly, Mr Buckley rallied the right who then nominated Barry Goldwater in 1964! While Barry did not win (more's the pity), this fighting conservative LAID THE GROUNDWORK for the LARGEST landslide victory in United States history. That is, as we all know, when The Great Communicator crushed the commie-loving peanut farmer!
For a scathing analysis of conservatism v liberalism, Mr Buckley wrote: "For we offer, besides ourselves, a position that has not grown old under the weight of a gigantic, parasitic bureaucracy, a position untempered by the doctoral dissertations of a generation of Ph.D's in social architecture, unattenuated by a thousand vulgar promises to a thousand different pressure groups, uncorroded by a cynical contempt for human freedom. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leaves us just about the hottest thing in town." (The National Review) Mr Buckley was once asked why [then] Attorney General Bobby Kennedy had declined repeated invitations to appear on "Firing Line." he answered, "Why does the baloney reject the grinder?"
Can there be ANY DOUBT that those words cut right to the chase and not only exposed the scummbaggery of the left but then GUTTED AND FILLETED it, and made it a laughingstock for all to see? WHO can forget watching "Firing Line" and witnessing Mr. Buckley use his razor-sharp tongue and wit to expose the stupidity of the left and roast the weenies who rose to defend it. As a teenager, the Gunny often found himself caught up watching it (while channel surfing) not knowing that Mr Buckley was feeding the Conservative inside of him, creating another countermoonbattery warrior in the process. How MANY of us did Buckley create in his lifetime? Only God knows for sure but the Father of Modern Conservatism sowed the seeds in our brain housing groups WELL and his common-sense and to the point discussions ensured that the seeds took root and flourished.
In closing, the right-wing of America, owes Mr Buckley a HUGE DEBT for his tireless work that sounded BATTLE-STATIONS in the fight for the protection of our God-given rights, freedoms, the right to own PRIVATE property (the liberals were working AGAINST it even back then!) and he forged the right-wing into a new metal that was a political force to be reckoned with. Even as we're sold out by the RINOs today, we are able to IDENTIFY them due to the teachings of the Father of Modern Conservatism and thus, work to rid ourselves of their taint. In 1991, this countermoonbattery warrior was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but a few days ago, this outstanding paragon of Conservatism gained his eternal reward in Heaven. He WILL BE MISSED but rest assured, his work will continue through the men and women who's minds were seeded early on with the greatness of Conservative thinking. Our cause will never die.
Some of his accomplishments include: founding the National Review in 1955, the Young Americans for
Freedom in 1960, and 1,504 episode of "The Firing Line" that ran for THIRTY-THREE YEARS!
Bravo Zulu Warrior.