RIP William F. Buckley.
Well, I wish my first post here was for a happier occasion, but, as I noted in an off-topic comment below, conservative icon William F. Buckley, Jr. has died. Whether or not you agreed with everything the man ever wrote (and I did not), it’s undeniable that he was a massively influential figure in the national debate, and a pretty classy one at that.
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More here.
Would that Al Franken and Ann Coulter engaged in fisticuffs.
Yeah, check out this video of Buckley and Gore Vidal (parts one and two). I just can’t believe television stations used to run things like that. Nowadays, when a news station wants “political commentary” they just throw Al Franken and Ann Coulter on a split screen and let them yell at each other for a minute.
Then again, there’s this video where Vidal calls Buckley a “crypto-Nazi” and Buckley threatens to punch him in the face. Sigh.
Amadeus:
I’ve seen that video before, and I totally agree with you. I wouldn’t disagree that Buckley was a bit pompous, but he was a political figure possessed of an eloquence that is rare these days, of which that video serves as ample proof.
Ilya Somin’s post is a good obit as well, I think.
In the spirit of Dan’s note on the passing of Reagan, my first thought was “History stands athwart Buckley; yells Stop.”
I wouldn’t say that William F. Buckley’s views were mine, but it is sad of his passing. I aways saw him as more of a pompous figure than “classy” one, but we all see what we see. I will say that as a student of political science and a lsupporters of civil political discourse, I appreciate what he brought.
I will leave you with one of my favorite videos of William F. Buckley and Noam Chomsky having a civil debate. Though I am sure you aren’t a fan of Chomsky, you can appreciate these two guys in their early years going at it in the most “classy” way. Something we don’t and probably will never see again on the likes of FNC, CNN, MSNBC, etc
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VYlMEVTa-PI
RIP WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY