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Christopher Buckley, the son of conservative icon William F. Buckley, said Tuesday he’s resigned from the conservative National Review days after endorsing Barack Obama’s White House bid, among the most powerful symbols yet of the conservative discontent expressed this election cycle.
In an online column, Buckley said he had decided to offer his resignation from the magazine his father founded after hundreds of readers and some National Review colleagues expressed outrage he was backing the Illinois senator.
“While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for,” Buckley wrote….
In his column Tuesday, Buckley expressed disappointment the magazine, and conservatives in general, were not more open to dissenting opinions that his own father once championed.
My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman,” he said, adding later, “My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much.”
There comes a time to make a statement. I think his is a fairly powerful one.
What do you think Dad would say?
Thanks, K B
The best tee hee in this tempest in a teacup is Buckley’s quote from his father about American conservatives:
“Buckley quoted his father as saying, ‘You know, I’ve spent my entire lifetime separating the Right from the kooks.'”
What do you think Dad would say?
“The central question that emerges . . . is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas in which it does not prevail numerically? The sobering answer is Yes–the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the cultural superiority of White over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists.”
National Review, August 1957.
What a great man. Incredibly intelligent and forward looking.
The NR and its NRO online toddler playground knows enough to use code when discussing The Negro Problem in 2008.
I didn’t leave the Republican party it left me.
I was a huge Buckley family fan back when the GOP was not made up of crooks, liars and right wingnuts.
It is great to see that my respect of the Buckley family lives on as they put country ahead of politics. I wish others in the GOP rank grew a pair.
I was a huge Buckley family fan back when the GOP was not made up of crooks, liars and right wingnuts.
Yeah, back when they were simply racists. Good times, good times.
The scientists have already figured this out:
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=organization-and-political-leanings
“right wingnuts”
Who knew? “wingnut” is now a word meaning “right-wing extremist”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingnut_(politics)
Learn something new every day!
#2 Noam Sane, you could replace White with Rich and get to the core of Repuke Philosophy today !!!
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith
And a few months ago he was writing how it was important for everyone to support McCain.
One of the main reasons Buckley cites is that even though Obama has no experience, his writings show his great intellect. Well, someone should tell Buckley that Obama didn’t write his autobiography. It may even have been ghostwritten by William Ayers.
I think his dad would agree that the Conservative movement is in search of itself. The existance of the Neo-Cons, and the election of Bush is your result.
McCain is an attempt to get back to where they once were (at least he’s a real conservative)
#10 MikeN, Oh! Please! It may also have been written by Stephen King, Maya Angelou or Jessica Simpson. You could speculate all day.
The point is that this bastion of Republican thought is as disillusioned as the rest of the country.
On another note, I am hearing that John McCain’s speeches are written by Wily E. Coyote. It would make some sense…
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/opinion/19buckley.html
Buckley’s column essentially endorsing McCain.
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/more_proof_ayers_ghosted.htm
#4, Dallas, “back when the GOP was not made up of crooks, liars and right wingnuts.”
When exactly was that? The very first GOP president got the United States involved in its bloodiest conflict to date, while suspending hapeous corpus, all based on some unidentifiable language in the Constitution that forbids succession. Not that the Democrats have been much better. The last one with his head screwed on halfway straight was JFK, but to find a one more than halfway, you have to go back to Jefferson. Note that both of these had zipper problems.
All political parties are made up primarily of crooks, liars and wingnuts. I’d go so far as to day that the human race has a similar makeup.
But, I applaude Mr. Buckley. He made the right decision, and for the right reasons. Obama isn’t the best thing since sliced bread, but he is clearly the best thing with a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the office.
#2 — In all fairness, Bill Buckley later openly regretted his support for segregation as an error in judgment on his part.
We need reminding that Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, Lyndon Johnson was a Democrat. Which camp they’re in, is irrelevant.
#15 “The very first GOP president got the United States involved in its bloodiest conflict to date, while suspending hapeous corpus, all based on some unidentifiable language in the Constitution that forbids succession.”
Truth. It could be considered criminal since the Constitution doesn’t forbid States from the leaving the Union.
#15 I was being polite to my republican friends here but point taken.
I suppose Abraham Lincoln was a good republican so we may have to go back that far. At least that’s what I learned in school…. But then again, I went to Catholic School in Lowell Mass and admonished that my palms would grow hair- nutt’n happened. Trust me, I’ve tested that theory many many times.
“But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr.”
I would ask anyone, including Buckley, what evidence is there to support such “hope”? Obama has acted, spoken, and voted consistently radical Leftist his entire public life. He said he would suspend his tax increases were the economy in trouble (implicitly admitting that tax increases harm the economy). The economy is certifiably in trouble at the moment and he has not said he is ready to drop his tax increases. How much more trouble need there be?
#20 Arguing points of logic with libs is like explaining quantum physics to a 3 year old…
#8: Wikipedia is not a totally trustworthy source of information, or definitions. “Wingnuts” of the political kind can be left wing, right wing, or for that matter libertarian wingnuts, as long as they’ve taken their opinions far beyond where that particular political wing normally goes. After all, there are many on the far Left that are just as loony as the far Right, but each wing tend to be loony in different ways.
I tend to be liberal and am voting for Obama this time, but reserve the right to split my ticket in this election or any other if a Republican is the best person for any political job.
Christopher Buckley is following in his father’s footsteps, and is backing Obama as the right man for the job, for now. He has that right. He also has the right to change his mind, as do we all.
There is hope for the right yet. The so-called “values” conservatives (and the military interventionist neo-cons) have destroyed the clear thinking and principled right wing of American politics.
#21 = O’Pinocchio
>>Arguing points of logic with libs is like explaining
>>quantum physics to a 3 year old…
You’re becoming very tiresome, O’Furniture, with your continuing juvenile ad hominem attacks on people who are more intelligent than you.
I realize you are disappointed that McCain and Palin are going down the crapper. Maybe if Hank Williams Jr. had stuck to beating waitresses instead of putting that god-awful video up on YouTube, it might have been different. Or not.
In any case, it’s no cause to get pissy.
#24 “Not a peep about this “story” (using the term loosely) in any credible publication.”
Both, including Omama.
Mustard, you’ve misread Paddy-O if you think he’s a knee-jerk liberal hater. MikeN on the other hand…
And this is why a nation with two dominant factions is never a good idea. At best the loudest, most corrupt, self entitled and extremist will eventually take over on both sides whereas the majority which usually is made out of moderates on both sides will be silenced and forced to choose one side wether they like it or not.
#18, Constitutional Expert,
Truth. It could be considered criminal since the Constitution doesn’t forbid States from the leaving the Union.
Whoa !!! Well then how about you point out where in the Constitution it states that Congress is not allowed to regulate CEO wages. You made that claim too.
#19, Dallas,
I’ve got clean palms. They told me it would make me go blind. So I just did it until I needed glasses.
8)
Hell has, in fact, frozen over.
#20, he gets the intellect based on the superb writing in Obama’s book. My link above has an analysis which suggests it was written by William Ayers. The known original works of Barack Obama are not impressive, 2 poems and an unsigned edited note in the Harvard Law Review, do not indicate a great literary ability.
# 32 MikeN said, in part:
“#20, he gets the intellect based on the superb writing in Obama’s book. My link above has an analysis which suggests it was written by William Ayers.”
Excuse me, but that’s so ridiculous that it is now impossible to take anything you say seriously from now on — you might as well claim the ghostwriter was the team of Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels, or even SATAN HIMSELF!!!!!