Willam F. Buckley Has Died

Posted February 27th, 2008 at 12:50 PM by John Bramfeld
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On February 27th, 2008 at 01:53 PM, Ex-Maroon (not verified) said:

Very sad. He was a tremendous conservative. I'm glad I got a chance to hear him speak. But footage of him debating on the Firing Line is what will stay with me. Few could hang with him long.

On February 27th, 2008 at 05:10 PM, John Bramfeld said:

Mr. Buckley stood with Ronald Reagan as prime mover and  foundation of modern conservatism; not just by power of reason, which they both had in abundance, but by power of personality and spirit, traits they also shared.  Buckley was also a polymath, and benefitted from conservative hyperactivity disorder.   I had the good fortune to meet Mr. Buckley on his final speaking tour at Wabash College and to introduce him to my son who had been accepted into the freshman class there.  It was a delightful speech and a great evening for us both.

John

On February 27th, 2008 at 08:43 PM, Anonymous (not verified) said:

Without him conservatives would not have the voice they have today, he will be missed.

ScottTapley's picture
On February 28th, 2008 at 10:32 PM, ScottTapley said:

A great, conservative and intellectual heavyweight...R.I.P.

Kevin Sandefur's picture
On February 29th, 2008 at 07:02 AM, Kevin Sandefur said:

I always liked Bill, though I'm damned if I know why.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

GORE VIDAL: You must realize what some of the political issues are here. There are many, even in the United States [who] happen to believe that the United States policy is wrong in Vietnam and the Viet Cong are correct in wanting to organize their country in their own way politically. This happens to be pretty much the opinion of Western Europe and many other parts of the world. If it is a novelty in Chicago, that is too bad, but I assume that the point of the American democracy…

WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY: And some people were pro-Nazi, too, some people were pro-Nazi.

GV: …is you can express any point of view you want. Shut up a minute.

WFB: No I won’t. Some people were pro-Nazi, and the answer is they were well-treated by people who ostracized them, and I’m for ostracizing people who egg on other people to shoot American Marines and American soldiers. I know you don’t care, because you don’t have any sense of identification…

GV: As far as I am concerned, the only sort of pro- or crypto-Nazi I can think of is yourself. Failing that,…

MODERATOR: Let’s not call names.

GV: …I would only say that we can’t have the right of assembly…

WFB: Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi…

MOD: Let’s stop calling names and let’s get…

WFB: …or I’ll sock you in the goddam face and you’ll stay plastered.

MOD: Gentlemen, let’s…

WFB: Let the author of Myra Breckenridge go back to his pornography and stop making any allusions of Nazism…

MOD: I beg you to…

WFB: …to someone who served in the infantry in the last war and…

GV: You were not in the infantry, as a matter of fact, you didn’t fight…

END OF CLIP

 

On February 29th, 2008 at 07:39 AM, History Guy said:

On February 29th, 2008 at 06:02 AM, Kevin Sandefur said:  "I always liked Bill, though I'm damned if I know why."
 
maybe because, even though he disagreed with people politically or ideologically, he was never (as far as I know) one to make it personally, like current "pundits" such as Coulter and her ilk.
 
I mean, listen to the clip you posted:  he verbally threatens to hit someone, and he's polite about it!
 
 
 
 
HG

On February 29th, 2008 at 01:28 PM, John Bramfeld said:

Anybody who found Gore Vidal hard to take, especially while calling one a crypto-nazi, can't be all bad.  I think Mr. Buckley called Vidal a queer because, in addition to being ahead of his time, he needed to explain why he wasn't going to actually bother hitting him.

I want to thank Kevin for bringing up this exchange.  It reminds me why Monica Lewinsky should feature prominently at Bill Clinton's funeral.

John

Kevin Sandefur's picture
On February 29th, 2008 at 08:04 PM, Kevin Sandefur said:

"I want to thank Kevin for bringing up this exchange.  It reminds me why Monica Lewinsky should feature prominently at Bill Clinton's funeral."

I don't know about the funeral, but it will certainly be fair game for any and all of the commentary.

As for the Buckley/Vidal exchange, I remember watching it live on tv as it happened in 1968.  The two of them had a series of "debates" as part of the live on-screen analysis during the Democratic convention that year.

I was a few months shy of 14 at the time, and convinced I was watching the world come to an end on tv.  This was, after all, the year that started and ended with the Pueblo.  Bobby had been shot just a few months before the convention, and Martin just a couple months before that.

Our major cities had been in flames for two straight summers.   I'd watched Soviet tanks in the streets of Prague, and American tanks in the streets of Detroit.  And every night, Vietnam was the background to our dinner.  On the convention floor, Daley's personal bodyguards beat up a CBS reporter on live tv just for daring to ask hizzoner a question, and outside the convention, Grant Park was absolute chaos.

It was an amazing time to come of age, and this exchange was one of the images forever burned into my memory in stark relief.  I can't think of either man without remembering it.

On March 7th, 2008 at 12:27 PM, khan said:

He had a masterful command of the english language.  Interesting clip with Vidal.  WFB is a bit deceptive when he refers to his military service as "infantry",  I wonder if he regreted saying that.

the Artichoke's picture
On March 8th, 2008 at 02:15 PM, the Artichoke said:

I by no means agreed with much of Mr. Buckley's politics, but I had the highest regard for his command of the language. In a day when many of the younger citizens speak a rather clipped form of english--perhaps a result of text messaging--his eloquence, wit, and intelligence will be sorely missed. I always enjoyed his barbed and lively conversations/confrontations; although I would hate to be on the pointy end of the exchange. You may not be aware of the autobiography he published just four years ago: Miles Gone By: A Literary Autobiography, Regnery Press, 2004. I have not as yet read it; it is a hefty tome and I look forward to it. It won the Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association.  Thought some of you might be interested.