Comments for William F. Buckley Against the World at http://www.thecatholicthing.org , comment 1 to 31 out of 20 comments http://www.thecatholicthing.org Sun, 26 May 2013 04:11:50 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14833 I have no doubt that CIA operatives, especially those as deep in slime as was Hunt, choose very carefully who their children's Godfather might be. Just saying, WFB needs more research. - Sue Sun, 09 Dec 2012 06:10:05 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14619 >During the Watergate scandal, Buckley underwrote his former >CIA boss Hunt's legal defense Hunt's children were Buckley's godchildren and he ended up taking care of them after Hunt went down because their mother had died in a plane crash. Yeah, awful that he would help out with his godchildren's father's legal defense. >Buckley is pretty much the only other guy besides Obama >to write his bio right out of college...why? Buckley never wrote a real autobiography. He did write books about his run for mayor of NYC and his time as a UN delegate, etc. - Jeremy Lott Fri, 30 Nov 2012 07:51:08 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14587 Lest we think the enemy of my enemy is my friend, the whole Bundy example is like putting up a bin Laden article criticising Obama - that the subject is debunked doesn't elevate the object. Two more fun facts about Buckley. "He was drafted into the Army in 1944, and upon his discharge in 1946 worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, where three of his siblings have also been employed. Buckley's immediate supervisor at CIA was E. Howard Hunt, who sent him to Mexico City, where he was charged with undermining the Mexican government. ... During the Watergate scandal, Buckley underwrote his former CIA boss Hunt's legal defense." NNDB Also, Buckley is pretty much the only other guy besides Obama to write his bio right out of college...why? Sorry, but there's a lot more research to do before sainting WFB. - Sue Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:40:34 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14566 @ Steve J: McGeorge Bundy was a career member of the liberal establishment, he was chairman of Yale's Liberal Party, and he served in the JFK and LBJ administrations (where his ineptitiude contributed mightily to the Vietnam fiasco). So of course he opposed and smeared Buckley...Buckley was countering the "Bundy's" at Yale. - Chris in Maryland Mon, 26 Nov 2012 06:02:51 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14564 When you say,"Rockefeller Republicans are pretty scarce on the ground these days", are we to assume that you left out "since Romney's defeat"? The only non-Rockefellerish presidential candidate I recall was Reagan. - Nearsited Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:52:25 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14563 "One More Joe" is demonstrating for us the very technique neocons have mastered to demolish the conservatives - the use of scare words to create a sort of "police line - do not cross" walled off atmosphere about a particular point of view. The sculpting of "McCarthy" as just this sort of boogeyman code word was what Buckley abetted in his running away from McCarthy. The subtext was, McCarthy had a viewpoint only a mother (or Buckley, the conservative pseudo-saint) could love....but that even Buckley had his limits. This message and its doubling down with the Birchers served to condition a whole generation to shy away from anyone who might espouse "dangerous" ideas like the notion there might just be fifth column infiltration of our own government and institutions. You might get cooties if you even associated with such people. A very effective way to propagandize with just one word, and you get to demoralize the opposition at the same time. Other than ad hominem lobs, I have heard little refutation of my propositions so far. In an academic debate, those points would go to me. - Sue Mon, 26 Nov 2012 03:24:30 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14557 God and Man at Yale was the 1st great post-war piece of consdervative agit-prop... ELITE VS. ELITE: BUNDY ON BUCKLEY I stumbled across a reference to McGeorge Bundy's review of William F. Buckley's God and Man at Yale and I found that it's online at the Atlantic. Bundy was at least the intellectual peer of Buckley and he also went to Yale undergrad. His review points out what is now a common weakness of conservative books: The recently published book, God and Man at Yale (Regnery, $3.50), written by William F. Buckley, Jr., a 1950 graduate of Yale University, is a savage attack on that institution as a hotbed of "atheism" and "collectivism." As a believer in God, a Republican, and a Yale graduate, I find the book is dishonest in its use of facts, false in its theory, and a discredit to its author and the writer of its introduction. In summary, Mr. Buckley's basic technique is that of a pretended firsthand report on the opinions and attitudes of Yale's teachers and textbooks, in which quotations and misquotations are given whatever meaning Mr. Buckley chooses to give them and not the meaning their authors intended. This method is dishonest. - Steve J. Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:01:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14555 Interesting comment from Diaperman. Are there really conservatives out there still who feel McCarthy and the John Birch Society got a raw deal? Whoever SUE is she proves you can lead an American citizen to water but you can't make them think. Frightening! - One More Joe Sun, 25 Nov 2012 19:09:42 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14554 Great post, thanks. I would argue the he and Richard John Neuhaus (First Things) are sipping scotch in heaven now and smiling at the liberal pyrrhic victory. We continue to "stand athwart." tjm - Tom Motherway Sun, 25 Nov 2012 17:28:45 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14552 1964, Johnson; 1968, Humphrey; 1972, McGovern; 1976 Carter. Humphrey is the only one I'm not ashamed of. Sorry I didn't vote for Goldwater--will always be grateful to Chairman Bill for acting as the steady drip of water in the tradition of Rabbi Akiva, for my seeing the light (along with Jimmy Carter's screwing up the nation). - David S. Levine Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:59:46 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14551 The Politico article mentioned compares Buckley favorably to Hill, not unfavorably, as the article implies. Any suggestion that Buckley was an intellectual of any sort is completely wrong. At no time did he attempt any serious effort at increasing the store of human knowledge in any intellectually serious discipline. Moreover, his first book, "God and Man at Yale" is saturated with anti-intellectualism. - policrit Sun, 25 Nov 2012 13:33:00 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14550 I believe Diaperman has put his finger on the point...the economic decline is murdering parts of the conservative base...and the Democrat party intends to keep it that way...maintain suffocating taxes on small businesses...then no growth...and no jobs for the "Reagan Democrats." - Chris in Maryland Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:11:41 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14549 Dear jsmitty: What facts support a claim that cities are booming? I have some recent access to 3 cities: NYC, Baltimore and Washington, DC. Of NYC, where my daughter goes to college, the city comptroller just published that the unemployment rate in Sep stood at 9.5%, up from 9.1% in Dec 2011. When we drove her up to school, we headed north on the upper end of The West Side Hwy, and we had to get off the road, because the pavement had completely eroded...it was like a dirt road. Because of budget cuts, garbage was piled in heaps on street corners of the trendy upper west side above Columbus Circle, and the city smelled to high heaven. Office vacancy rates continue to climb. And the State of NY just published its accumulated debt figure for FY12: $300 BILLION. Meanwhile, tax increases drive businesses and families out of the state. As to Baltimore...it looks much worse than NYC, and the state comptroller has taken to the radio airwaves warning citizens and the lunatics in Annapolis that businesses by the thousands have closed or left/continue to leave in the face of enormous tax increases. But Washington, DC...the "New Neverland," they're looking just fine...at least along K Street. - Chris in Maryland Sun, 25 Nov 2012 11:05:16 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14547 "... debating whether McCarthy got a fair hearing. Any wonder why the country has left us behind?" Here's why it matters about McCarthy. The neo-con establishment which lives on has transformed his name into a weapon to brandish against anyone who might be too conservative. On the other hand, they made Buckley into the positive icon, so that whenever you make a complaint against neo-cons, they can say "Even Bill Buckley believes..." and cite him as the "conservative" standard. Google "'Bill Buckley: Pied Piper of the Establishment'" to read an article that really cuts through a lot of the fog in this discussion. - Sue Sun, 25 Nov 2012 10:01:26 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14546 Yes, Buckley was with Bozell and McCarthy at one point, and then Bozell split from Buckley, over just such issues as we are discussing. Can't be specific now (no time), but Buckley was McCarthy's fair-weather friend. I am with Bozell pretty much down the line, thanks for bringing this true patriot in. - Sue Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:49:22 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14545 Opposition to abortion and support for traditional values was part of conservatism in Buckley's day and will remain so today. But I just ask you to consider, there is a reason that stuff you believe gets no traction...it's much much easier to tell a straightforward story of moral decline in the context of 1979 than today...not tell it in a way that you'd believe it but tell it in a way that the man on the street believes it. In 1979 you had soaring abortion divorce, urban crime rates, inflation, high unemployment and foreign policy fecklessness all at once and all after liberal ideas reigned unchecked politically from the GOldwater landslide on. Even Nixon was basically a liberal in practice. So it's easy to tell a story about these things in a way in which moral decline resonates with a large majority of Americans. But that was then...this is now. Today the biggest support for gay marriage and alot of support for abortion comes from very high earners in the Northeast, the West Coast and to a lesser extent the suburbs of Chicago, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Detroit etc. These people tend to live perfect bourgeois lives with very high rates of education, very high rates of participation in the labor force, very high rates of marriage, very low rates of divorce, an immense investment in time and treasure in their kids. These people used to support Reagan in droves and now they support Obama. You don't like this and I don't either but we need to be honest with ourselves that it is hard to tell them a story of moral decline in America. They don't see it and they don't feel it. Meanwhile in small town America, the areas which still support traditional values, you find blight, soaring illegitimacy, crystal meth use, less education, and far lower participation in the labor force. Many are on disability, recieve food stampps, EITC etc. because let's face it, there aren't many jobs and most of the jobs available don't pay much. (The best students have already moved to Chicago and DC seeking better opportunities) Don't believe me read Charles Murray's recent book "Losing Ground." It's hard to tell a straightforward story of moral decline today for conservatives because the decline has mostly spread to their own voting class. And this is why telling the story of the " half" of the country being dependent is asinine for conservatives. A big chunk of that "half" is their own voting base! This is a totally different scenario than when Buckley was around. Which is why the right needs to update itself to the problems of today. Think about this...Conservatives spinning 30 year old stories, recalling dead folk heroes and debating whether McCarthy got a fair hearing. Any wonder why the country has left us behind? - diaperman Sun, 25 Nov 2012 08:44:11 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14543 May I point out -- to those who indicate that WFB trashed McCarthy -- that the book he wrote with his brother-in-law, Brent Bozell, McCARTHY AND HIS ENEMIES (1954), was a strong defense of McCarthy and his anti-communism. Get your facts right, people. - Brad Miner Sun, 25 Nov 2012 07:43:27 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14542 ".. McCarthy was eventually right, HE DID NOT KNOW he was right..." How do YOU KNOW this? "...McCarthy's alcoholism..." could very well have been exacerbated by the Left's massive smear campaign: "Following his censure, McCarthy sunk into alcoholism from which he never recovered. " (senatormccarthy.com website) " Thus, the Left was able to discredit him by making him look like a fanatical bore." So, it did not help that Buckley piled on (style snob that he was), putatively from "the right", instead of affirming as true the *content* of McCarthy's prophetic message. "..Venona was so secret, not even the Presidents under which Venona operated knew of its existence..." Or so they claimed. (Eisenhower probably knew more than he let on. But his lips were sealed by his own complicity in the forced repatriation of Soviet soldiers post WWII.) But this information was knowable, and a few lone voices in the desert bravely put it forward. "As for the John Birch Society, their arguments are dressed in the same hyperbole of the Left.." Really? I find their information startingly relevant, trenchant, and totalitarian-targeting. Try googling one of their current articles "From Healthcare to Holocaust" - which traces a straight line from Bismarck to Obama on the subject of political medicine, for example. - Sue Sun, 25 Nov 2012 07:25:04 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14541 Dear jsmitty or @jsmitty if you prefer, the root of our most serious problems today (abortion being among the most serious) from obesity to lying to protect policy initiatives and the now obvious corruption of media is the lack of a moral model. Things are actually quite bad and trending downward at an accelerating pace. The natural consequences of profligacy and immorality have been temporarily screened from public view by taking money (goods and services) from the future to feed a sick dependency in the present. The unemployment is not 8% actually. We have agreed to represent it as such. Your characterization of the Tea Party movement and what motivates them is cheap bigotry. You have passion and God given intelligence, but you seem blind to the reality and implications of Original Sin - especially as it applies to a government attempting (and so far successfully) to break its restraints one by one. Mr. Buckley understood the grave moral danger of this. You seem to miss this point. The message of common decency gets no traction today because slightly more than half the population and their advocates and the purveyors of their culture don’t believe in it. Welcome to Potterville. - Other Joe Sun, 25 Nov 2012 02:46:09 +0100 http://www.thecatholicthing.org/columns/2012/william-f-buckley-against-the-world.html#comment-14539 @graham combs. The Tea Party doesn't really want a decrease in govt. power and influence. Yes maybe a few members do and certainly their main funders do but that is beside the point. The committment to small government is purely rhetorical, as is the refrain about the Constitution and "founding principles." The Tea Party is mainly about protecting government benefits for the elderly which they think are threatened by the Obamacare and other Obama administration spending priorities. Given the fact that retirement benefits are already the most expensive non-defense item in the budget and that Medicare is the fastest growing part of the budget there's just no way a movement centered around defending this as is can be said to be small government. We need to be honest with ourselves about this sham. Buckley would have seen through the facade. The Tea Party can be said to be truly "small government conservative" when it starts demanding cuts in its own retirement benefits for the sake of reducing the indebetedness of the US, not until. Buckley would have been honest enough to note that it is just as much "socialism" to demand government run health care in old age (Medicare!) as it is to provide far more modest support in it for non retired Americans. The Tea Party likes socialism just fine when it is the beneficiary of it. Time was, Reagan and Buckley denounced Medicare as socialized medicine. Now their admirers cling to Medicare benefits and have the gall to use small government rhetoric in doing so. Today's "conservatism" is the world turned upside down. - jsmitty Sat, 24 Nov 2012 20:27:28 +0100