Posted on 06/29/2004 6:15:29 PM PDT by wagglebee
Fifty years ago, in 1954, Bill Buckley founded National Review magazine. In doing so he launched a challenge to the liberal establishment that had been in full control of the American political scene since 1932, when the Roosevelt revolution took the reins of government and began to dominate the political establishment.
At the time few thought a publication dedicated to the principles of traditional American conservatism had a chance to put so much as a dent in what was then considered to be liberalism's impenetrable armor. They were wrong. In a mere 10 years the forces marshaled by National Review (NR) captured control of the Republican Party and nominated the conservative iron man, Barry Goldwater as the party's presidential candidate. Goldwater lost, but the so-called liberal eastern establishment's iron fisted control of the GOP was over.
In early 1963 a group headed by Bill Rusher, then NR's publisher, put together a political operation designed to take the control of the 1964 GOP national convention. They decided to use Barry Goldwater as their weapon, with neither his permission nor his desire.
Rusher put the late F. Clifton White, a seasoned political operative, in charge of the campaign and raised the funds to finance his operation. White recruited a group of 21 Republicans then active in national politics to help get the movement underway.
At the time I was working for the House Republican Policy Committee and writing NR's "From Washington Straight" column under the name of Cato. During the 1960 Nixon presidential campaign I had worked with Jack Stiles, a close associate of Gerald Ford, who had a big hand in rounding up delegates to the GOP national convention that nominated Dick Nixon. He had amassed huge dossiers on every potential delegate to the 1960 convention. He knew exactly what buttons to push to win a delegate's vote.
After the election, Jack used an office I had in the National Press building as his Washington headquarters. He stored much of his records there, including all of that invaluable information about the delegates to the 1960 convention. On the theory that about 75 percent of the delegates to any convention had been delegates to the previous convention, I asked Jack if I could turn his records over to Cliff White and he agreed.
With those delegate records in hand, which included the most intimate financial and other details about each and every delegate, White and his team were able to put together a strong pro-Goldwater slate of delegates long before the convention ever got underway. He now had the information about what buttons to push and he pushed them.
There were bumps in the road. On the basis of misinformation Goldwater was unhappy with White's activities in his behalf and wanted to disavow him and his campaign. It was a serious blow to the campaign that could have ended the Goldwater movement before it ever got underway.
Bill Rusher smoothed things over and saved the White campaign, which in turn saved the Goldwater nomination.
In short, just about 100 percent of the credit for the Goldwater revolution, which wrested control of the GOP from the liberal Rockefeller wing, should go the National Review. It was their baby from the very beginning.
They laid the foundation by reviving what had been a dead conservative movement and making it possible for conservatives to have a respectable voice in political discourse. And they did the groundwork that gave conservatives control of the GOP.
In 1980 it was the heirs of the Goldwater revolution who nominated and helped elect Ronald Reagan, who freely admitted the debt he owed to Bill Buckley and National Review.
In its earliest days, NR had an astounding pool of intellectual talent gathered around Bill - Frank Meyer, James Burnham, Whitaker Chambers, and Russell Kirk to name just a few of the members of Bill's elegant braintrust.
Bill's enormously talented sister Priscilla Buckley was managing editor, a delight to work for, a kind and generous lady. Under her direction NR was far and away the best read publication around for anyone interested in lively and above all humorous political comment. This was the magazine that famously tweaked the New York Times ad for its classified section that bragged "I got my job through the New York Times" by running a picture of Fidel Castro under that caption.
The magazine was widely read and widely respected on Capitol Hill where it had a huge impact for a small circulation publication. I got a big kick out of hearing members unaware that I was Cato frequently quote items from the Cato column to me.
Anyway, the United States of America owes a huge debt to Bill Buckley who when he announced the founding of NR promised to stand "athwart history, yelling 'Stop,' at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who urge it.’"
And that's exactly what he did, and he changed America while doing it. Bye Bill, Dominus Vobiscum.
Has Buckley died? I haven't heard anything.
No, he simply gave up ownership of the magazine.
http://www.nationalreview.com/press/pr20040629.asp
Whew.
http://www.nationalreview.com/press/pr20040629.asp
A while back, I caught an episode of "The Match Game" from the 1970s on the Game Show Network. William F. Buckley's name was mentioned, and host Gene Rayburn talked about how intelligent and articulate Buckley is. Then he turned to the "celebrity" panel (i.e., former sitcom stars in the twilight of their careers) and said "it's too bad he's not on OUR side".
Yeah, but how many people over the age of 30 even know who all of these leftist gameshow celebs from the 70's are. I haven't seen anyone running around trying to look like Charles Nelson Reilly lately. But if you go to the "hall of fame" section of Newsmeat.com, you will see that the biggest "old-time" game-show guys (especially Merv Griffen and Bob Barker) are Republicans.
.....and let's not forget Ben Stein!
That goes without saying.
"A while back, I caught an episode of "The Match Game" from the 1970s on the Game Show Network. William F. Buckley's name was mentioned, and host Gene Rayburn talked about how intelligent and articulate Buckley is. Then he turned to the "celebrity" panel (i.e., former sitcom stars in the twilight of their careers) and said "it's too bad he's not on OUR side".
As another game show network watcher I can only say I'm sorry I missed that one!
Those are great shows, every single participant (except the ordinary contestant folks) is totally coked up. It's tremendous to watch them.
Have you ever seen some of the really old shows? It's great to watch the old "What's My Line". Everyone is addressed as Miss or Mr. and Bennet Cerf really nails 'em all the time.
I really like GSN, and I'm about to stop watcing Jeopardy if that ringer Ken Jennings doesn't lose SOON! I told hubby I'm going back to Family Feud and $25000 Pyramid.
I use to love watching Firing Line when I was a kid. We had an old round screen TV in the basement and I'd sit down there just glued.
Even as a kid, Mr. Buckley showed me that looking at politics logically instead of emotionally was the way to go.
The Mafia has always been well right of center.
My conversion from a young skull full of liberal mush occurred shortly after Reagan became president. It began when a magazine cover with one of those little corner banners highlighting special content caught my eye. It mentioned the name of William F. Buckley who I remembered from 1968 when as an 8th grade student I watched some nightly convention coverage (as I recall) with my father.
I remember watching one or two nights and being very impressed by Buckley's skill at handling Gore Vidal. I didn't really understand anything about politics at the time just that Buckley was very impressive. Sadly, I didn't get to watch on the coverage on the last night when, according to my dad, the exchanges between Buckley and Vidal became so heated that Buckley threatened to punch out Vidal's lights. I felt so cheated by missing this.
Years later I saw that magazine which turned out to be the National Review. I sat down with it and read the whole thing. It blew me away. The library where I found it allowed the circulation of periodicals over one year old. As well as reading all of the issues published within that one year period at the library, I checked out three issues at a time of those published over the three preceeding years.
It took me several months but after all those back issues, voila! I was a conservative, and a rabid one at that. Today I am a news and current events junkie. Every day with FR, Hannity, Rush, Townhall.com, and everything else I can find time for. I refuse to subscribe to cable TV because I strongly fear the prospect of staying up late EVERY NIGHT watching Fox News. I love to discuss and debate issues with the Rats where I work.
I am especially indebted to Buckley for the conversion. I did get to watch several years of Firing Line before it went out of production. The one thing I wish I could see a video of sometime is Rusher's old program, the name of which escapes me now (the Advocates???).
I must admit that I can remember when conservatism just wasn't widespread. I can clearly see its continual spread and I have high hopes that it will one day squash leftism. I have come to really loath leftists.
"Jim Buckley [was] elected to the Senate...
Is that the same Jim Buckley, the CIA station chief, that was murdered in Iran?
Ed
I tuned in to Rush yesterday in the middle of his tribute to Buckley and I thought the same thing until today when I remembered to check FR.
I wonder if he regrets siding with Jimmie Karter and other leftist idiots on the giveaway of the Panama Canal?
Unforunately, I became aware (over time) that Mr. Buckley was a NWO-type and proved it when he sided with Karter and other assorted leftists to give the Panama Canal away thereby lessening our security hedge in this hemisphere.
Such a handwringing over the evils of our depriving the Panamanians op their canal. Never considering that Panama was a a province of Columbia at the time many American lives were being lost in constructing the miracle.
It is true that the canal is incapable of lifting and moving the big ships, but the canal was of paramount strategic value to the Americas.
Now the PRC operates the canal under contract and who knows, or will admit, what is being unloaded from those sea cargo containers? It's certainly not components for Chinese-manufactured Tinkertoys.
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