Lesson for today:
William Buckley was a CONSERVATIVE who successfully led the fight to make the Republican Party the repository of conservatism.
His loyalty was to conservatism, not to the Rockefeller/Lindsay school of Republicanism, aka Democrat-lite.
When he ran for mayor of New York, it was as a Conservative against a Republican liberal. Announcing his entry into the race, he said:
“The two-party system presupposes an adversary relationship between the two parties. That there is no such relationship in New York Mr. Lindsay makes especially clear when he proposes as running mates members of the Liberal and Democratic Parties. Mr. Lindsay’s Republican Party is a sort of personal accessory,. . . indifferent to the historic role of the Republican Party as standing in opposition to those trends of our time that are championed by the collectivist elements of the Democratic Party.”
Those words could be used today, substituting Lindsay with McCain.
It is sad that on the day William Buckley departed this world and the perpetual battlefield of good versus evil, the dark forces were in ascendancy.
Asked what is the first thing he would do if elected Mayor of New York, he said “Demand a recount.”
Maybe he can get the Man Upstairs to get us a recount/revote for these primaries.
The New York Times is already distorting his legacy and spinning things to slander Buckley. Their lack of respect is disgusting.