Buckley was but the father of modern Conservative Orthodoxy. The origin of the modern, corrupt Republican Party.
You know, the fools who accepted into their fold the Neocons.
Those who advocate Open Borders, Endless War and Free Trade.
Those who are drunk on the blood of the American Soldier and American worker.
The real father of American Conservatism is Russell Kirk.
“The real father of American Conservatism is Russell Kirk.”
Kirk’s seminal The Conservative Mind was published before NR began, proving your point. And he was there at the beginning of National Review.
I didn’t start reading NR until the 70s... but it introduced me to some real conservative intellectuals who had come before or were still writing... James Burnham, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Stephen Tonsor, Mel Bradford, Robert Nisbet, Richard Weaver...