Reader “jack” has tried to make a big deal of the fact that I did not start out as a libertarian conservative, that he has been a conservative far longer than I, and therefore, my calls for a rigid and principled opposition to liberalism whether on the left or in the GOP/conservative community is neither intelligent nor historically based.
Well, William F. Buckley has been a conservative longer, better, and more intelligently than “jack” can remotely dream of, and he disagrees with Jack’s “vote for evil, as long as it is GOP evil” strategy.
The Corner on National Review Online
..The question that hotly follows is why. Why does the Opposition Party refuse to offer a genuine opposition? At this juncture the Statists leap to their most favorite answer to the query. They tell us that the anarchistic, uncivilized, uncharitable rugged individualism associated with the pre-Roosevelt era is forever discredited by the American people. The social revolution of the New Deal is a fait accompli and no political party could rally any enthusiasm in 1952 for a genuinely anti-Statist program.
…And yet, there has been no dramatic showdown. There is no tangible proof that the Republican Party would indeed fail to win over the people to a platform of freedom. And even if it should fail, it would have succeeded in alerting the people to the fact that there still exists, in theory at least, an alternative to State Paternalism. And this would seem to be a noble enough and a traditional service for a political party whose birth and early success grew out of its refusal to condone human slavery.
One thing we know: in the past we have temporized with collectivism, and we have lost.
And after ‘the campaigns were over, we were left not with the exhilaration and pride of having done our best to restore freedom, but with the sickening humiliation of having failed to seduce the American people because we were pitted against a more glib, a more extravagant, a more experienced gigolo.
That is jack entirely: Pimping for the collectivist gigolo because the gigolo happens to be a card-carrying member of the GOP.
Submit to Stumbled Upon!
Bill, why do you act as if I think it’s good?
I’ve said over and over again that it’s not.
It’s just better than the left having free reign.
I’m looking at this as if it’s a two front war while you, it seems to me, feel that you have the luxury of fighting one one front at a time.
But my stance is moot–we’re locked into yours.
I just hope there are good people willing to stand up in ‘10 now.
And, as much as Buckley is a conservative fixture, I’d still like to see who he actually voted for before taking him at his word. Too many become way more conservative AFTER the election than they were in the voting booth.