http://themoderatevoice.disqus.com/enWed, 27 Feb 2008 13:33:10 -0000http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/conservatism/18056/william-f-buckley-jr-dies-at-82/#comment-184619<p>I have not commented at TMV in a while...death in the family back home...but feel I should say something about Buckley.</p><p>Growing up in another country, he WAS American conservatism for me.</p><p>Way back when I was a kid, there were only 3 conservatives visible across the U.S. media landscape - the 2 tokens tolerated by liberals as signs of their openess...Safire at the NYT, and Will at the Post/ABC...and the heroic Buckley, who compelled the respect of liberals by sheer charm and force of intellect.</p><p>Week after week on "Firing Line" he would confound the smugness of a then preeminent liberal elitism...his mishiveous grin as he would leisurely lean back in his chair with legs crossed to make a point, and then...leaning forward...oh-so-politely eviscerate his unwitting victim.</p><p>In contrast to the "upper-class twit of the year" conservatives I despised at home, his was a conservatism to admire...iconocolastic, relentlessly searching and intellectually rigourous. Case in point, his support for the decriminalization of marijuana.</p><p>It is very sad that he has passed, as there seems to have passed with him an era of greatness in American political discourse. </p>MacanWed, 27 Feb 2008 13:33:10 -0000http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/conservatism/18056/william-f-buckley-jr-dies-at-82/#comment-184613<p>WFB, RIP. </p>GeorgeSorwellWed, 27 Feb 2008 13:31:03 -0000http://themoderatevoice.com/politics/conservatism/18056/william-f-buckley-jr-dies-at-82/#comment-184284<p>Damn: I loved his style. Read his book, reviewed here: <a href="http://www.cosmoetica.com/B302-DES242.htm" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://www.cosmoetica.com/B302-DES242.htm">http://www.cosmoetica.com/B...</a></p><p>Damn, now that pointy-headed twit George Will will claim to be the dean of the Right!</p>cosmoeticaWed, 27 Feb 2008 12:01:28 -0000