Bill Buckley Dead at 82

Even the New York Times agrees that William F. Buckley, Jr., dead at 82, was essential to the modern American conservative movement. Quoting Hugh Kenner, Douglas Martin writes:

“Without Bill — if he had decided to become an academic or a businessman or something else — without him, there probably would be no respectable conservative movement in this country.”

I’m not sure that Bill Buckley had many good ideas, but he put his head above the parapet and became, for 50 years, America’s Mr. Conservative. He made it difficult to assert that all conservatives were beetle-browed Torquemadas.

His high spirits, his kindness, his goodness, and his capacity for work were an inspiration to all.

His passing certainly emphasizes, as if we needed any reminding, that the conservative movement that grew out of Bill Buckley’s youthful enthusiasm in the 1950s, was joined by Jewish New York intellectuals in the late 1960s, was given national political power with Ronald Reagan, and was allied with ordinary religious people with the Christian Right, is now in retreat.

The call goes out now to a new generation to renew the conservative message, and Bill Buckley, always a sponsor of young talent, would be the first to second the call.