Posted on 02/27/2008 3:25:28 PM PST by Syncro
WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY: R.I.P., ENFANT TERRIBLE
February 27, 2008
William F. Buckley was the original enfant terrible.
As with Ronald Reagan, everyone prefers to remember great men when they weren't being great, but later, when they were being admired. Having changed the world, there came a point when Buckley no longer needed to shock it.
But to call Buckley an "enfant terrible" and then to recall only his days as a grandee is like calling a liberal actress "courageous." Back in the day, Buckley truly was courageous. I prefer to remember the Buckley who scandalized to the bien-pensant.
Other tributes will contain the obvious quotes about demanding a recount if he won the New York mayoral election and trusting the first 100 names in the Boston telephone book more than the Harvard faculty. I shall revel in the "terrible" aspects of the enfant terrible.
Buckley's first book, "God and Man at Yale," was met with the usual thoughtful critiques of anyone who challenges the liberal establishment. Frank Ashburn wrote in the Saturday Review: "The book is one which has the glow and appeal of a fiery cross on a hillside at night. There will undoubtedly be robed figures who gather to it, but the hoods will not be academic. They will cover the face."
The president of Yale sent alumni thousands of copies of McGeorge Bundy's review of the book from the Atlantic Monthly calling Buckley a "twisted and ignorant young man." Other reviews bordered on the hyperbolic. One critic simply burst into tears, then transcribed his entire crying jag word for word.
Buckley's next book, "McCarthy and His Enemies," written with L. Brent Bozell, proved that normal people didn't have to wait for the Venona Papers to be declassified to see that the Democratic Party was collaborating with fascists. The book -- and the left's reaction thereto -- demonstrated that liberals could tolerate a communist sympathizer, but never a Joe McCarthy sympathizer.
Relevant to Republicans' predicament today, National Review did not endorse a candidate for president in 1956, correctly concluding that Dwight Eisenhower was not a conservative, however great a military leader he had been. In his defense, Ike never demanded that camps housing enemy detainees be closed down.
Nor would National Review endorse liberal Republican Richard Nixon, waiting until 1964 to enthusiastically support a candidate for president who had no hope of winning. Barry Goldwater, though given the right things to say -- often by Buckley or Bozell, who wrote Goldwater's "Conscience of a Conservative" -- was not particularly bright.
But the Goldwater candidacy, Buckley believed, would provide "the well-planted seeds of hope," eventually fulfilled by Ronald Reagan. Goldwater was sort of the army ant on whose body Reagan walked to greatness. Thanks, Barry. When later challenged on Reagan's intellectual stature, Buckley said: "Of course, he will always tend to reach first for an anecdote. But then, so does the New Testament."
With liberal Republicans still bothering everyone even after Reagan, Buckley went all out against liberal Republican Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. When Democrat Joe Lieberman challenged Weicker for the Senate in 1988, National Review ran an article subtly titled: "Does Lowell Weicker Make You Sick?"
Buckley started a political action committee to support Lieberman, explaining, "We want to pass the word that it's OK to vote for the other guy or stay at home." The good thing about Lieberman, Buckley said, was that he "doesn't have the tendency of appalling you every time he opens his mouth."
That same year, when the radical chic composer Leonard Bernstein complained about the smearing of the word "liberal," Buckley replied: "Lenny does not realize that one of the reasons the 'L' word is discredited is that it was handled by such as Leonard Bernstein." The composer was so unnerved by this remark that, just to cheer himself up, he invited several extra Black Panthers to his next cocktail party.
When Arthur Schlesinger Jr. objected to his words being used as a jacket-flap endorsement on one of Buckley's books in 1963, Buckley replied by telegram:
"MY OFFICE HAS COPY OF ORIGINAL TAPE. TELL ARTHUR THAT'LL TEACH HIM TO USE UNCTION IN POLITICAL DEBATE BUT NOT TO TAKE IT SO HARD: NO ONE BELIEVES ANYTHING HE SAYS ANYWAY."
In a famous exchange with Gore Vidal in 1968, Vidal said to Buckley: "As far as I am concerned, the only crypto Nazi I can think of is yourself."
Buckley replied: "Now listen, you queer. Stop calling me a crypto Nazi, or I'll sock you in your goddamn face and you'll stay plastered."
Years later, in 1985, Buckley said of the incident: "We both acted irresponsibly. I'm not a Nazi, but he is, I suppose, a fag."
Read more at AnnCoulter.com
God bless William F. Buckley. Ann when you read this, you can write my eulogy too!
His office looks like mine (LOL). I loved his sarcastic wit.
Nah, that guy has a great bod.
I saw him at a lecture series when I was in college -- it's true that he had a persona that leaves audiences spellbound.
He was such a talented intellectual, but also enjoyed living. He was a prototypical Renaissance man.
Thanks for that great link. It’s enough to keep me busy reading for weeks. WFB and his wonderfully acerbic wit shall be sorely missed.
“When asked if he had “referred to Jesse Jackson as an ignoramus,” Buckley said, “If I didn’t, I should have.” “
I wish I was witty like that.
Kudos to Ann—the esteemed Mr. Buckley was found dead this morning, and she cranked out this column by this dinnertime.
Was Weicker a conservative in 1964? He just learned how liberal CT is and what it takes to survive there.
No worries..wit has a way of rubbing off, especially if you hang around Freepers long enough. (grin)
No doubt, Mr. Buckley would have enjoyed Ann Coulter’s column today.
Indeed - WFB was one of the greatest influences of my life. I was always captivated by the exquisite tongue lashings he gave to inane liberals on Firing Line. WFB snatched Conservatism from the moderate miasma and left all of us with a rich legacy - starting with Ann Coulter.
Thank you, Ann! A nice tribute to a truly great man!
LOLOL!!! I had a very, very liberal professor in college who referred to Buckley as “The Triumph of Style over Substance.” Needless to say, I never donate to my liberal, public alma matre.
I bought my husband a book on obsolete vocabulary Buckley had used over the years. I grew to really appreciate him, and his son’s movie “Thank you for Smoking” was funnier considering which family he came from.
“Cordially”...
Balderdash. My mother, a propah bostonian (rather than a Haavaadite) always signed “Cordially”. She never heard of WFB until rather late in life.
B.
I recall watching incredulously that famous exchange between WFB and Vidal live on TV. Calling someone a queer on TV in those days was not done. I laughed my ass off.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Ahhh!! But wouldn't you love to!!
I, good sir, owe much to your humour and perspicacity.
Neat photos of our Ann!
Barbra Streisand!!!!!!
“Ironic that Ann knows what L’enfant terrible means. Since her picture is in the dictionary next the the definition.” She also uses “bien-pensant.’ Dunno what that means. I’m too lazy to look it up.
Yes it is ironic; ironic too that some on the right hold AC up as some kind of fellow traveller in their war against the “elites.” When was the last time you heard “l’enfant terrible” and “bien-pensant” used in ordinary conversation outside of the dry-martini, cocktails-at-five, Beltway crowd?
Once, when told that Teddy Kennedy, after someone praised him, said “I am humbled”, Buckley said with his impish grin, “He has much to be humble about.”
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