If not for Bill Buckley, I doubt the Free Republic or Rush Limbaugh or any number of conservative mainstays would be around. Or, if they were, they would be completely marginalized. Rush and Hannity and Savage and O'Reilly and Hewitt and Boortz, etc. would not be drawing 30 million listeners a week if not for Buckley and the foundation he laid.
you are SO correct -- someone had to be that "voice in the wilderness" -- like Buckley....Goldwater, Reagan, Kemp, etc all rode on his ample coattails...