Conservative Blogger: RIP, WFB...

The great columnist George Will once wrote, "All great biblical stories begin with Genesis. And before there was Ronald Reagan, there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry Goldwater there was National Review, and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley with a spark in his mind, and the spark in 1980 has become a conflagration."

I've read that quote in a lot of places today, and it still makes as distinct impression an on me as it did the first time I heard it.

There isn't a conservative alive today that doesn't owe something to William F. Buckley.

Be it on radio, television, newspapers, magazines or even here on the internet...modern-day conservatism wouldn't exist without Bill Buckley.

I've always credited several inspirations for my conservatism, and not necessarily in this order:

Ronald Reagan
Barry Goldwater
Rush Limbaugh
Howard F. Smith, Jr. (my father)
William F. Buckley, Jr.

Reagan was my introduction to conservatism in 1980 when I was in the sixth grade. In high school as I learned more about Goldwater, I gained an infinite respect for the man. As I came into the working world, I was introduced to Limbaugh which brought conservatism a whole new level and audience. As I learned more, I realized that the ideals I "learned" from Reagan, Goldwater and Limbaugh were the things my own father had been trying to teach me all along.

While I certainly learned a lot from all of them, I was always fascinated by Buckley's intellect and his remarkable clarity. When he spoke, people really did stop to listen. He could silence a whole room of people with a single thought, and that's what set Buckley apart from his contemporaries and his adversaries.

One of my favorite Buckley moments is in this television clip. (Hat tip: Hot Air) Buckley debates Gore Vidal during televised coverage of the Democrat National Convention in 1968 and...well...manages to utter this fine piece of prose when called a "pro crypto-Nazi" by Vidal:

"Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I will sock you in your goddamn face, and you will stay plastered."

(If you are unable to view the embedded smackdown of Gore Vidal, please click here.)

The body of William F. Buckley was found this morning in his study, behind his desk, where he had been working on a new book. He was 82.

While I'm certainly no Buckley (and nor would I ever claim to be), this blog and all those like it are a tribute to his ideas and to the man himself. He was, without question, one of a kind. One of my great disappointments in life now is that I never had the chance to meet Mr. Buckley or even see him speak in person.

Time for me to find a copy of "God and Man at Yale."

Godspeed, WFB. Thanks for the education. It's better than anything I could have received at any college or university.

William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com

Posted by WilliamSmith on February 27, 2008 10:36 PM to Conservative Blogger