RIP Mr. Conservative

I recall when I was no more than Lex Jr’s age, being in the room while mom and dad looked at a 19” black and white TV listening to some guy with a weird accent, not British, not New England, not New York, not really like anything. My thoughts then were, geez all these guys are doing is talking, why don’t they do that on the radio so the TV time could be used for more appropriate programs – cartoons.

The guy with cool accent was William F. Buckley Jr. and show was Firing Line. I used to watch the show later in life and marvel how Buckley could dissect a foe so precisely and with such a gentle hand that, at the end, his opponents often resembled cartoon characters. They didn’t know they’d been sliced and diced until they stood up and checked themselves for wounds. Then finding none, they'd smile and say, “see, he never touched me”. It’s only after the character takes a step and falls into a 1,000 tiny pieces that they know just how finely they’d been chopped.

I see a perfect political cartoon for Buckley’s passing. Panel one: A cheerful and young Buckley is carrying the baby GOP elephant through the wilderness on his back. Panel two: Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan pitch in to help Buckley, while fending off wild animals like the John Birch Society and Lowell Wicker bent on destroying the young elephant. Last Panel: The elephant has grow with huge tusks labeled National Defense and stands on four strong legs labeled personal freedom, personal responsibility, low taxes and American exceptionalism. The elephant crashes through the wilderness knocking down trees labeled big government, nanny stateism, communism, terrorism and government regulation. On the elephant’s back now are scores of conservatives from Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich to John McCain, Bill Kristol and Laura Ingraham but right up front just behind the elephant’s ears is the ever cheerful William F. Buckley Jr.