Redstate

Posted at 11:04am on Apr. 4, 2008 Up From Mediocrity

William F. Buckley Jr. was a hero of mine.

By Kevin Holtsberry

Today in New York City a memorial service is being held to honor one of my heroes: William F. Buckley Jr. In remembrance of this occasion I wanted to try and put down some of my thoughts about how this great man impacted my life.

WFB - to use the shorthand - and I had little in common on the surface. He was a wealthy, Ivy League educated, world traveler with roots in the South and East Coast. I was born and raised in the Midwest in a Middle Class family, attended a small liberal arts college, and my only foreign travel was a trip to France in grad school.

He loved classical music and I barely know the difference between Bach and Beethoven. He loved to sail and sailed around the world. I have been a on a sail boat probably twice in my whole life. He was a master of the English language. I struggled with dyslexia as a child and still struggle with spelling and grammar. He was a lifelong Catholic and I am an evangelical protestant who grew up in small Bible churches.

In short, he was a sophisticated, highly intelligent, famous, and impactful person. I am not.

But it was his greatness - his goodness, his fundamental rightness - that called me to strive to be better, to know more, to communicate better, to make an impact.

For more keep reading.

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Posted at 1:14pm on Mar. 12, 2008 On Buckley, Chambers and the West

By Paul J Cella

Call me an eccentric or a crank if you must. Accuse me of tilting at windmills like old Don Quixote: But by all that is holy I will do what I can to insure that so enormous an event as the passing of William F. Buckley, Jr., shall not be swamped by the tormenting transience of the blogosphere, and by so insignificant an event as a presidential election.

Being the eccentric that I am, I had been for almost ten days reading precisely nothing but Buckley (with one brief interlude of Oakeshott-on-Hobbes). Most of the Atlanta Public Library’s collection of Buckley nonfiction is now at my house, though I cannot hope to compete with the beautiful picture presented by my friend Kevin Holtsberry (see above).

So ten days of Buckley — and then Odyssey of a Friend arrived at my local branch, and Buckley retreated (though he never vanished) to make room for the greater man.

Odyssey of a Friend, as most Conservatives know, is a collection of letters, sent by Whittaker Chambers to Buckley during the late 1950s and early 1960s. It was published by the latter, after the former’s death. The rough sketch of a great work of history and philosophy, a book which Chambers never completed, emerges from these riveting epistles. Its haunting lineaments are unmistakable, but most of its specifics are lost to us.

Read on.

Posted in Communism | History | Whittaker Chambers | William F. Buckley — Comments (5)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:02pm on Mar. 5, 2008 Buckley's Triumph

By Paul J Cella

William F. Buckley, Jr.’s greatest triumph was over Communism, that cruel system of “Liberalism in a hurry” which enslaved half the world, cowed half the rest, and thoroughly poisoned the high intellectual endeavors of man down to this very day.

In his lifetime this wicked system was overthrown, and praise God for it. The walls came tumbling down. So upon learning of the great man’s death, I thought it proper to return to his work under this head — to his work back before it was a triumph but rather an arduous struggle, demanding intellect, dexterity and perseverance. It was these, exercised by Buckley and all the great Cold warriors, which made the triumph possible.

Posted in Communism | History | William F. Buckley — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:44pm on Mar. 2, 2008 Quotes That Catch My Fancy

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

His passing makes it all the harder, yet all the more important, for fusionists to succeed in strengthening the ties between libertarians and conservatives.

--Michael Rappaport on the death of William F. Buckley.

Posted at 7:36pm on Mar. 1, 2008 WFB

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

David Brooks gives us a remembrance of William F. Buckley, Jr. that is true to Buckley's warm spirit and generosity:

When I was in college, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote a book called "Overdrive" in which he described his glamorous lifestyle. Since I was young and a smart-aleck, I wrote a parody of it for the school paper.

 "Buckley spent most of his infancy working on his memoirs," I wrote in my faux-biography. "By the time he had learned to talk, he had finished three volumes: `The World Before Buckley,' which traced the history of the world prior to his conception; `The Seeds of Utopia,' which outlined his effect on world events during the nine months of his gestation; and `The Glorious Dawn,' which described the profound ramifications of his birth on the social order."

The piece went on in this way. I noted that his ability to turn water into wine added to his popularity at prep school. I described his college memoirs: "God and Me at Yale," "God and Me at Home" and "God and Me at the Movies." I recounted that after college he had founded two magazines, one called The National Buckley and the other called The Buckley Review, which merged to form The Buckley Buckley.

I wrote that his hobbies included extended bouts of name-dropping and going into rooms to make everyone else feel inferior.

Buckley came to the University of Chicago, delivered a lecture and said: "David Brooks, if you're in the audience, I'd like to offer you a job."

Few would have been that kind, or that prescient. When you read the whole thing, be sure to especially consider the last paragraph. If that is your reaction to an encomium, then not only have you lived your life well, you will wake every morning with a joyful feeling that you have still more to contribute to the world.

Not a bad fate, that. Not a bad fate at all.

Posted in Miscellanea | William F. Buckley — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:09am on Feb. 29, 2008 MI Morning Update: Hosting The Big Show - Remembering Bill Buckley

By saul anuzis

250 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

I had an opportunity to host the “Big Show” yesterday on Michigan’s Talk Radio statewide. My special guests included Newt Gingrich, Attorney General Mike Cox, Dick DeVos, Grover Norquist – President of Americans for Tax Reform, Professor Raymond Tanter of UM and First Gentleman Dan Mulhern..

It was a lot of fun…a new challenge for me that team at the Big Show made go much easier than planned. In talking about areas covered by their broadcast, I was able to slip in there the names of Joel Westrom from Marquette, Joan Jackson from Traverse City and Jack Hoogendyk from Kalamazoo.

Posted in Employment | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | William F. Buckley — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:35am on Feb. 29, 2008 Quote Of The Day

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Preach, Jonah.

Posted at 7:51am on Feb. 28, 2008 MI Morning Update: In Memoriam: William F. Buckley 1925 - 2008 - House Caucus Ready - Unity Road Show in Northern Michigan

By saul anuzis

251 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

In Memoriam: William F. Buckley 1925 – 2008

The House Republican Caucus gathered yesterday for a retreat to discuss winning back the House this fall. I joined a number of speakers as we went over specific programs, support and strategies for the upcoming elections. House Republicans are ready!

The Political, Candidate & Party Assistance teams were on the road again last night on the "Unity Road Show" in “northern” Michigan.

Posted in Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | William F. Buckley — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:23am on Feb. 28, 2008 William F. Buckley, Jr.--A Remembrance

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

One knew, of course, that at some point in time, his passing would come. But one did not--and does not--have to like it.

He defined and refined modern conservatism and made it the successful intellectual force it is in American politics and society. He engaged his opponents with wit, flair and an enviable intelligence. He was wrong about certain things but he righted those wrongs and did so comprehensively. And he was right about so many things from the get-go, including, most notably, the need to remove the John Birchers from the modern conservative movement. His contemporaries did not think it possible that he would actually succeed in removing and marginalizing the Birchers. He proved them wrong. And conservatism--and America--is better for it.

Lovely tributes abound. Here's Terry Teachout. NPR remembers; it is ironic that Buckley passed in a week in which NPR's Morning Edition has been spending time talking to conservative leaders about the state of the movement today. This tribute, of course, is timeless. A panoply of remembrances are found here. And readers of varying political stripes remember.

Bill Buckley's Firing Line, a show of grace and passionate conversation, ceased a long time ago--a sign, perhaps, of the deteriorating tone and tenor of our national conversation. With Buckley's own passing, that deterioration, alas, continues apace. No one is in a position to revive Buckley's intelligent and civilized approach to discussing the issues of the day. Indeed, most pundits of power and influence appear resolved to being the anti-Buckleys; ill-mannered brutes whose lack of courtesy is matched by a lack of intellect.

We will miss William F. Buckley, Jr. for all that he was. We will also miss him for all that he was not. We will miss this man who made the times and we will miss the times he made. One need not be especially nostalgic to remember that there was a period, not too long ago in American life, when conversations were pleasant and enlightening affairs. And one must be blind not to see that this period has passed and its exact antithesis has replaced it.

Rest in peace, Mr. Buckley. You were the herald of a better time. For that alone, you shall be warmly remembered.

Posted in Miscellanea | William F. Buckley — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »