I meant to put out a comment on the passing of William F. Buckley, the "father" of "modern conservatism", earlier. I'm just now getting to it.
Buckley was a major part of all that is wrong with conservative philosophy. Born to a life of wealth and privilege, he saw no need for government services or a social safety net. In Buckley's world, people who were poor deserved their lot. The free market could operate better without government regulation. Wars of ideas (against "ism's") should be fought frequently, using real soldiers. He saw "elitism" as a virtue rather than a vice.
His eloquent words influenced and inspired Goldwater, Reagan, and the current mob of anti-government conservatives that are ruining this country. He may have been brilliant, but he was wrong. Brilliantly wrong. We've been paying for his wrongness for decades, with no end in sight.
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2 comments:
Oh dear, the Chinese spammer got you too. Ugh.
Anyway, what insightful words you have here Py.
What really always got me going was how quickly people flocked to follow him! I think of my own parents, not anywhere near any standards of decent living, eschewing and hating the poor and holding on to each turd word that fell from Buckley's lips like it was manna from a cruel heaven.
His dark legacy won't soon be forgotten. Sadly.
While his legacy has been terribly harmful, he himself deplored the hardline direction the Republican Party has taken in the last decade or more. He was not at all happy with the neocons. It's pretty bad when an arch conservative like Buckley couldn't even stand what passes for Republicans these days.
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