William F Buckley, RIP

William F Buckley, Jr. died today.

In a strange coincidence, I awoke this morning with a specific idea for more political commentary to post here. My idea was to post Kurt Vonnegut's In a Manner that Must Shame God Himself, Vonnegut's opinion and commentary on the 1972 Republican convention. He refers to two political parties, Winners and Losers.

An excerpt:

"There is a very witty winner, a millionaire named William F Buckley , Jr." I would go on, "who appears regularly in newspapers and on television. He bickers amusingly with people who think that Winners should help Losers more than they do.

"He has a nearly permanent and always patronizing rictus when debating."

As a visitor from another planet, I would have nothing to lose socially in supposing that Buckley himself did not know the secret message of his smile. I would then guess at the message: "Yes, oh yes, my dear man - I understand what you have said so clumsily. But you know in your heart what every Winner knows : that one must behave heartlessly towards Losers if one wants to survive."

That may not really be the message in the Buckley smile. But I guarantee you it was the monolithic belief that underlay the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida in 1972.

All the rest was hokum.

Buckley was an icon. A nice article from the the NYT says:

Mr. Buckley’s greatest achievement was making conservatism — not just electoral Republicanism, but conservatism as a system of ideas — respectable in liberal post-World War II America. He mobilized the young enthusiasts who helped nominate Barry Goldwater in 1964, and saw his dreams fulfilled when Reagan and the Bushes captured the Oval Office.

To Mr. Buckley’s enormous delight, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., the historian, termed him “the scourge of liberalism.”

Another article excerpt from the WSJ:

NEW YORK -- William F. Buckley Jr., the erudite Ivy Leaguer and conservative herald who showered huge and scornful words on liberalism as he observed, abetted and cheered on the right's post-World War II rise from the fringes to the White House, died Wednesday. He was 82.

His assistant Linda Bridges said Mr. Buckley was found dead by his cook at his home in Stamford, Conn. The cause of death was unknown, but he had been ill with emphysema, she said.

Editor, columnist, novelist, debater, TV talk show star of "Firing Line," harpsichordist, trans-oceanic sailor and even a good-natured loser in a New York mayor's race, Buckley worked at a daunting pace, taking as little as 20 minutes to write a column for his magazine, the National Review.