WFB. Prick.

As the inevitable hagiographies of William F. Buckley roll off the presses this morning, let's pause to take a look at the man in his most honest moment, an angry, bigoted bully and liar, who exemplified the very worst of the "I've got mine, fuck you" mentality that underlies much of modern conservatism. The debate with Gore Vidal in 1968 surrounded the Chicago Police Department's violent raid of the hippie protests outside the Democratic National Convention, arguably one of the most important moments in modern American political history. Vidal, an open homosexual, atheist and famous man of letters made the point that many in the park, and throughout Europe and the world believed that the US policy towards North Vietnam was imperialist, illegal, ill fated and wrong. Buckley, of course, equated Vidal with the Nazi sympathizers of WW2, and questioned his patriotism, wondering why he supported those that were shooting at US soldiers.

Things have really changed, haven't they? Why does Obama hate America and love the terrorists, anyway?

Vidal, somewhat rudely, it must be said, noted that the only crypto-fascist that he could think of was Buckley himself, and at that point, Buckley shows the true colors. Here is the man with the pedigree, the erudition and the vocabulary, son of an oil baron, reverting to what he was at his core, a lying bigoted ass. The man who was born "with the entire tea service in his mouth" calls Vidal a queer, and tells him he'll sock him in the mouth. It made for good TV, anyway.

Many on the left are praising Buckley for his intellectual honesty, notably the fact that while he embraced McCarthyite and bigoted positions, he did so openly and defended them heroically. That they see as a stark contrast to today's conservatives who opt for the dog whistle of buzzwords that signal to the fundamentalists, homophobes, racists, and crackpots that they share the same principals. Instead of Buckley's eloquent defense of his own brutal opinions, we get appeals to "the culture of life", "strict constructionist judges", and "intelligent design". I suppose there is some merit to that, and a nod to Buckley for calling out Bush on Iraq and the abandonment of any pretense of fiscal responsibility is in order, I guess.

But for me, the video tells the real tale of the man:




UPDATE: James Wolcott does a fantastic job of capturing the essence of the man.

and concludes:

To quote Ackerman again, "The decline of the right, and perhaps of America more generally, is summed up in the intellectual slouch from the heights of Buckley to the depths of Hewitt and Reynolds and Limbaugh and Coulter and Kristol and O’Reilly and Hannity and Bush," and John Cole, anticipating a bout of nausea coming on, cautions, "Watching the right-wing lunatics who destroyed conservatism wrapping themselves up in Buckley's cold, dead embrace over the next few weeks will be disgusting." Though it's already provided a dollop of comic relief.