WFB, RIP

William F. Buckley, Jr. has passed away. As I think he said from time to time: herewith, a few thoughts:

He was a major shaper of my political thinking. I devoured The Unmaking of a Mayor, the story of his 1965 campaign for NYC Mayor. From him, I learned you could be smart, witty, and still be a conservative.

Although I never got the "smart" and "witty" parts as well as he did.

Soon after that, in 1967 or so, I started reading National Review, as I have done with only minor breaks since. And so I got introduced to folks like Frank Meyer, Russel Kirk, James Burnham, Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Thomas Sowell, and on and on.

It's widely known that Mr. Buckley made conservatism "respectable", by trashing the John Birch wing. (He also made Ayn Rand and her followers steamin' mad by publishing Whittaker Chambers' negative review of Atlas Shrugged.)

It's safe to say (as I did about Milton Friedman) that William F. Buckley, Jr. played an important role in making the country freer, safer, and more prosperous than it would have been otherwise. And for that, we owe him much gratitude.