Buckley and Reagan: The Qualities of Conservative Greatness
- From: jose <josefsoplar@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:17:25 -0800 (PST)
Buckley and Reagan: The Qualities of Conservative Greatness
By Bruce Walker
As conservatives bemoan the apparent descent of conservatism into a
swamp, we would do well to remember the two men who most personify
conservatism in America. One of those two men, William F. Buckley,
has just passed away. The other man, Ronald Reagan died four years
ago (also in the middle of a presidential campaign.) These two men
were more than conservative icons, they were American icons.
No Leftist will ever be as loved by Americans as that "Arch-
Conservative" Reagan and no Leftist will ever be as respected and
admired as William F. Buckley, Jr. While conservatives thrash about
to define ourselves, to find ourselves, to seek our inner selves, let
us first study a bit what made these two giants unifying leaders who
they were.
The first common characteristic is that both men were devoutly
religious -- it is impossible to think of either man without soon
noting the importance of God in the biography. Buckley's first book,
God and Man at Yale, wrote about the absence of God from
universities: who else then would have even noticed? Yet Buckley, a
deeply religious man, realized that all political problems are
ultimately moral problems, and all moral problems ultimately religious
problems. The attempt to expunge God from politics, therefore, was
the first step toward totalitarianism and the sort moldy social jelly
that it Europe today.
Reagan also put God above all else. Buckley and Reagan, however,
were not the sort of political-religious leaders like Huckabee.
Neither man would have said a word about Romney's Mormonism. The God
of Buckley and Reagan had very long arms. It was a God that Catholics
and Protestants, Jews and Christians each recognized well. This God
was concerned about unborn children, but just as concerned about souls
trapped in the Gulag.
As a natural consequence of the importance of God in their lives,
Buckley and Reagan believed in the divine purpose of marriage and
family. Buckley was married once and for a very long time. Reagan
did have one unhappy marriage, but that was a Hollywood marriage, and
his long and loving marriage to Nancy shows just how important he
considered a happy and devoted home life. Both men grounded
themselves in those natural bulwarks of conservative values, faith and
family, values which when working right in the lives of men make the
Left less than unnecessary.
Buckley and Reagan were also men with a genuine love of life. They
were not morose (although both were, at times, seriously worried about
America and American values in the world.) Buckley at the sail or
harpsichord, Reagan chopping wood or riding a horse -- these images of
happy men whose life was not just politics -- are part of what a full
life should be. Both men had a wonderful sense of humor to complement
a life of decent fun.
The two conservative icons were, then, whole men. God, family, the
brotherhood of man, the joy of living -- all of these values together
made Buckley and Reagan the giants that they were in American life.
Because they were naturally whole men, they were also utterly
sincere. Neither man was much interested in finesse. What they
believed in did not require finesse.
This absence of finesse was the key to their eloquence. Buckley, of
course, was a writer of incomparable skill. But Buckley the debater,
the commentator, the orator was just as great. Reagan the speaker was
as powerful with his voice as Buckley with his pen, but Reagan is a
grossly underestimated writer. The secret of his power, as with
Buckley, that he spoke as a clear, strong, informed conscience.
Never, at any time, did someone reading Buckley or listening to Reagan
feel that anything other than a completely authentic heart and mind
were in firm command of the message. How many pundits - how many
conservative pundits -- these days tweak their words and their message
to conform to chic trends, twenty-four hour news cycles and oceans of
public opinion polls? The answer to that question may be the key to
what has happened to conservatism. All the leading Republican
candidates this year have embraced for the sake of convenience or
popularity very un-conservative positions. Conservatives today seem
not to be real conservatives but conservatives as the "other chair" in
some pointless nightly television hootenanny.
Spoken plainly, conservative leaders today are too opportunistic, too
interested in personal reward, too worried about what our enemies
think, and too afraid too stand cheerfully alone. Buckley and Reagan
were men of great gifts, but it was not their gifts alone that made
them great. What made them great was certainty of moral purpose and
absolute fearlessness in defending without equivocation what they knew
was right. Nations always need such men. America particularly needs
such men now.
.
- Prev by Date: What happened to Bush's "Home Ownership Society" he used to tout in his speeches???
- Next by Date: HILLARY, R.I.P.
- Previous by thread: What happened to Bush's "Home Ownership Society" he used to tout in his speeches???
- Next by thread: HILLARY, R.I.P.
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
