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William Buckley: A Television Persona Passes

Started by tomwatson · 11 months ago

William F. Buckley may be twisting painfully in the eternal hellfires right about now, condemned for rejecting civil rights in a cynical wager against his own views of liberty, but his passing does recall a type of conservative who would gladly make a public argument on the relative merits - and ... Continue reading »

6 comments

  • oakling

    1 year ago

    Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! Hooray, Jane Hamsher!
    reply
  • tina oticica

    1 year ago

    I wasn't aware of his past baggage, btu I strongly disliked hsi hoity-toity stance on education, for example. I Iwill have to come back here to watch the priceless video. Thanks for a great post. And video.
    reply
  • Dan Leo

    1 year ago

    As Dennis Perrin pointed out in his blog, Chomsky methodically takes Buckley apart here.

    One of Buckley's debating methods was to roll over the opponent with long, slow, meliifluous but somniferous and not necessarily well-thought-out periods. In this case the method failed.

    But as I've said ad nauseam (Latin phrase inserted as tribute to WFB) I too miss those days when you could turn on even Merv Griffin or Mike Douglas and see the likes of Norman Mailer, Capote, Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal.

    Here's a clip of Buckley and Vidal back-to-back (not the famous crypto-Nazi one):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXLTDUPJqsU

    Gore's the last lion standing.
    reply
  • snesich

    1 year ago

    According to my friends, I did a great Buckley imitation back in my college days. I don't think that any of us should forget Buckley's strong backing of Joe McCarthy in the 50's, his opposition to civil rights and voting rights legislation in the 60's, using essentially the same tired excuse that some bigots used, and his elitist, ruling class attitude regarding roughly 97% of Americans. Dan, thanks for that YouTube link. I also agree that Chomsky handles Buckley here in the same way that Ali handled Chuck Wepner back in '76.
    reply
  • Dan Leo

    1 year ago

    Steve: and thank you for the boxing metaphor; I wanted to use one but couldn't think of the appropriate bout. It's the case of the good boxer, the man who has the skill, who can just jab, jab, hook, jab, and then right-cross the other guy, the other guy who looks good and who has the flashy moves but who doesn't have the heart and is finally gonna hit the canvas and stay on the canvas if he knows what's good for him.
    reply
  • viewsat files

    5 months ago

    Hello, for a long time I read your blog, thanks for that that write interesting and
    useful posts.I consider that blogers it is possible to name many journalists.

    Good luck
    reply
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