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Would William F Buckley be a Democrat in 2018?

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Atheist 2020

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Would William F Buckley be a Democrat in 2018?

During my childhood I really spent a great deal of time studying the ideology of William F Buckley. I really feel if he was alive today, he would be a Democrat because the conservative movement he championed has left left him for super nationalism were he never supported. And, a president that only cares about his ego and other negative lifestyle. Buckley was over educated for the common conservative of our era. Buckley was really interested with educated members of the left. Buckley never spent time winning over the uneducated conservatives. Buckley, never decided to build scandals with a house of cards.
 

More interesting: would Abraham Lincoln?
 
I'm not so sure. He was a fan of Joe McCarthy, he thought Brown vs Board of Education was the worst scotus ruling ever, he opposed both the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and defended both Franco and Pinochet. And we are just getting started. He was cultured, funny, and more erudite than anyone had a right to be. To say that he was better educated than the common Conservative of our era is an understatement. But I think it's hard to deny that he shared many if not most of the views of the RW knuckledraggers of 2018. He was just able to put an urbane and civilised veneer on them.
 

I find this exceedingly unlikely. If one wants to know the most likely path for WFB, one can simply observe the path taken by the intellectual storehouse he built and the thinkers and editors he influenced and trained, who knew him best, over at National Review. Conservatism doesn't become Progressivism and cease standing athwart History Yelling Stop simply because a bunch of Republicans got taken in by a carnival barker.
 

It is a hard sell for sure. But, he was a man of faith, and with Brown vs Board of Education, the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Right Act -- he would be out of step with the current pope. National Review is setting there hair on firer dealing with the pope. That is one reason I said he might be a Democrat today. The other factor, Fox News would be pushing him out of the Republican party and out of the conservative movement. There is nobody within the conservative movement today quoting him, or, re-branding his conservative movement. True, there is National Review, but it is a very thin magazine without a youth movement. The American Catholic Conservative, comes up very empty with Fox News.
 
 

No, he would continue to be one of the smartest conservatives to ever walk the Earth.
Buckley was not prone to being fickle, not ever.
You could set your watch by him, he was The North Star for conservatism.
And as much as he irritated me, I had deep respect for him.

And he would be taking a poleaxe to the lot of you Trump-worshippers, that's a fact.
 

I agree, It's a hard sell for sure He was a man of faith, Catholic faith, who strongly disapproved of Vatican II, Modernism, and, as you say, would not have thought much of Pope Francis.

As for being driven from the Republican Party, there is little doubt that he'd be appalled by the crude, backwoods nativism, racism, and proud ignorance of the buffoons who make up the bulk of the Trumpistas. Not to mention the way the rest of the Republicans have wilted in front of them. But it doesn't necessary follow that he would turn to the Democrats. I think it more likely that he would stand apart and above in the company of like-minded people and work in the background for a restoration of the old values.
 

I think Buckley more than most of these creeps we have now would have understood the righteousness of The Rebellion, that it is only here because the Establishment failed, and he would not tolerate the Establishment ignoring and lying about this as they mostly do now.

Buckley was both perceptive and on the side of Truth.
 

Since his death in 2008, there is no Catholic conservative with a American following in the mainstream media with a following crossing ten million dealing with a Catholic ideology and accepted by all faiths and no faith. The conservative movement, is getting older and whiter. And with the current pope, the American Catholic conservatives are sideline and out of the game with comments with a South American pope.
 

Miss listening to Buckley, but no he would not be a Dem, nor would he be a trump fan. My guess is he would work to cleaning up the GOP house of those thàt have highjacked his Party.
 

Buckley wouldn't like Trump for sure. He also wouldn't like what the democratic party has become perhaps even less. Buckley was more of a traditional conservative which have become RINO's today in the Trump led GOP. But becoming a Democrat, no way. He might go the Libertarian Party route or no party at all. Be an independent. At least until the Trump era is over.

I've always classified myself as a Goldwater conservative with some of Ross Perot thrown in. More or less a traditional conservative. This traditional conservative voted third party whether than choose between Trump and Clinton. When one detests both, one doesn't jump from one to the other.
 
Casper said:
Miss listening to Buckley, but no he would not be a Dem, nor would he be a trump fan. My guess is he would work to cleaning up the GOP house of those thàt have highjacked his Party.
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When I do study Buckley, his set looks more like a community college debate forum, with siting in chairs and a door bell telling you there is commercial coming up. He would not be welcomed in the Republican party, because he is from a elite university and the common conservatives today rejects anyone with a community college degree. Buckley, would be speaking at a university level, and he would not devalue himself by speaking at a 8th grade level or labor over repeating himself. If he was alive today, the only job he could get would be C-SPAN dealing with book reviews on the weekend. The era of a advanced university educated conservative debating another advanced university educated member of the center or the left is over.
 
Perotista said:
He might go the Libertarian Party route or no party at all.
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Buckley joining the Libertarian party is like Buckley joining the counter-culture of the 1960's and smoking pot with Norman Mailer reading "The Naked and the Dead".
 
He would probably be a disappointed Ben Sasse Republican.

Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk
 
Atheist 2020 said:
Buckley joining the Libertarian party is like Buckley joining the counter-culture of the 1960's and smoking pot with Norman Mailer reading "The Naked and the Dead".
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Regardless, the one thing Buckley would never do is join or become a Democrat.
 
Perotista said:
Regardless, the one thing Buckley would never do is join or become a Democrat.
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Maybe, but he would never call himself a equal to Alex Jones with Info Wars as two men calling themselves conservatives. Buckley has been dead a decade, and the conservatives of his time were seeking knowledge to become a better conservative. They were willing to understand viewpoints of the center and the educated left as well. Buckley never tried to defeat his debate partner, he always tried to get a rational draw. We have to ask, why Buckley never was on Fox News.
 

I guess the same could be said of JFK on the other side of the ledger. Would he considered a liberal democrat today? Would he support Ms. Warren who has his seat in the senate, doubt it.

Totally different times.
 

Politics today is all about polarization. The right looks on the left with disdain and vice versa. There's no room for opposing views in our politics today. Let alone talking about them or debating them intelligently. It's all knee jerk.

I view Goldwater as my political mentor having backed him for the presidency in 1964 as did Buckley. I was too young to vote, you had to be 21 back then. Goldwater for the longest time held the mantel of the father of modern conservatism. Today, most modern conservatives call Goldwater a libertarian. They don't consider him a conservative at all. I'm sure today so called non-traditional conservatives don't consider Buckley either. Change.

It's like the democratic party has changed from a more classic liberal party, a big tent party way back when, to what one calls a progressive party leaving classic liberalism and the big tent as history. Same for conservatism, traditional conservatism is out, neo and religious conservatism is in. I don't view Trump as a conservative at all, just an egotistical, obnoxious opportunist.

Trump's lifelong held political views were quite liberal until he decided to run for the presidency as a Republican. He changed quite a few of them for that. Why his appeal to those who profess to be Republicans, I really don't know.
 
washunut said:
I guess the same could be said of JFK on the other side of the ledger. Would he considered a liberal democrat today? Would he support Ms. Warren who has his seat in the senate, doubt it.

Totally different times.
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President Kennedy was a little bite before my time. Still, when I study him, and his family, it was more about power as the driving force. And I have to say the same with his brothers. Since Kennedy was in World War II, I ask myself were would he be like in the book "The Naked and the Dead".
 
Perotista said:
Politics today is all about polarization. The right looks on the left with disdain and vice versa. There's no room for opposing views in our politics today. Let alone talking about them or debating them intelligently. It's all knee jerk.
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I really try to stay away from the drop in books of current events. They are written to fast and have a short active lifespan. The book on the right are written at the 5th grade level and the books on the left are written at the 10th grade level. It is the same when you watch them on TV. The reason why it has become more polarization, is the low level of grade level it is sent to the public. Buckley, was not interested with people following him without a high school education.


Goldwater became more mellow after the collapse of the Nixon Administration.


The problem with the two party system in America is clear and present. Both parties are looking at their uneducated voters as the driving force of their party. The left, are looking at there Spanish speaking communities, and there African American communities that live in a urban community with a willful poor grade school education forced onto them by the rural communities of the state. The right, are looking at there rural communities that have no interested in higher culture of urban communities. Plan to live in a community in decline were they are unwilling to leave. Willfully decide to have a poor school district because you do not want a brain drain of students leaving the community and never coming back. More people leaving, devalues there home and they are not going to pay higher taxes to see people leave and nobody interested in their home.

American, is on a declining curve.
 

Don't know the book so can't respond. That being said his brother Ted was considered one of the great liberal senators of his time. Power as a driving force was certainly a key for JFK's dad.
 
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