Guest Author - Linda Sue Grimes

The great conservative thinker William F. Buckley, Jr., died in his study Wednesday, February 27, 2008. Since 1955, Buckley’s biweekly journal National Review has been a mainstay for anyone concerned about American political and cultural development. He will be sorely missed.

Hated Communist Ideology
According to Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, “Buckley was an anti-Communist to the marrow of his bones, whose lifelong mission was to crush Marxist totalitarianism.” Lowry points out the while there were many “roots” of WFB’s hatred of communism, such as his father’s being a committed anti-communist and his Catholicism’s rendering him a “natural foe” of atheistic Marxism, WFB’s strongest root of communist hatred lay in his “belief that the individual is paramount and can flourish only in freedom.”

WFB reviled the deadening conformity of communism. He believed strongly that mankind had the right to live free and enjoy his own individuality. Buckley asserted that “Without freedom, there is no true humanity.” He insisted that by eliminating freedom in a society, communism revealed that its greatest passion which was “to eliminate man.”

Deep Faith in Individuality
But WFB had deep abiding faith in the desire for individuality and freedom that resides in the heart of mankind. When Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States in 1959, Buckley declared, “Khrushchev cannot take permanent advantage of our temporary disadvantage, for it is the West he is fighting. And in the West there lie, however encysted, the ultimate resources, which are moral in nature. In the end, we will bury him.”

This prophecy, of course, was a rejoinder to Khrushchev’s arrogant declaration that his communist regime would bury the United States. Buckley turned out to be a prophet, indeed, with some help from another virulent anti-communist, President Ronald Reagan.

Literary Giant as well as Political Thinker
In 2004, Norman Podhoretz, a great thinker and literary giant himself, introduced WFB at the Center for Security Policy’s event honoring Buckley with the “Mightier than the Sword” award.

Podhoretz offered one of his favorite passages of Buckley’s sparkling prose; it is worth experiencing it in its entirety, because the passage demonstrates why the many outpourings of affection and respect for WFB have been forthcoming:

... if there were nothing to complain about, there would be no post-Adamite mankind. But complaint is profanation in the absence of gratitude. There is much to complain about in America, but that awful keening noise one unhappily gets so used to makes no way for the bells, and these have rung for America, are still ringing for America, and for this we are obliged to be grateful. To be otherwise is wrong reason, and a poetical invitation to true national tribulation. I must remember to pray more often, because providence has given us the means to make the struggle, and in this respect we are singularly blessed in this country, and in this room.

The passage reveals the depth of thought, courage, and his deep love of God that served Mr. Buckley so well in his well-lived life.

For more information about WFB:
National Review
Rich Lowry’s “Gratitude”
Norman Podhoretz