In William F.
Buckley’s mission statement for National Review, written in 1955, he did not mention winning elections.
That’s not to say it is unimportant, unneeded, or unwanted. But it was not
mentioned. In fact, Buckley wrote, “We believe that
truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results,
binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a
study of human experience.”
What was
mentioned was standing athwart history yelling stop. Buckley sought to build a
National Review that provided commentary on the landscape of American politics
and culture, building an intellectual case for conservatism. Today’s National
Review is willing occasionally to yell Stop. It did so notably on the proliferation
of porn in culture. But on many of the day’s fights, the editorial positions
read more like those of the Republican National Committee than the standard
bearer of American conservatism.....The editors have conformed to the politics of necessary victories instead of the policy of standing “athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
The apotheosis of slaying Buckley’s vision, many thought, was National Review’s ridiculous endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2012. But, always willing to surprise their readers with just how much they’ve become the voice of the Republican Party instead of the conservative movement, their latest goes further........To Read More.....
The apotheosis of slaying Buckley’s vision, many thought, was National Review’s ridiculous endorsement of Mitt Romney in 2012. But, always willing to surprise their readers with just how much they’ve become the voice of the Republican Party instead of the conservative movement, their latest goes further........To Read More.....
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