Few individuals have had as decisive an impact on a modern-day American political party as William F. Buckley Jr. Starting with his founding of the conservative magazine National Review in 1955, Buckley largely defined and articulated the ideas that would dominate Republican politics, at least until recently. Now a superb new biography, “Buckley: The Life and the Revolution That Changed America“ by Sam Tanenhaus, brings this patrician New Englander to life and details his efforts to shape the Republican Party.
Buckley’s father owned an oil company, and the young Buckley lived in Mexico as a youth (his first language was Spanish) before the family settled in Sharon, Connecticut. After high school, Buckley enrolled at Yale University, where he quickly became well known on campus – most notably as chairman of the Yale Daily News, where his columns began to articulate the political and philosophical ideas that would define his career.
After graduating, he wrote his first book, “God and Man at Yale,” based on his undergraduate experiences. In it, he attacked the school for its emphasis on Keynesian economics, collectivism, and secular humanism. The book called out individual professors by name. Buckley believed that Yale administrators would find his ideas helpful. They did not. But the searing indictment of his alma mater made him “the most exciting conservative writer in the land,” Tanenhaus writes. The Republicans had lost five presidential elections in a row, and they needed a thinker who would provide the language around which the party could coalesce. “Apart from Buckley, the intellectual right was a near void,” according to the author. Buckley arrived as a breath of fresh air.
Why We Wrote This
William F. Buckley Jr. is a fascinating figure in 20th-century American politics. This superb biography traces the evolution of the conservative movement, and the influence that Buckley wielded.
The most active conservative cause at the time was the anti-communism investigations of Sen. Joseph McCarthy, a Republican from Wisconsin. Buckley, along with his brother-in-law Brent Bozell, enthusiastically joined the senator’s efforts. Together, the two men attacked those targeted by McCarthy. “There was no mistaking these tactics. They were the same ones McCarthy was using with the difference that the brothers-in-law trod a more careful line between smear and outright defamation,” Tanenhaus writes.
The biographer makes clear that Buckley fully understood the “hysteria and demagoguery, character assassination and all the rest” that McCarthy embodied. But Buckley concluded it was McCarthy’s opponents who were to blame. Regardless of McCarthy’s cruelty and recklessness, Buckley remained loyal to him to the end.
Buckley founded National Review to create a magazine of opinions and ideas around conservative news and commentary. Initially, the magazine struggled financially and Buckley spent a large amount of his personal fortune to keep it going. But National Review played a critical role in moving the Republican Party from its centrist positions to a more strongly conservative viewpoint. Like any journal of ideas, some of its positions did not age well (notably its strident opposition to the Civil Rights Movement), but other ideas became bedrock principles of the Republican Party. The magazine also became a testing ground for young writers interested in conservative ideas: George F. Will, David Brooks, Garry Wills, Joan Didion, and Michael Lind all appeared regularly in its pages. Buckley ran the magazine until he stepped down in 1990.
Founding and leading such a prominent magazine for so long would, by itself, be an enormous accomplishment for anyone. But Buckley’s efforts to spread conservative ideas were much more extensive. He became a syndicated news columnist in 1962 and his column, On the Right, was published three times a week in more than 300 newspapers. He helped found the Young Americans for Freedom in 1960 and the Conservative Party of New York in 1962. Starting in 1966, he hosted a weekly television talk show on PBS, called “Firing Line,” which ran until 1999. He made about 70 speeches a year for 40 years. On vacation, he wrote books, eventually publishing some 50 in all. He even wrote a series of spy novels about a fictitious CIA officer and at least one made the New York Times bestseller list. Even his hobbies were done at a high level – he was an accomplished pianist, an expert sailor, and an excellent skier.
One of the things Buckley did not do was write a book that defined his comprehensive vision of conservatism. John Kenneth Galbraith encouraged him to stop his other activities, step away from National Review, and write books. “Then, only then,” Galbraith told him, “you will discover the means to give theoretical depth to your ideological position.”
Buckley started such a book but never got serious about finishing it. He certainly could have written it if he wanted to, but one suspects that he was having too much fun with his myriad activities to undertake such an extensive project.
While he was frequently called on for advice, Buckley rarely held a formal position in the federal government. He did run for mayor of New York in 1965 on the Conservative ticket. It was something of a lark, and Buckley never thought he would win. (When asked “How many votes do you expect to get?” He replied, “One.” “And who would cast that vote?” he was asked. “My secretary,” he answered. Another reporter asked: “What will you do if you win?” “Demand a recount” came the reply.”) For a while it looked as if Buckley had a shot, and the political establishment was horrified. “There is no real precedent in American politics for the kind of wrecking operation that Buckley is conducting,” intoned Walter Lippmann. In the end, Buckley fell far short and got only 13 percent of the vote.
Buckley asked Tanenhaus to write his biography after reading the latter’s biography of Whittaker Chambers, an American spy and Soviet agent. The author was given unrestricted access to Buckley’s papers and records and received the cooperation of his family and friends. The result is a deeply researched, marvelously rich and complete portrait of Buckley as an individual. It’s also the story of how the Republican Party of Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan evolved.
Tanenhaus discovered some parts of the story that were largely unknown – such as the pro-segregationist newspaper that Buckley’s father started in South Carolina in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision. There are plenty of stories about positions Buckley took that seem outright cruel and hateful. During the 1980s AIDS crisis, for example, Buckley argued that those suffering from the disease should be tattooed in an effort to prevent transmission.
But the author is quick to give Buckley credit when he takes an unexpected position, such as breaking with George W. Bush over the 2003 Iraq War. He is equally willing to note when Buckley changed his mind – in 2004, for example, Buckley said of his earlier objections to federal civil rights initiatives: “I was wrong: federal intervention was necessary.” And he calls Buckley out when Buckley clearly violated the journalistic rules that he had once championed – such as when he gave his “blessing to radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, helping raise him to prominence.”
Walt Whitman’s line “I am large, I contain multitudes” comes to mind as the reader nears the end of this terrific biography. Tanenhaus has left us with a fair and balanced story of a life of purpose, one that was actively lived and whose echoes are still felt today.
