William F. Buckley and the Politics of Normalcy
This week commemorates the 100th anniversary of the birth of National Review founder William F. Buckley, Jr. Given the infighting consuming the American Right today, writers as ideologically diverse as Reason’s Stephanie Slade and Modern Age’s Daniel McCarthy have taken the occasion to ask, “What would Bill Buckley do?” Would he embrace the populism that took over the Republican party in 2016, or would he come out as an ardent defender of the liberal ideas and institutions presently under attack?
We can never truly answer those questions unless we summon Buckley’s shade up from the vasty deep. To make matters even harder, the writer was famously reticent to define conservatism himself. “I have never failed,” he wrote in one essay, “to dissatisfy an audience that asks the meaning of conservatism.” Unlike his friends Russell Kirk and F.A. Hayek, Buckley never wrote a masterpiece of political thought that fully described his outlook. Compounding these problems, his career was long, and his positions shifted considerably over time.
But throughout both Buckley’s journalism and his — dare we say it — statesmanship, we might detect a single core principle: the defense of normalcy. Frustrated as he may have been with mass society, corrupt politicians, and a vulgar culture, Buckley always possessed a genuine faith in both the American people and their Constitution. And he was always clear that the enemies of that faith were not just communists and liberals, but also the conspiracy theorists, racists, and other extremists who sought to co-opt the movement he built.
In this terrible new digital era, conservatives would do well to remember Buckley’s defense of normalcy. Demagogues and worse have gained prominence across various online platforms (perhaps with the help of foreign interference) and threaten to alienate the great body of the people from the Right altogether. Whatever legitimate grievances the populists may have, the conspiracy theorism and sheer vulgarity of their tribunes are things that more constructive conservatives ought to reject.
Read more in Civitas Outlook.
