William F. (Bill) Buckley: A Greatest American

Many bloggers recently put together lists of Greatest Americans. Some listed only a few names, others 20 or 25. John Hawkins at Right Wing News put together a list of 100.

Elvis, John Wayne, Davy Crockett, Sam Houston and Steve Jobs all made at least one Greatest list. But William F. (Bill) Buckley didn't.

Bill Buckley’s contributions to America span more than half a century. In 1950, he wrote God and Man at Yale which warned of the growing substitution of ideology for scholarship on university campuses.

Five years later, Buckley founded National Review at a time when, as former NR staffer Chris Weinkopf said, “the world considered conservative intellectuals a genetic impossibility. Just nine years later, NR would prove instrumental in Barry Goldwater's rise to the GOP nomination for president. In 1980, Goldwater protégé Ronald Reagan won the White House, and made National Review mandatory reading for his entire staff."

President Reagan often said it wouldn't have been possible for him to become President without Bill Buckley and NR.

Except for far-right extremists who still resent Buckley's attacks on the conspiracy-driven John Birch Society, is there a conservative or libertarian group active today that doesn't acknowledge a debt to Bill Buckley? Young Americans for Freedom was literally founded in his home. The important research and policy proposals of The Heritage Foundation and American Enterprise Institute are part of Buckley’s legacy. The list can go on.

With words, ideas, and actions, Buckley has unapologetically championed the American creed, often at times when few others were doing so. Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby recently wrote an appreciation of Buckley which included this:

I was a 17-year-old college sophomore when I discovered National Review. A quarter-century later, I no longer recall where I came across my first issue, or what was on its cover. What I do recall, vividly, is the thrill of encountering words and arguments that gave shape and coherence to my own inchoate political beliefs. The importance of individual freedom, the dangers of a too-powerful government, the blessings of a free market, the imperative of fighting communism, the indispensability of faith -- these were themes I encountered again and again in the pages of NR. And, in those pre-Reagan days, almost nowhere else.

Bill Buckley: A Greatest American

I hope visitors will comment on some of Buckley's many other contributions which I've neglected because of time and other tasks.

I previously posted on Buckley's humor. It's here. Others added wonderful comments.

John Hawkins post with his list of 100 Greatest is here.

Below are links to other bloggers who posted lists.

Betsy's Page
Bookworm Room
Conservative Response
Don Singleton
Iowa Voice
Isaac Schrodinger
Res et Rationes
The Daily Blitz
Villainous Company