Will pays tribute to William F. Buckley

George Will pays tribute today to William F. Buckley. With recollections, humor and grace, Will reminds us of what the young Bill Buckley saw at the start of his more then half-century of public service and what he decided to do about it. America is much the better for it.

Buckley, for whom the nation should give thanks, turns 80 on Thanksgiving Day, and National Review, the conservative journal he founded in the belly of the beast -- liberal Manhattan -- turned 50 this month. It is difficult to remember, and hence especially important to remember, the slough of despond conservatism was in 1955.

Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, for more than a decade the leading conservative in elective office, had died in 1953. Joseph McCarthy had tainted conservatism in the process of disgracing himself with bile and bourbon. President Eisenhower had so placidly come to terms with the flaccid consensus of the 1950s that the editor of U.S. News & World Report, the most conservative newsweekly, suggested that both parties nominate Eisenhower in 1956.

.Read Will's entire column here.

Thank you, Bill Buckley. Many more happy and productive years.