Buckley Endorses a Democrat?
On October 10th, Christopher Buckley, scion of William F. Buckley and former columnist for The National Review, wrote an endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for President.
Buckley is, or was, favorably impressed with Senator John S. McCain:
“McCain rose to power on his personality and biography. He was authentic. He spoke truth to power. He told the media they were “jerks” (a sure sign of authenticity, to say nothing of good taste; we are jerks). He was real. He was unconventional. He embraced former anti-war leaders. He brought resolution to the awful missing-POW business. He brought about normalization with Vietnam—his former torturers! Yes, he erred in accepting plane rides and vacations from Charles Keating, but then, having been cleared on technicalities, groveled in apology before the nation. He told me across a lunch table, “The Keating business was much worse than my five and a half years in Hanoi, because I at least walked away from that with my honor.” our heart went out to the guy. I thought at the time, God, this guy should be president someday.
“…This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?”
Although Buckley didn’t write this blog for The National Review, the magazine did receive considerable commentary about the blog it didn’t publish:
“I seem to have picked an apt title for my Daily Beast column, or blog, or whatever it’s called: “What Fresh Hell.” My last posting (if that’s what it’s called) in which I endorsed Obama, has brought about a very heaping helping of fresh hell. In fact, I think it could accurately be called a tsunami.
“…As for the mail flooding into National Review Online—that’s been running about, oh, 700-to-1 against. In fact, the only thing the Right can’t quite decide is whether I should be boiled in oil or just put up against the wall and shot. Lethal injection would be too painless.”
So, Buckley resigned from the magazine founded by William F. Buckley, his father.
Notice how the hate e-mail received didn’t discuss points, just attacks against a person for holding contrary views. I wonder, have we, as a nation and a society, really have sunk to the point where we cannot stand (or sit) to hear or read an opinion other than one we hold?
This reaction is not about the Republican Party or the McCain campaign. No, it’s from rank-and-file. Don’t like what someone else says? Just shout 'em down; that'll do the trick.
Really, it’s pretty sad.
Another National Review columnist, Ms. Kathleen Parker, wrote an article explaining why she thought that the selection of Governor Sarah Palin for the office of Vice President was an embarrassment to the Republican Party.
“Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.”
The National Review received over 12,000 e-mails by people who expressed their outrage and who made various suggestions, including one who…
…suggest[ed] that Kathleen’s mother ought to have aborted her and tossed the fetus into a dumpster…
My guess is that the writer feels he or she is a pro-life activist for whom abortion is an affront to God.
It’s all so very, very sad.