WJBJr. Was a conservative. Full stop. His understanding of man’s fallen nature led him to a devotion to limited government, which in turn aligned him with many libertarian positions, but these alignments were an accident of his irrepressible conservatism. Buckley despised Ayn Rand precisely because her dogmatic libertarianism trumped his most cherished conservative values. Buckley was truly Tom Wolfe’s “a man in full.” Lord, I miss him.
WJBJr. Was a conservative. Full stop. His understanding of man’s fallen nature led him to a devotion to limited government, which in turn aligned him with many libertarian positions, but these alignments were an accident of his irrepressible conservatism. Buckley despised Ayn Rand precisely because her dogmatic libertarianism trumped his most cherished conservative values. Buckley was truly Tom Wolfe’s “a man in full.” Lord, I miss him.