Buckley

I wouldn't have found much common ground with William F. Buckley Jr.

I'll give him his due. When he finally knew he was wrong he wasn't afraid to admit it. In that regard, he accepted that the Bush administration invasion of Iraq was a mistake.

When The Club For Growth Political Action Committee ran a right-wing political ad in January 2004 with the words "... latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading …" to describe American liberals, the first vision I conjured was William F. Buckley Jr., born into privilege. I was also aware that he was instrumental in merging traditional American conservatism with libertarianism, creating the Republican party of Ronald Reagan and ultimately providing us with George W. Bush.

Despite his ideology, he possessed and exuded intellect. While I could never agree with his ideology, his passing leaves a void. We are left with the intellectually lazy, half-witted children of conservative exclusionists. Born with silver-spoons in their mouths, they are abysmally poor copies of Buckley as they spew out vacuous garbage in an attempt to justify their entitlement to comfort and perquisites they have done nothing to earn.

Buckley is gone. He takes with him his defence of southern segregationism and his support for the odious Senator Joe McCarthy. He is replaced by ordure with the scruples of a weasel.