William F. Buckley Jr. February 27, 2008

I grew up in Northwest Indiana raised by FDR democrat grandparents. My grandfather was a local politician. I remember as a tike Indiana Senator Vance Hartke coming to our house. Throughout the 60's and the early 70's, I was socialized to the oft said phrase, "when are they (the government) going to do something about this or that". I remember my grandfather disapproving of Nixon.

So in the late 70's, not unlike today, with energy issues, seemingly insurmountable foreign conflicts, the decline of US power, and an abysmal economy embroiled in stagflation, I started to go through a transformation. From my liberal upbringing, I began to believe the big business (such as the steel mills and GM) and the government weren't going to take care of you, nor should they be expected to do so. Reagan was elected. I started reading books by the conservative thought leaders of the time. One of them was William F. Buckley Jr. Our backgrounds could not have been more different. WFB was from an east coast family of privilege. My midwestern steelworker family was at times poor and when we weren't we weren't far from it due to my grandfather's failing health. The ideas, the reasoning, the ease and humor. The vocabulary. Firing Line became a favorite show. From being a charter subscriber to Mother Jones magazine while in High School, I subscribed to the National Review in college. My grandmother stayed very involved in local democratic politics in Lake County, Indiana and never accepted my Republicanism.

Of course in many ways the conservatives of that time seem like moderates now and even though I am now an independent voter and a moderate I still wear the mantle of a Reagan Republican. And of course I try not to look to close at the actual performance of the Reagan Administration, preferring to remember it as a time that transformed America and returned us to greatness. I can forgive them for growing government more than their liberal counterparts did. I still struggle with our treatment of Latin America, especially its leaders immediately following the power transfer from the human rights and sovereignty honoring, but incompetent, Carter administration. But for a brief time there was a political movement that believed in individualism, in minimizing government, keeping a strong defense, and in promoting free markets.

As Dick Cavett said in his column, We are Bill's children, all.

Quotes from the man himself