Just when we need him most

Aside from the Baby Boom generation being the most self-absorbed and worthless cohort to tample the landscape of human history, there have been a few bright reasons to be glad to have been born a Boomer: watching the Apollo 11 moonlanding during our lifetime; the Beatles; the fall of the Berlin Wall; the Raiders of the 1970s. All momentuous events that have made living in the Boomer generation memorable. For me, I'm grateful to have been alive in the period of history where I could witness greatness and genius. One such, was to have lived at a time to see the work and influence of William F. Buckley, Jr.

As a adolescent, I cut my intellectual and political teeth on Buckley's work. As a high school student in the late 1960s, I rarely missed a telecast of "Firing Line" (on PBS, amazingly), and all through high school I subscribed to National Review. The death of Wm. F. Buckley in 2008 was the end of an era, IMO. But now comes Athwart History: Half a Century of Polemics, Animadversions, and Illuminations -- A William F. Buckley Jr. Omnibus, a collection of the best of Buckley's writings. Editor Roger Kimball notes in the introduction to the book Buckley's many endeavors: magazine publisher and editor, television talkshow host, columnist, the writer of spy novels, lecturer, debater, traveller, adventurer, harpsichord player. "In his spare time," writes Kimball, "he ran for mayor of New York City and, along the way, rescued American conservatism from irrelevance and crack-pottery."

Every election since 1988, conservatives have wondered, "Who will be the next Reagan?" I wonder who will be the next Bill Buckley. We're a right-center nation, or so we're told (and so the election results of last week would indicate). But while conservatism has never quite gone into eclipse since Reagan left office, it's lacked much of the intellectual punch, clarity, and soaring rhetoric provided by Buckley and his colleagues at National Review from the mid-1950s onward to the close of the 20th Century. Who is the intellectual and spiritual heir of Bill Buckley? Glenn Beck? Sean Hannity? Ann Coulter? Sarah Palin? IMHO, each has their merits, but none of them, individually or collectively, measure up to the intellectual firepower and inspiration of William F. Buckley. And conservatism suffers for the lack.

Thanks to the policies of Barack Obama, there is a lot of talk about freedom and liberty in the country today, but who is explaning what liberty is, why it should be valued, and why a large and expanding government is a threat to it, beyond using the term as a cliche or in a guaranteed applause line? "The question is," writes Roger Kimball, "whether those 'uncorroded by a cynical contempt for human freedom' will command the wit, rhetoric, and moral courage to stand athwart tomorrow whispering, confiding, explaining -- sometimes even yelling Stop! -- in order that freedom might have an opportunity to prevail."

At least within the current intellectual vacuum, there's this new "Buckley Omnibus."