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Steven L. Bachman said:
The recent passing of William F. Buckley, Jr. brought the expected torrent of praise-in-memoriam; exalting Buckley as the Intellectual Godfather of Modern Conservatism, and crediting him with providing the ideological ammunition for a generation of "conservative" thinkers, pundits, and politicians. Indeed, if there is one thing that Bill Buckley deserves great credit for, it is for leading the way in laying the intellectual foundations for the transitional road from the Old Right philosphical principles of individualism, to the overt and fawning collectivist statism of the modern-day conservative movement.

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William F. Buckley clearly died having successfully completed his mission. Today, the conservative movement has completely abandoned all ties to it's anti-statist roots. To listen to Buckley's most prominent successors -- Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Kristol, or Bill Cunningham -- you will not hear any substantive criticism of the workings of the welfare-warfare state. You will not hear any calls for the restoration of private property rights. You will not hear any calls for the abolition of the oppressive and tyrannical income tax -- indeed, every call for reductions in tax rates is predicated on the supply-sider argument that lower taxes serve to increase government revenue; hardly a convincing stance for someone who claims to advocate "limited government." And you certainly will not hear any calls for abolishing the massive macro-economic central planning, price-fixing, engine of inflation and regressive wealth redistribution called the Federal Reserve System. Indeed it's as if the Fed has been deemed sacrosanct, and any criticism leveled towards it may be ham-handedly cast aside as paranoid "conspiracy theory."

In short, you will not hear any truly substantive calls for decreasing the size, scope, and power of government from the gatekeepers of today's "conservative" movement. William F. Buckley, you may rest in satisfied Peace.

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zorbman said:
So your opinion of a man's life rests upon one article written about him?

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zorbman said:
Do you know he had significant disagreements with the modern conservative movement?

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SlashOZ said:
there is nothing inherently wrong with conservative ideals, especially when they are well articulated via WFB and other intellectual conservatives.

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zappaisgod said:

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Virus_with_Shoes said:
Why must you assume that everyone who doesn't agree with you is an idiot?

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Isn't it obvious?

Actually I figure that they are either stupid or have some self-interest in mind. Nobody who puts their hand out surprises me and if they can scam a bunch of politicians into buying their vote with handouts then they aren't so stupid. Except in the long term after they realize they have killed the golden goose.

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"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

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Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won: by Gore, 13.2; by Bush, 2.1.

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