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William F. Buckley



  • The Conservative and the Murderer

    Sarah Weinman's book on the friendship between William F. Buckley and convicted murderer Edgar Smith reveals uncomfortable truths about the balance of principle and self-interest in modern conservatism and the persistent tolerance of violence against women. 



  • Right-Wing Trolling Didn't Start with Trump

    by Rick Perlstein

    "Owning the libs" through stunts and irony didn't start with Trump. Since World War II, getting under liberals' skin has mattered as much as policy and ideology, argues the historian of the conservative movement. 



  • Critical Race Theory is Just the New Buzzword in Conservatives’ War on Campuses

    by Lauren Lassabe

    "When understood in this historical context, it becomes clear that complaints about critical race theory are not genuine objections to one type of idea or teaching. Instead, this grievance is part of a far longer and larger campaign to reshape campuses by elevating conservative views and quashing liberal ones."



  • The Future of Conservatism?

    by Charlie Sykes

    "The Bulwark" columnist compares a recent task force for conservatism convened by former Governor Scott Walker to the legacy of the movement and finds it sorely lacking. 



  • Yale conservatives move into Taft mansion

    NEW HAVEN — William Howard Taft was not born there; he did not live or even die there. But for a few years, the 27th president did own the house at 111 Whitney Avenue in New Haven, and that association has conferred on the structure a certain historical gravitas.Now a group of current and former Yale students is betting the building can do the same for the William F. Buckley Jr. Program, which seeks to “expand political discourse on campus and to expose students to often-unvoiced views.” (It is a goal Mr. Buckley himself might have expressed, albeit with more syllables.)Thanks to $500,000 from a single, unnamed donor, the group will soon move into the William H. Taft Mansion — with a two-year lease and an option to buy — and attempt the transformation from a local undergraduate venture into a conservative policy institute with a presence on the national political landscape....



  • Neil Gross: Why Conservatives Hate College

    Neil Gross is author of "Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?" (Harvard University Press; April 9), a professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia and a visiting scholar at New York University's Institute for Public Knowledge. This post is an excerpt from a longer excerpt of "Why Are Professors Liberal and Why Do Conservatives Care?" published on Salon.

  • Where Have All the Real Conservatives Gone?

    by Scot Faulkner and Jonathan Riehl

    Brent Bozell and William F. Buckley in 1954. Credit: Wiki Commons/UCLA Library/LA Daily News.Recent Republican and conservative convocations have displayed one common thing. Those who pass for thinkers and leaders of these intertwined movements think they can keep doing the same things but achieve better results. With the notable except of Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, most Republicans, after sifting through the debris of November 6, think they need new spokespeople and better packaging.The only thing standing between Republicans and the great Reagan landslides of 1980 and 1984 is them. This is a sad commentary on once noble movements. Republican and conservative “leaders” think twenty-first-century Americans are waiting to embrace tenth-century stands on social issues and science, and blustery vague pronouncements on government spending. Does any rational person think today’s Republicans and conservatives bear the slightest resemblance to those who rallied around Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan? Those two icons would not have finished in the top ten in the 2012 Iowa caucus or South Carolina primary.