It’s been five years since the death of William F. Buckley Jr., but the tributes, the reading, and the writing continue. Alvin Felzenberg, currently at work on a biography of National Review’s founder, discusses with NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez some of what he’s learned.
KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: What is so glaringly missing from a world without William F. Buckley Jr. living in it anymore?
ALVIN FELZENBERG: The greatest void Bill Buckley left behind is the absence of humor in public discourse today. All day long we see pundits making their case from both right and left. They go in with their talking points and go out having reassured their respective “bases.” But how many could be considered true wits? I hope Buckley was not the last of these, even though he was truly one of a kind.
LOPEZ: What’s your favorite Buckley book and why?
FELZENBERG: My favorite Buckley book is The Unmaking of a Mayor. In addition to the sidesplitting humor, he put forth proposals that other conservatives subsequently advanced. School choice, urban-enterprise zones, creative policing, tax incentives to lure industry to economically depressed areas, creative transit suggestions, and other ideas that “hope, growth, and opportunity” conservatives such as Jack Kemp, Ronald Reagan, and Newt Gingrich later advanced — all are in this wonderful book. And, as my friend Kate O’Beirne reminds me, there were Buckley Democrats before there were Reagan Democrats. The 13 percent of the vote he captured came largely from Democrats. Buckley’s campaign marked a true turning point for the conservative movement. Running on a similar program, Reagan was elected governor a year later.
Read Full Article »