How many of the people who are fondly remembering Buckley are gay or african american?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

Do people realize how awful the things Buckley said are. You can ask that they do not "celebrate" but how can you ask AIDS victims or gays to "respect his intelligence" when that man said that AIDS victims should be tattooed on the arm and gay AIDS victims should be tattooed on the buttocks? How can you ask African Americans to "acknowledge his writing style" when he supported segregation and declared the white race superior to the black race?


These aren't simple policy issues, but definite human rights issues. If some are able to get past this and hope for Buckley to "Rest In Peace" fine, but you can you expect them to? You are asking people to not just get past ideological differences, but to get past his positions that they weren't fully human.

[wilt the stilt]

1. agree

I always thought he was a blowhard and basically inhuman. I remember a debate with Dershowitz where he was reminiscing about how wonderful it used to be(as all conservatives do) and Dershowitz had him for lunch. He succinctly said "Great for whom", certainly it was not great for African Americans and Jews

[EFerrari]

4. Or women. And iirc, Buckley took pleasure in opposing the women's movement.

February 24, 1973
Oh, the Things They're Debating at Cambridge

Germaine Greer, author of "The Female Eunuch," and William F. Buckley Jr., editor of National Review, debated before the Cambridge Union in England. These excepts are from the program produced by the Southern Educational Communications Association for the Public Broadcasting Service.

President of the Cambridge Union: Good evening, and welcome, ladies and gentlemen. The motion before us is: "This House supports the Women's Liberation Movement." Guest speakers are Dr. Germaine Greer who will be speaking in favor of the motion (laughter) and William F. Buckley Jr., who will be speaking against (applause).

Germaine Greer: I ought now to say either "ladies and gentlemen," or "men and women." It strikes me as very odd that when I use the less ceremonial form of approach, I have to put the men first (laughter), and when I affect to belong to a class of ladies and gentlemen, I put the ladies first. It must be that one class is more skilled in hypocrisy than the other.

When I argue here for your support for the Women's Liberation Movement, I'm asking you really to consider whether or not you can countenance the nonliberation of any group in your community, and whether or not you are so afraid of the characteristics and personalities of one-half of the human race that you cannot allow them room to move or a voice to be heard (applause).

http://partners.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/specials/greer-buckley.html

[hendo]

2. although..

He did go a long way towards fighting anti-Semitism.

[Glorfindel]

3. I do not remember him fondly

He used his position to do great harm to our society by spreading notions of elitism, racism, and homophobia.

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Let's face it, he was a total dick in life

And I have pleasant thoughts about how he can no longer promote persecution and violence towards others.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

6. Brace yourself.

The BEST thing the Buckley Genuflectors could bring themselves to say about me here-
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2930390
was that I'm emotionally immature.
I was crushed.

[Le Taz Hot]

7. And how many people just don't get that

we disagreed with him 99.99999% of the time but that does not negate the fact that he was a great orator, an intellectual (though wrong most of the time) and had absolutely nothing to do with today's conservatism/fascists. The only reason we didn't disagree with him 100% of the time is that he was against the Iraq War and he favored legalizing marijuana.

You really can disagree with someone, vehemently, and yet respect them. You either get that or you don't and it's obvious you don't.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. No, I get it.

As I said, I can understand people wishing him well. But I cannot understand people getting angry at those who do *not* wish him well.

[Le Taz Hot]

9. Because the body isn't even cold yet

and we're already getting posts saying things like "May he rot in hell." I'm sorry, but that's just classless. Disagree with him all you want -- hell, I used to scream at the TV every time I watched Firing Line -- but I think some of the responses are WAY over-reacting. Now, when Chimpboy or Cheney or Rove or any of the other people who are responsible for millions of deaths go, I'll chime in with "May they rot in hell" because THAT is deserved.

[izquierdista]

11. Isn't cold?

That asshole's cold sneer and even colder heart have been his trademark since he was a kid during the depression, learning how to foreclose people out of their homes and into the cold.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

18. May Buckley rot in Hell!

"Politically, his importance is large and enduring. As Spencer Ackerman correctly reckons at Washington Independent, "No William F. Buckley, no National Review; no National Review, no Goldwater movement; no Goldwater movement, no Ronald Reagan… and on and on."
--James Wolcott

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/blogs/wolcott

Buckley/Reagan (Central American Death Squads) gets a pass!?

What do you suggest, Darn them to Heck?

[Le Taz Hot]

21. Where in the hell did you read I said he gets a pass?

I believe I said I disagreed with him 99.99999% of the time. My suggestion had to do with showing a little class and not damning him to hell before the body is cold. We've got WAY too many reactionaries on this board these days and not enough thinkers.

[dommyluc]

10. I wonder

Did they have any trouble closing the coffin lid or did they have to take the wooden stake out of his heart first?

[gratuitous]

12. He got off that AIDS tattoo idea muy pronto

Right about the time his good friend Roy Cohn died of AIDS after a lifetime in the closet. If a man can be judged by the company he keeps, William F. Buckley was a world class creep. An erudite creep, but a creep nevertheless.

[baldguy]

13. This morning Bill Press played a clip of Gore Vidal calling him a crypto-nazi fascist

to his face.

:)

[Laughing Mirror]

17. ‘Now, listen, you queer! Stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or ...

I’ll sock you in your goddam face and you’ll stay plastered."

That was Buckley's response. Did they play that too?

[baldguy]

19. Yeah. they were talking over one another so it was unavoidable.

Mr Erudite really lost it.

[Orsino]

14. Intelligence in the service of tyranny is not worthy of respect.

Fuck Buckley and the rich men who rode in on him.

[Brewman_Jax]

15. I'm sure not many

let him rot in the hell of his own construction.

[Blue_Tires]

16. i'm not remembering him fondly

but as i have said in other threads, compared to the current crop of RW screech-meisters talking out of their collective ass, Buckley seems almost saintly by comparison...(not the best measuring stick, but Buckley's death does illustrate how incredibly deep we have fallen in the standards of political discourse)

[malaise]

20. I have no fond menories of Buckley

but I'm saving my venom for Bush and Cheney.