Submitted by Pseth Pseudonymous, Feb 28, 2008 03:18

The death of William F. Buckley Jr. ... is a moment to reflect on what one individual can accomplish with a pen.
Yeah, if the pen comes along with a vellum checkbook. Buckley gave Henry Regnery ten thousand bucks as a publicity budget for his first book, a polemical op-ed piece consisting of a kid complaining about the university he'd just graduated from. And them's ten thousand 1950 bucks. And it's true what T.S. Eliot wrote in a letter about being asked to write for Buckley: this editor kid is essentially an Ivy League debate club captain. (Wish I could find the exact quote, I think it's in the "Conservative Intellectual Movement" book.)
That said, I was an admirer despite not having a lot of time or spare admiration for gazillionaires who do their writing in the back seat while being chauffeured to their Fairfield County estates. (Buckley published a column in the 1970s about stretch limousines and where to order them custom-built -- you just send this company your standard limousine and tell them how many feet you want added, and they'll add it and send it back. Thanks, Bill!) But correcting for the gazillionaire factor, The Sun is absolutely right. What tiny political movement ever changed the political world the way Buckley's did -- and without ever managing to become mainstream or familiar to the public, without ever acquiring direct political power -- without even ever ceasing to be a tiny screwball sect?
Think of this: If Buckley had not brought about Reagan, he would have passed away yesterday and obit writers would have quoted a 1960s characterization of political conservatives as "little old ladies with their sneakers laced up too tight" and called him a talented eccentric.
But today I can't even google a reference to that once well-known phrase. RIP.

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