William F Buckley, RIP.

It's fair to say that William F Buckley was the Godfather of modern conservatism, from an ideological point of view and also from an advocacy perspective. It's important to acknowledge just how important the National Review is, both as a voice for conservative thought and also as an institution around which the activities of the modern conservative movement could be aligned.

For me, he personified the notion that there is an American aristocracy, an active ruling class in the United States, and he performed the role with a sense of duty, dignity and grace. He was a patriot with enough confidence in his own patriotism that he didn't need to wrap himself in a flag at every opportunity. One gets the sense that the real difference between the Buckleys and the Bushes is in essence one of taking away the sense of duty, and replacing it with greed and a sense of entitlement.

Buckleys patrician disposition was simultaneously a great strength, insofar as it enabled a civilized, nuanced and literate intellectual honesty (if viewed through a certain ideological prism) and a sense of noblesse oblige; and also a great weakness by failing to address the degree to which avarice, self interest and partisanship has molded the modern conservative movement. But at the end you could tell that while we was still committed to its principles, he felt disillusioned by the failure of the movement to overcome it's inherent tendency for corruption, vis a vis Iraq.

Still, he loved Bach, and that single virtue could make one forgive him for a multitude of sins, not least of which were the tacky novels. And I will say this: his passing is symbolic if the Democrats win this November.