I have never been a great fan of National Review, but over the years I have come to admire its founder’s principled, diligent, often iconoclastic, and (over time) increasingly libertarian political views. He made mistakes, surely, but he acknowledged them. Buckley was an honest, serious, and courageous man.
Here’s a description that accompanies Reason’s interview with Jeremy Lott about Buckley:
In William F. Buckley Jr., Reason contributor Jeremy Lott delves into the famed public intellectual’s life, politics and Catholicism. From the founding of National Review to his opposition to civil rights legislation to his embrace of pot legalization, Lott details how Buckley’s religion hugely shaped his political principles.
Lott, the author The Warm Bucket Brigade (a history of the vice presidency) and In Defense of Hypocrisy, sat down with Nick Gillespie to discuss Catholicism, communism, and Buckley’s late-life rebranding of himself as a “libertarian journalist.”
They also talked about Lott’s new gig as editor of the website, RealClearReligion.org, a just-launched sister site to the immensely popular and influential RealClearPolitics.com.
Approximately 10 minutes.
Shot and edited by Meredith Bragg.