The United States Postal Service recently announced that conservative author, scholar and pioneer, William F. Buckley, Jr., will be commemorated on a postage stamp. The honor comes in time to mark the centennial of Buckley’s birth.
The postage stamp, just like paintings and statues, serves as a reminder of the most influential people, places and events that shaped the nation. Buckley is one of the most important political figures who never held elected or appointed office. (He did run for mayor of New York City in 1965 but lost in a landslide).
Buckley, who wrote fifty books, founded National Review magazine, and hosted the debate television program Firing Line, stands as the tallest, and most visionary conservative activists.
WFB, as he signed correspondence, was brought up in a privileged environment, and attended Yale University. He was a Renaissance man who played the harpsichord and was a skilled yachtsman. One of his oft-cited quotes was “I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University,” a sentiment that has only grown more accurate with age.
At the age of only twenty-five, Buckley authored his first book, “God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom.” Several years after graduating from the university, he levelled harsh criticism at some faculty members were foisting secular views on students and trying to shake their religious views. Nearly three quarters of a century later, we are fighting the same battles that Buckley had the wisdom to identify.
When launching National Review four years later, he explained, “It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no other is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” It became the most vital voice of conservatism in the U.S. Its website, National Review Online, carries on that tradition.
On September 11, 1960, Buckley called a meeting of young conservative leaders at his home in Sharon, Connecticut. The founders of Young Americans for Freedom signed what became known as the “Sharon Statement,” one of the original documents of modern conservatism.
This credo made such bold pronouncements as “ That the purpose of government is to protect those freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice; That when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power, which tends to diminish order and liberty; That the Constitution of the United States is the best arrangement yet devised for empowering government to fulfill its proper role, while restraining it from the concentration and abuse of power.
It also stated, “That when government interferes with the work of the market economy, it tends to reduce the moral and physical strength of the nation; that when it takes from one man to bestow on another, it diminishes the incentive of the first, the integrity of the second, and the moral autonomy of both.”
These are only a few highlights of Buckley’s eighty-two years.
But we must ask: who are the left-wing thinkers, polemicists and activists who deserve to be memorialized on a stamp or in other art forms?
In other words, who is the American Left’s William Buckley? Who is responsible for defining left-wing ideology and motivating others to put those ideas into practice?
They may point to writers such as I.F. Stone and Noam Chomsky, but they did not inspire political movements or devise a winning governing philosophy.
It is ironic, considering the Left’s domination of Hollywood, the media, and higher education that no one of Buckley’s stature can be found.
Today, the Left brays about shutting parents out of school board meetings, urging schoolchildren to keep secrets from their parents regarding gender identity. A recap of quotes from the American Left in 2024 shows hatred, disdain for religion, and justification for murder of those the Left deems deserving.
The Postal Service has done a great thing to remind Americans of a life well lived and a legacy that has inspired millions. America’s liberals have a paucity of accomplished individuals to whom they can point for a lasting legacy.
Author Kevin P. McVicker is a partner in Shirley & McVicker Public Affairs in Alexandria, Virginia
2024 Election
William F. Buckley postage stamp
Conservative movement
National Review
Sharon statement
Young American for Freedom
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