Neocon Founder Kristol Dead at 89

Fear of post-'60s 'moral crisis' spurred neocon's shift right

(NEWSER) - "Neoconservative" was originally a label applied to newly conservative ex-liberals and Irving Kristol, the late godfather of the movement, was among the first and finest of the kind, E. J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post. Kristol made a powerful case for "pragmatic liberalist" when he was still a moderate Democrat in the '60s, Dionne writes, before being pushed to the right by the New Left and the "counterculture’s attack on bourgeois values." More»

(NEWSER) - Bill Kristol remembers his late father as a man of a "deep modesty" who "loved intellectual pursuits but always shunned intellectual pretension." Irving Kristol, who died earlier this month at age 89, is generally regarded as the architect of neoconservatism, but the honors he accrued never gave him an inflated sense of "self-importance," his son writes in the Weekly Standard. "I've had such a goddam lucky life," he said a few years back before lung surgery. More»

No clear inheritor to his thoughtful movement, says Newsweek writer

(NEWSER) - William F. Buckley may have been the architect of the modern conservative movement, but what will it do without him? Evan Thomas even wonders, in Newsweek, if what he created still exists at all. Buckley was “a man who could spar intensely with the late liberal icons…and then have a laugh over a martini.” Rush Limbaugh he was not. More»

What ended his brand of conservatism—or does it endure?

(NEWSER) - William F. Buckley Jr. was a titan on the political scene, carving out his own brand of conservatism. But one day after his death, writers differ on his legacy:

• At Slate, Timothy Noah notes Buckley’s more noxious stances—defending segregationists and Joe McCarthy—and says it’s good fortune “Buckley’s man Ronald Reagan” didn’t accomplish goals of turning back civil-rights law and shrinking government. George W. Bush’s ascendance thankfully marked a return to Republicanism at peace with the New Deal.

Influential conservative columnist founded National Review

(NEWSER) - Conservative columnist and editor William F. Buckley Jr. died today at age 82; he suffered from diabetes and emphysema. Buckley founded the opinion magazine National Review, hosted the show “Firing Line” and wrote 45 books. The author of God and Man at Yale and defender of Joe McCarthy was “replete with $10 words and a darting tongue,” the New York Times eulogizes. More»