“God and man and William F. Buckley”

From a professor of law at Roger Williams University:

It is paradoxical that William F. Buckley Jr. – who, more than any other individual, infused the conservative movement with the sentiment of battling evil – enjoyed warm relationships with liberals such as John Kenneth Galbraith, Murray Kempton, Allard Lowenstein and George McGovern. Buckley was a crusader, but he was also a person of great and essential goodwill.

That should be Buckley’s greatest lesson to all of us, whether on the right or the left. If there is something that can save us – from our own excesses, our own foolishness, even our own brilliance – it is essential goodwill.

Yes, but nominate me a prominent person on the Left–politician, pundit, or “personalty”–who has any “essential goodwill,” let alone one who was as cheerful and respectful as Buckley or Milton Friedman. I might accept Hubert Humphrey but he’s almost 34 years dead.

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