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Buckley was an odd duck--a devout Catholic who rejected much of what Popes John XXIII, Paul VI, and John Paul II had to say. A fanatical defender of liberty who had little time for freedom of expression or the rights of the accused. He said one thing that always impressed me. When asked why so many well educated people like scientists and academics were liberal, he said that it was not in spite of their intelligence, but because of it. As smart people, they thought that problems were solvable. The genius of conservatives, however, he thought, was that they understood that most people were not that bright and all suffered from Original Sin, and therefore all those brilliant people with their clever ideas for social betterment were flying in the face of human nature and bound to fail. I don't necessarily agree, but it provides food for thought.
He also wrote two of the most disgusting columns I've ever read. One called for the forcible branding or tattooing of people with AIDS. The other was a dance of the grave of assassinated Swedish Prime Minister Palme, a man whose deep commitment to socialism and opposition to the Vietnam War earned Buckley's savage contempt--he was positively gleeful when he got murdered.
