Flying High

I just finished Bill Buckley’s latest book, Flying High¹. It saddens me to say it is his last book, published posthumously. Yet, there is something poetic, even romantic, about this.  The book describes National Review’s (NR) instrumental support of Goldwater: Brent Bozell’s ghostwriting of Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative, the formation of the Young Americans for Freedom which worked hard for Goldwater, William Rusher’s (NR’s publisher) friendship with the candidate, James Burnham’s and Frank Meyer’s husbandry of the Conservative philosophy … and other delights.

It is a nostalgic view of clear-headed repudiation of the left leaning policies from both parties that galvanized the Conservative movement and ultimately led to Reagan. And it thus reminds us what we must do now.

How bitter sweet it must have been for Buckley to write this. Buckley ends his life and his career precisely where it started. What a gift to us, children of one of the greatest movements in American History. What exquisite beauty!

1- Buckley, William F., Jr. (2008); Flying High: Remembering Barry Goldwater. New York: Basic Books.