William F. Buckley On Donald Trump And Demagoguery

After the influential conservative magazine National Review published an entire issue dedicated to trashing Donald Trump - http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2016/01/national-review-against-trump.html  - the magazine now reprints a 2000 Cigar Aficionado piece on Trump from the late, great founder of the magazine, William F. Buckley.

Many people are inflamed by the rampant demagoguery in the present scene. Demagoguery — demagogy — comes in two modes. Most conspicuous is that of the candidate who promises the voters what are best described as Nice Things. Why not health care for the uninsured? Or for children? Why not cheaper drugs? Free child delivery? (Free funerals?) Sharpshooters tracking down demagogy were out there waiting last summer, eyes trained, when Bill Bradley arrived in Iowa. Would he do it? Would he advocate an end to the subsidy of ethanol? Ethanol is the program, excogitated during the Carter Administration, which sought to augment the staying power of a gallon of gasoline by an infusion of ethanol. What happened is that the price of oil went down, and the potential economic value of an ethanol additive turned out to be less than the cost of producing ethanol, and that was many moons ago. . . .

What about the aspirant who has a private vision to offer to the public and has the means, personal or contrived, to finance a campaign? In some cases, the vision isn’t merely a program to be adopted. It is a program that includes the visionary’s serving as President. Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America. But whatever the depths of self-enchantment, the demagogue has to say something. So what does Trump say? That he is a successful businessman and that that is what America needs in the Oval Office. There is some plausibility in this, though not much. The greatest deeds of American Presidents — midwifing the new republic; freeing the slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War — had little to do with a bottom line.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430187/william-f-buckley-donald-trump-demagoguery-cigar-aficionado

The Triumph Of William McKinley: Why The Election Of 1896 Still Matters

Veteran journalist and author Joseph C. Goulden offers a good review in the Washington Times of Karl Rove's The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters.

At hand is a three-fer of a book: an account of the silver versus gold turmoil that gripped the United States near the turn of the 20th century; an incisive look at what veteran political strategist Karl Rovecalls “the first modern presidential primary campaign,” and astute advice on how the modernRepublican Party could benefit from the examples set by the 1896 William McKinley campaign.

Mr. Rove is perhaps the most skilled political strategist of his generation. As a Texas-based consultant, he ran more campaigns for more than 75 Republican congressional and gubernatorial candidates in 24 states, climaxing with two wins for President George W. Bush. Renowned during his Washington days as a bookworm, in the best sense, Mr. Rove puts his accumulated knowledge of history to use to craft a superb political read.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/dec/27/book-review-triumph-william-mckinley/

50th Anniversary of 'The Unmaking Of A Mayor': A Look Back At Bill Buckley's Joyous NY Mayoral Run

When William F. Buckley Jr was running for mayor of New York City in 1965, he was asked what he would do if he won the election, and Buckley famously responded, "Demand a recount."

Seth Lipsky at the New York Post looks back at Buckley's book on the mayoral election, The Unmaking of a Mayor.

What a nifty coincidence, if that’s what it is. Just as Mayor de Blasio has put New York City into a downward dive on the road to the 1970s, New Yorkers are about to get a 50th anniversary edition of William F. Buckley Jr.’s book about running for mayor.

Buckley’s 1965 mayoral campaign failed. He won but 13 percent of the vote in the election that handed up John Vliet Lindsay as the 103rd mayor. But the campaign revitalized the conservative movement in New York — and America.

That’s a fact to savor at a juncture when, for the first time in a generation, the city is suffering under an all-Democratic city government. As things go downhill from the Giuliani-Bloomberg years, there is no one to blame but the party of Bill de Blasio and Melissa Mark-Viverito.

This is more dire than 1965. Back then, the Republicans still held, via Nelson Rockefeller, the governorship. Robert F. Wagner Jr.’s mayoralty was ending; the Democrats nominated Abe Beame.

The GOP chose as liberal a Republican as there was.

Lindsay was so liberal that when asked to explain his vote in Congress against legislation to combat pornography and Communism, he famously replied that they were major industries in his district. Lindsay was way to the left of the national Republican Party and Buckley way to the right of the state’s GOP.

Buckley ran on the ticket of the newly formed Conservative Party. “Why didn’t you run in the Republican Primary,” he later asked himself in a mock-interview that is included in the memoir, which is called “The Unmaking of a Mayor.”

“Why didn’t Martin Luther King run for Governor of Alabama?” is the quip with which he answered his own question. The memoir is full of the jaunty arguments and ripostes that made the founding editor of National Review such a celebrated figure.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://nypost.com/2015/09/22/lessons-for-de-blasios-new-york-from-bill-buckleys-joyous-mayoral-run/