Talkin' 'bout my education redux

The 1968 commercials for Nixon remain vivid in my memory. Along with the conversation of the Silent Majority adults in the family, they served as the roots for nearly 25 years of conservative militancy, stemming from early teens into my late 30s. That it was Roger Ailes, the grandmaster of Murdoch's tabloid tv station, who crafted the Nixon commercials -- "Look at all the evil liberal students!" -- and also refashioned the political convention into pure spectacle in 1972, was something I didn't discover until I had nearly completed the abandonment of the right wing altogether.

Buckley gave a veneer of civility and rationality to conservatism, which attracted many over the course of his three-plus decades directing the movement. As he retreated from the editorial guidance of National Review & then from any influence over the right at all, all the poisons that lurked in the mud hatched out.

WFB fooled us young turks, as Reagan, anointed by Buckley as early as 1966, did as well; but then we were ripe for being fooled, since we were unable as a nation to take the harsh lesson history always provides to powerful countries, forcing them to recognize flaws & limitations & obliging the people to gain wisdom. Operating according to such limiting wisdom was what conservatism was supposed to do, in the face of rash excitements; instead, it provided cover for a retreat to violent adolescent rage against reality.