Satirical writer Christopher Buckley issued an endorsement of Senator Barack Obama for president, rocking the conservative community. His father, William F. Buckley, Jr. founded the prestigious and pioneering conservative magazine National Review. www.nronline.com.
Buckley’s piece "Sorry, Dad, I’m Voting for Obama" praises the old John McCain and Barack Obama but slams Sarah Palin and the remade John McCain made over to suck up to social conservatives. http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-10-10/the-conservative-case-for-obama.
Buckley states his political philosophy "I’ve read Obama’s books, and they are first-rate. He is that rara avis, the politician who writes his own books. Imagine. He is also a lefty. I am not. I am a small-government conservative who clings tenaciously and old-fashionedly to the idea that one ought to have balanced budgets. On abortion, gay marriage, et al, I’m libertarian. I believe with my sage and epigrammatic friend P.J. O’Rourke that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away." The last line I thought was Ronald Reagan’s and probably older than that.
Buckley was right not to endorse John McCain, who is a thorough-going believer in big government. Where Buckley went wrong was being insufficiently bold. He should have endorsed Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party (www.lp.org) candidate for president. Barr isn’t perfect in my view, but he has the courage to admit he was wrong about some previous stands.
Buckley seems to be aware that he probably won’t get policies he likes from Obama. "But having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves. If he raises taxes and throws up tariff walls and opens the coffers of the DNC to bribe-money from the special interest groups against whom he has (somewhat disingenuously) railed during the campaign trail, then he will almost certainly reap a whirlwind that will make Katrina look like a balmy summer zephyr."
Isn’t this wishful thinking? Obama’s pose of transcending old politics is just that, a pose. See my articles "Obama: The Same Old New Thing" https://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2858685 and "Obama Switches On Wiretapping & Telecom Immunity" https://groundreport.com/articles.php?id=2864284
Barack Obama seems a fictional character like those in Buckley’s novels.
By endorsing Barr, Buckley could have promoted a realignment of American politics and the introduction of a healthy debate about fundamental issues that Buckley cares about. As Barr noted "A vote for John McCain is a wasted vote." http://www.bobbarr2008.com/press/press-releases/165/barr-says-mccain-is-on-his-farewell-tour/
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About the author: Richard Cooper is a international trade executive with a manufacturing firm on Long Island, New York, USA. He is active in the Libertarian Party on eminent domain and other issues. He was chair of the Libertarian Party of New York www.ny.lp.org. He was a Ron Paul delegate in the February 5th primary and is a Bob Barr presidential elector in the November election.
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