Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Administrative Law Blogs -> Within the Scope

Administrative Law

: Within the Scope

Passing of the Mentor-in-Chief: William F. Buckley, Jr.

By Eric L. Lipman

In the days that have followed his death last Wednesday, I have been taking in the tributes and eulogies that have been offered for the author and publisher William F. Buckley, Jr. Those remarking upon the passing of the Great Man have sung his praises and credited him with every conceivable honor ? including the election of Ronald Reagan and America?s winning of the Cold War. While praises are certainly due ? and perhaps because they are due ? some the over-the-top hyperbole about his life hit me a bit hard. Why should we endeavor to inflate Buckley?s legacy, I wondered, when his real-life accomplishments as an author, magazine publisher, talk-show host and political organizer included enough successes to fill the lives of a dozen men? It seemed so odd and unnecessary.

Yet, listening to the procession of eulogies, Buckley?s real legacy became apparent. Many of those who spoke about Buckley?s life credited him as a singular source of encouragement during their college years. David Brooks, Paul Gigot, Laura Ingraham, Al Regnery ? just to name a few ? all remarked upon Buckley?s influence in this way. He was an eminent man who took time to notice their work and to spur them on.

That point certainly resonated with me. In 1983, I used the release of Buckley?s then-latest book Overdrive: A Personal Documentary, as a pretext to wheedle an interview with him for a show that I hosted on the college radio station. Buckley agreed, and could not have been more courtly and generous during that half hour. And the impact he had was breathtaking. A show that nearly no one listened to before was suddenly transformed into a campus cause célèbre ? because he was on it. When his next book came out, a year later, I wrote him again. A week or two later, I had folks that I had not spoken to in years calling me to say that they had read my letter, along with a very funny riposte from Buckley, on the pages of National Review.

While I did not become a Brooks, Gigot, Ingraham or Regnery in later life, I do know a little bit of what they speak. Like them, a few small waves of Buckley?s hand made large ripples for me as a young man.

And better still, I think that this is something that Buckley knew about himself and fully intended. Who better to spot diamonds in the rough than a man who was a best-selling author at age 25 and a magazine publisher at age 29?

To my mind, therefore, Buckley?s lasting significance is not that ?he stood athwart history, shouting stop;? but rather that he lived his life according to an earlier declaration, made in 1960, that in ?moral and political crises, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths .?? And believing that credo until he died last week, at a very youthful 82 years of age, Buckley encouraged young people as the cheerful talent scout and Mentor-in-Chief.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).