Buckley Jr rompt une lance pour Obama et claque la porte du National Review

[José]

Christopher Buckley - le fils du récent disparu William Buckley, fondateur du National Review et icône du conservatisme américain - abandonne la revue de son paternel suite à une polémique suscitée par un article dans lequel il défendait le vote pour Obama. Ce qui est intéressant chez Christopher, qui sympathise avec le libéralisme, ce ne sont pas tant les raisons pour lesquelles il appelle à voter Obama, mais bien l'état des lieux du conservatisme américain qu'il dresse dans sa lettre d'adieu :

Within hours of my endorsement appearing in The Daily Beast it became clear that National Review had a serious problem on its hands. So the next morning, I thought the only decent thing to do would be to offer to resign my column there. This offer was accepted—rather briskly!—by Rich Lowry, NR’s editor, and its publisher, the superb and able and fine Jack Fowler. I retain the fondest feelings for the magazine that my father founded, but I will admit to a certain sadness that an act of publishing a reasoned argument for the opposition should result in acrimony and disavowal.

My father in his day endorsed a number of liberal Democrats for high office, including Allard K. Lowenstein and Joe Lieberman. One of his closest friends on earth was John Kenneth Galbraith. In 1969, Pup wrote a widely-remarked upon column saying that it was time America had a black president. (I hasten to aver here that I did not endorse Senator Obama because he is black. Surely voting for someone on that basis is as racist as not voting for him for the same reason.)

My point, simply, is that William F. Buckley held to rigorous standards, and if those were met by members of the other side rather than by his own camp, he said as much. My father was also unpredictable, which tends to keep things fresh and lively and on-their-feet. He came out for legalization of drugs once he decided that the war on drugs was largely counterproductive. Hardly a conservative position. Finally, and hardly least, he was fun. God, he was fun. He liked to mix it up.

So, I have been effectively fatwahed (is that how you spell it?) by the conservative movement, and the magazine that my father founded must now distance itself from me. But then, conservatives have always had a bit of trouble with the concept of diversity. The GOP likes to say it’s a big-tent. Looks more like a yurt to me.

While I regret this development, I am not in mourning, for I no longer have any clear idea what, exactly, the modern conservative movement stands for. Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance. As a sideshow, it brought us a truly obscene attempt at federal intervention in the Terry Schiavo case.

So, to paraphrase a real conservative, Ronald Reagan: I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.

http://mungowitzend.blogspot.com/2008/10/c…s-fatwahed.html

[Ash]

Les républicains sont vraiment devenus des gauchistes… de droite.

[Noodles]

Si seulement il pouvait y avoir plus de conservateurs comme lui

[Taranne]

http://barefootmailmen.blog.com/4054785/

[roubachov]

Eight years of “conservative” government has brought us a doubled national debt, ruinous expansion of entitlement programs, bridges to nowhere, poster boy Jack Abramoff and an ill-premised, ill-waged war conducted by politicians of breathtaking arrogance

Tout est dit dans cette phrase.

J'espère que la page "neoconservatrice" de l'histoire américaine sera tournée au plus vite.