How could I not mention a post by Daniel McCarthy at Tory Anarchist that states: "I think there's more to be said for Panero's view than I allowed at the time." Alas, I hear this refrain all too often.
McCarthy's comments comes out of a panel discussion I took part in last February on "The Enduring Legacy of William F. Buckley Jr," sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. The venue was the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and my co-panelists were McCarthy of The American Conservative and Matthew Continetti of The Weekly Standard. The audio of the conference is now available below, and ISI has also posted a video at its website.
In the years after God and Man at Yale and McCarthy and His Enemies, both influenced by Willmoore Kendall, Buckley lavished a great deal of his energies on his more non-political pursuits. My desire at the conference was to take into account Buckley's novels and memoirs, along with his passions for sailing, skiing, and music, in understanding his legacy. Admittedly, my understanding of Buckley starts at the end of his life and looks back in. For our panel discussion, Daniel McCarthy began with the philosophy that informed the young Buckley and carried it forward. Both points of view are relevant. So allow me return the compliment above with my own observation: there's more to be said for Daniel McCarthy's view than that I allowed at the time.
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