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- My guest tonight has 
probably appeared more hours

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on television talk 
shows than anyone

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in the history of television,

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which may or may not 
have something to do

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with the unhappy 
state of our universe,

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Mr. Susskind, you 
are most welcome.

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- I wonder if I were unwelcome, 
how you'd introduce me.

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(audience laughing)

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- [Narrator] Bill was a 
provocateur, a public brawler.

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- Please don't proceed

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as though you had just 
made a cosmic breakthrough.

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(audience laughing)

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- [Narrator 2] Buckley spends 
a great deal of his time

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in New York City,

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where he works at editing his 
magazine, National Review.

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(coworkers laughing)

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- [Narrator 3] Without 
William Buckley,

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conservatism as we understand 
it would never have happened.

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- [Narrator 4] He met 
young people all the time,

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and what he found 
was they liked him.

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He was anti-establishment.

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- [Narrator] He was everywhere.

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You'd open up a newspaper 
and see him there.

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You'd see his books 
in the bookstore.

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You almost couldn't 
escape Bill Buckley.

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- So the subject of 
your own intolerance

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of other people's point of view

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is I think itself 
linguistically interesting.

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- [Narrator 3] Or he 
would have Noam Chomsky

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or he would have Huey 
Newton, William Kunstler,

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people that he disagreed 
with profoundly.

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- See, the trouble with you 
is that you get very resentful

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whenever anybody reminds 
you of what you say.

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If I said what you said, 
I'd feel the same way.

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- [Narrator] It was an 
almost unstoppable energy.

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- Much better looking, 
much younger looking

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than on television.

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- [Narrator 3] So he 
decides to run for mayor.

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- It is instructive to 
meditate upon the rise of crime

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and our apparent 
acclimation to it.

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- [Narrator] They're 
upset about drugs,

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they're upset about crime,

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and they saw Buckley, 
they saw themselves.

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- [Narrator 3] 
One of the slogans

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of the Civil Rights Movement 
in those days was freedom now.

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Buckley's slogan for the 
Civil Rights Movement

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would've been some freedom 
one day, when you're ready.

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This is the beginning 
of the movement

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of the white working class 
into the Republican party.

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- We need your help in a crusade

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to change the direction 
of this country.

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(audience applauding)

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- [Narrator] Conservative 
movement had become a machine

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that Buckley had helped build,

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but now was beyond his 
ability to fully control.

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- [Narrator] You know, 
when you're on the boat,

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it doesn't matter how 
fast you're moving,

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you just have to 
keep moving some way.

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And that's what 
Buckley was like.

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- [Narrator 4] Bill didn't 
want merely to taste life,

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he wanted to drink it 
and he wanted to gulp it.

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- [Bill] Ninety-nine people 
out of 100 are interesting,

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and the hundredth is interesting

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because he is the exception.

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(gentle music)