WEBVTT 00:00.967 --> 00:02.302 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (audience applauds) 00:02.302 --> 00:04.170 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - Mr. Buckley, I've noticed that 00:04.170 --> 00:07.540 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% whenever you appear on television, you're always seated. 00:07.540 --> 00:10.276 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Does this mean you can't think on your feet? 00:10.276 --> 00:13.513 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (audience laughs) 00:13.513 --> 00:14.414 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% - It's very... 00:15.815 --> 00:20.153 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% very hard to stand up carrying the weight of what I know. 00:20.153 --> 00:22.922 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (audience laughs) 00:22.922 --> 00:25.992 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (audience applauds) 00:27.894 --> 00:30.463 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (light music) 00:31.831 --> 00:33.700 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 1] And now, will you welcome, please, 00:33.700 --> 00:37.871 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% a man who's been described in a million different ways. 00:37.871 --> 00:39.839 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 2] He's articulate, provocative, 00:39.839 --> 00:42.442 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% a scourge to some people and a hero to others. 00:42.442 --> 00:43.743 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 3] I always find him fascinating. 00:43.743 --> 00:45.578 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 4] Very, very strong opinion. 00:45.578 --> 00:47.447 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 5] One of the most controversial 00:47.447 --> 00:50.984 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and charming men on television, Mr. William F. Buckley Jr. 00:50.984 --> 00:53.787 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (audience applauds) 00:53.787 --> 00:56.689 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 6] Bill Buckley was so refreshing. 00:56.689 --> 00:57.957 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% He was so exciting. 00:57.957 --> 00:59.459 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% - It seems to me 00:59.459 --> 01:00.860 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% that whoever said that was trying to be provocative. 01:00.860 --> 01:03.963 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Whether he is naturally or affectively stupid, 01:03.963 --> 01:05.365 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% I don't know. 01:05.365 --> 01:08.635 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% (host laughs) (audience applauds) 01:08.635 --> 01:11.938 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Speaker 7] Whether you agreed with him and loved him, 01:11.938 --> 01:14.240 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% or he enraged you, 01:14.240 --> 01:16.943 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Buckley made everybody's blood run quickly. 01:16.943 --> 01:19.112 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - I think that you use the word violence 01:20.513 --> 01:24.417 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% with such slovenliness as to render yourself unintelligible. 01:24.417 --> 01:25.852 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 8] This is the William F. Buckley 01:25.852 --> 01:27.187 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% America knows best, 01:27.187 --> 01:29.722 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% the man someone called the King of Leer, 01:29.722 --> 01:32.725 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% grimacing or incredulous or disdainful. 01:32.725 --> 01:35.361 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - Mr. Buckley, you once called Harry Truman 01:35.361 --> 01:38.064 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% the nation's most conspicuous vulgarian. 01:38.064 --> 01:39.666 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% You said of General Eisenhower 01:39.666 --> 01:41.267 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% that when he touches a subject, 01:41.267 --> 01:44.771 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% every ray of light, every breath of air is choked out. 01:44.771 --> 01:46.673 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% Of the Kennedy administration, I quote you, 01:46.673 --> 01:48.641 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% "There are not enough psychiatrists 01:48.641 --> 01:51.044 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% to cure this crazy administration." 01:51.044 --> 01:54.547 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And you've called President Johnson, Uncle Corn Pone. 01:54.547 --> 01:56.049 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - I didn't say that about Kennedy. 01:56.049 --> 01:57.350 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I said the other three though. - [Interviewer] Right. 01:57.350 --> 01:59.052 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - I'd be glad to elaborate on them. 02:00.286 --> 02:02.088 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% (group applauds) (quirky instrumental music) 02:02.088 --> 02:05.225 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Speaker 9] Bill was so big that he wasn't one thing. 02:05.225 --> 02:08.761 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% A political man, yes, but also a literary one. 02:08.761 --> 02:13.833 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% A provocateur, a public brawler, but also a kind of poet. 02:15.835 --> 02:18.471 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 10] He wanted to encompass as many forms 02:18.471 --> 02:20.440 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% of conservatism as he could. 02:20.440 --> 02:22.742 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - It certainly isn't just rich people, 02:22.742 --> 02:24.844 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% it certainly isn't just poor people. 02:24.844 --> 02:26.746 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% It certainly isn't just Westerners 02:26.746 --> 02:29.549 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% or just Middle Westerners. 02:29.549 --> 02:33.119 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% There are conservatives everywhere I've been in America. 02:33.119 --> 02:34.754 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 11] It wasn't about personal power, 02:34.754 --> 02:36.856 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% it was about building a movement. 02:36.856 --> 02:41.094 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - Conservatives paid $1 each to see William F. Buckley Jr. 02:42.195 --> 02:43.897 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% There was nothing fancy on the menu here, 02:43.897 --> 02:45.765 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% just hot tongue and cold shoulder 02:45.765 --> 02:48.301 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% for everything distasteful to the conservatives. 02:49.435 --> 02:51.771 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 11] Without William Buckley, 02:51.771 --> 02:55.542 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% conservatism as we understand it would never have happened. 02:55.542 --> 02:57.076 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Group] We want Buckley! 02:57.076 --> 02:58.611 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Speaker 12] Buckley said 02:58.611 --> 03:00.880 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% that he was a revolutionary against the establishment. 03:00.880 --> 03:03.183 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% An intellectual revolutionary. 03:03.183 --> 03:04.417 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - [Speaker 12] I can't think of anyone 03:04.417 --> 03:06.052 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% who you would compare him to 03:06.052 --> 03:08.521 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% over the last three-quarters of a century 03:08.521 --> 03:12.325 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% who had the impact that he had on American political life. 03:13.493 --> 03:16.629 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% To have built the kind of edifice of ideas 03:16.629 --> 03:20.733 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and institutions that Buckley did is astonishing. 03:20.733 --> 03:22.502 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% It's just astonishing. 03:22.502 --> 03:27.574 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% (quirky music continues) (typewriter clacking) 03:31.611 --> 03:34.147 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (typewriter dings) 03:34.147 --> 03:34.948 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Producer] William F. Buckley? 03:34.948 --> 03:35.848 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% - [Buckley] All set. 03:36.649 --> 03:38.117 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% - [Speaker] Start. 03:38.117 --> 03:40.220 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - Why are the races unreconciled? 03:40.220 --> 03:42.322 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% Why does poverty persevere? 03:42.322 --> 03:44.524 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Why are our governors indifferent to us? 03:44.524 --> 03:46.492 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% Why are the young disenchanted? 03:46.492 --> 03:49.262 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% Why do the birds sing so unhappily? 03:49.262 --> 03:50.630 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% It is easy to be carried away, 03:50.630 --> 03:54.901 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and yet always, there is a strain of seriousness, 03:54.901 --> 03:56.803 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% something in the system that warns us, 03:56.803 --> 03:59.505 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% warns us that America had better strike out 03:59.505 --> 04:01.574 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% on a different course rather than face 04:01.574 --> 04:06.479 align:left position:20% line:77% size:70% another four years of asphyxiation by liberal premises. 04:06.479 --> 04:09.015 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% (crowd cheers) (pensive music) 04:09.015 --> 04:10.984 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Sam Tanenhaus] There is no political movement 04:10.984 --> 04:15.555 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that comes close to the American conservative movement, 04:15.555 --> 04:18.224 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% where you actually have a different idea 04:18.224 --> 04:20.393 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% about what the country should be like, 04:20.393 --> 04:24.097 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and then over time, the country gets there. 04:24.097 --> 04:26.666 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% And that's what happened with this conservative movement. 04:26.666 --> 04:31.170 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - Under liberalism, America hasn't prospered. 04:32.605 --> 04:34.874 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Sam Tanenhaus] Bill Buckley was one of its best writers, 04:34.874 --> 04:37.043 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% maybe its best debater. 04:37.043 --> 04:40.146 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% He was its voice, he was its face. 04:41.614 --> 04:44.984 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There's the Whitman line, you know, "I contain multitudes". 04:44.984 --> 04:47.854 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Buckley did contain multitudes within himself. 04:47.854 --> 04:50.156 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - This is William F. Buckley Jr. in New York. 04:51.357 --> 04:52.725 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% (indistinct) Perfect. 04:52.725 --> 04:53.593 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% - [Speaker] Good. 04:53.593 --> 04:55.361 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (Buckley chuckles) 04:55.361 --> 04:57.030 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (pensive music) 04:57.030 --> 05:00.733 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Christopher] My father was a man of many parts. 05:00.733 --> 05:05.371 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% If you ask me what I was most proud of, 05:06.205 --> 05:08.875 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% it was his generosity of soul. 05:10.710 --> 05:14.547 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% I have a hard time imagining Pop sitting down 05:14.547 --> 05:18.084 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% at his desk and thinking, "I shall become a leader." 05:18.084 --> 05:22.789 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% You know, I think it evolved much more organically. 05:22.789 --> 05:25.291 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (pensive music continues) 05:25.291 --> 05:27.560 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Someone once wrote my father and said, 05:27.560 --> 05:31.497 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% "Mr. Buckley, what is the secret to happiness?" 05:31.497 --> 05:34.434 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And he wrote back, "Don't grow up." 05:36.436 --> 05:41.274 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% He was raised in, I guess you could call it a bubble. 05:41.274 --> 05:44.444 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% It was sort of, you could call it Buckley World. 05:44.444 --> 05:47.347 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% (pensive music continues) (car whooshes) 05:47.347 --> 05:51.317 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% In 1923, the family bought a house 05:51.317 --> 05:54.554 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% in Sharon, Connecticut, and it was called Great Elm 05:54.554 --> 05:58.491 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% because there was an enormous elm tree. 05:58.491 --> 06:03.496 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I think it was the largest and oldest elm in Connecticut. 06:04.397 --> 06:05.798 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% (engaging music) (bird squawks) 06:05.798 --> 06:09.001 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Kevin Schultz] Great Elm was a world unto itself. 06:09.001 --> 06:12.405 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% It's this huge estate filled with six pianos 06:12.405 --> 06:15.408 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% so all the children could practice on their own. 06:15.408 --> 06:18.544 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (engaging music continues) 06:18.544 --> 06:21.147 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% The family was unbelievably insular. 06:21.147 --> 06:23.316 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% Nobody had to go outside of the walls 06:23.316 --> 06:26.085 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% in order to encounter any part of life. 06:27.253 --> 06:29.222 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker] They don't go to the local school. 06:29.222 --> 06:32.959 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% They have a school that they hold within their house. 06:34.260 --> 06:37.130 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% They have a variety of tutors in academic subjects, 06:37.130 --> 06:41.100 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% tutors in ballroom dancing and horse riding. 06:41.100 --> 06:42.435 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (hooves clopping) 06:42.435 --> 06:44.937 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% They were learning French, learning Spanish, 06:44.937 --> 06:47.140 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% learning how to sail, learning how to hunt. 06:48.274 --> 06:49.742 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker] It was like a summer camp 06:49.742 --> 06:52.178 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and a liberal arts college right there at the estate. 06:53.446 --> 06:56.449 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker] The Buckley children had an opportunity 06:56.449 --> 07:01.154 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% to inspire each other, to challenge each other, 07:01.154 --> 07:02.789 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% driven by their father. 07:02.789 --> 07:05.958 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% He really was sort of the headmaster of this academy. 07:07.627 --> 07:10.696 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Christopher] My grandfather was a fascinating guy. 07:10.696 --> 07:13.065 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% He grew up dirt poor. 07:13.065 --> 07:17.703 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% He went down to Mexico and got into the oil business, 07:19.005 --> 07:20.740 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% and it was boom and bust. 07:22.408 --> 07:25.011 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% Eventually, he found a lot of oil. 07:26.846 --> 07:28.281 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Matthew Continetti] Will Buckley was searching 07:28.281 --> 07:31.617 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% for fortune, but he got caught up in a lot 07:31.617 --> 07:34.420 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% of revolutionary movements in Latin America, 07:34.420 --> 07:37.623 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and I think that instilled in him a distaste for disorder 07:38.458 --> 07:40.193 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% and a fear of revolt. 07:41.360 --> 07:43.629 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% And he communicated that to his children. 07:46.699 --> 07:48.935 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Christopher] My grandmother was an enchanting woman. 07:48.935 --> 07:52.805 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% We called her Mimi, Aloise Steiner Buckley. 07:52.805 --> 07:55.241 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% Deeply, deeply religious. 07:56.342 --> 07:59.479 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% She gave my father a religious faith 07:59.479 --> 08:04.484 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that was the molten core of his being, 08:05.685 --> 08:08.221 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and I think you could extrapolate from that 08:08.221 --> 08:10.890 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% everything about my father. 08:10.890 --> 08:13.659 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (engaging music) 08:13.659 --> 08:16.095 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Matthew Continetti] That devotion ends up being 08:16.095 --> 08:17.897 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% kind of at the core of Buckley's understanding 08:17.897 --> 08:19.398 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% of what love is, 08:19.398 --> 08:22.902 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% love of one's friends, one's family, and one's country. 08:24.737 --> 08:29.308 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Lee Edwards] This was Will Senior's pedagogical idea 08:29.308 --> 08:32.044 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% to say, "I'm not going to entrust this to government 08:32.044 --> 08:33.679 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% to take care of my children. 08:33.679 --> 08:37.984 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% I'm gonna create this perfect brood of young people." 08:37.984 --> 08:39.952 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (engaging music continues) 08:39.952 --> 08:45.024 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% He's trying to extract the very best from his children, 08:45.892 --> 08:46.893 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% challenging them again and again. 08:48.828 --> 08:53.900 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Bill Buckley Jr. really learned how to defend himself 08:55.301 --> 08:58.004 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and to stake out positions which nobody else had staked out. 08:58.004 --> 09:00.039 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (engaging music continues) 09:00.039 --> 09:01.874 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Matthew Continetti] There were frequent guests, 09:01.874 --> 09:04.443 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and among the guests was a major influence on Buckley, 09:04.443 --> 09:06.846 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% the literary journalist, Albert Jay Nock. 09:08.214 --> 09:12.885 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Nock was a former Anglican priest who abandoned his family 09:12.885 --> 09:15.821 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% to become a intellectual aristocrat. 09:17.023 --> 09:19.926 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Christopher] Nock's theme was essentially, 09:19.926 --> 09:22.128 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% civilization was in decline, 09:22.128 --> 09:23.763 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (typewriter clacks) 09:23.763 --> 09:27.833 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and it had come down to what he called the remnant, 09:27.833 --> 09:30.436 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% which was a very limited number of people 09:30.436 --> 09:34.574 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% who could really be trusted to lead wisely. 09:34.574 --> 09:36.776 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% (engaging music continues) 09:36.776 --> 09:39.478 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - [Beverly Gage] That central thought 09:39.478 --> 09:42.114 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% that there is a noble remnant 09:42.114 --> 09:46.152 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% of highly educated men in particular, 09:46.152 --> 09:49.288 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% who were going to stand apart from society, 09:49.288 --> 09:52.825 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% who could see things that other people couldn't see, 09:52.825 --> 09:54.994 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% loomed very large for Buckley 09:56.362 --> 09:59.298 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and it really becomes part of the sensibility 09:59.298 --> 10:01.100 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% of the conservative movement.