Contributed by: filbert Friday, February 29 2008 @ 02:52 PM CST
Via Reason Hit and Run[*1] , an article in Commentary[*2] by Mr. Buckley himself::
In the next issue of my magazine, National Review, I published a 5,000-word excoriation of Welch:
How can the John Birch Society be an effective political instrument while it is led by a man whose views on current affairs are, at so many critical points . . . so far removed from common sense? That dilemma weighs on conservatives across America. . . . The underlying problem is whether conservatives can continue to acquiesce quietly in a rendition of the causes of the decline of the Republic and the entire Western world which is false, and, besides that, crucially different in practical emphasis from their own.
In response, National Review received the explicit endorsement of Senator Goldwater himself, who wrote a letter we published in the following issue:
I think you have clearly stated the problem which Mr. Welch’s continued leadership of the John Birch Society poses for sincere conservatives. . . . Mr. Welch is only one man, and I do not believe his views, far removed from reality and common sense as they are, represent the feelings of most members of the John Birch Society. . . . Because of this, I believe the best thing Mr. Welch could do to serve the cause of anti-Communism in the United States would be to resign. . . . We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.
The wound we Palm Beach plotters delivered to the John Birch Society proved fatal over time. Barry Goldwater did not win the presidency, but he clarified the proper place of anti-Communism on the Right, with bright prospects to follow.
Who will stand up and tell the Ron Paul conspiracy wackos to bugger off? Who will stand up for classical American liberty and freedom? (Don’t tell me it’s Obama–he’s just another smooth-talking socialist.)
Where is freedom’s champion. Will he (she) appear before it’s too late? And when will it be too late?