RINOs are Conservitives Again, Too
Mar 03 2009, 11:08 EST [updated Mar 03 2009, 11:41 EST]
Quoting Tocqueville is positively viral. Christopher Buckley, Obama backer and son of WFB, has caught the virus. He is shocked, SHOCKED, that Obama is a big spending statist.
One thing is certain, however: Government is getting bigger and will stay bigger. Just remember the apothegm that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away. And remember what de Tocqueville told us about a bureaucracy that grows so profuse that not even the most original mind can penetrate it.
Don't read too much into the younger Buckley's transformation. It is easier to believe that he's a weather vane; he supported McCain in the primaries (when he was popular), and then Obama in the election (when he was popular), and now he's against the stimulus (as is popular).

As a bonus atonement he also gives a nod to Hayek. It is doubtful that Chris has converted to his father's conservatism but it is a hint at which way the gadflies are flying.

PS, I looked up "gadfly" on ninjawords (circa 1912 definitions) and it just mentioned the actual gnats. Wikipedia has a laudatory definition close to "speaking truth to power" so I'll be damned if I'm going to link it. The meaning I was going for is found in my 8-inch Websters, definition 2 (definition 1 being the insect)

Gadfly n. 2. a person who persistently annoys or provokes others with criticism, schemes, ideas, demands, requests, etc.
That's the one. I might have gone with "popinjay" but I don't know enough about Christopher to make that accusation. It would be a tidy circle though: his father offered to punch Gore Vidal, the very definition of a popinjay, in the face (Vidal called him a Nazi on national TV, back when that wasn't just a rhetorical insult. WFB later apologized. Vidal didn't.).

[updated] With video. My mistake, Vidal calls Buckley a "crypto-Nazi" and not a "Nazi" proper; Also Buckley offers to "sock you in the goddam face" and not the plainer "in the face."

0.11 seconds
jackdied.com 2003-2007