That was the immortal response of William F. Buckley Jr., when asked what would be the first thing he would do if he actually won his rollicking, long-shot campaign for mayor of New York City in 1965. Wry, witty, self-deprecating and always a realist, Buckley provided the personality, the elan, the almost manic energy and the intellectual heft — yes, all those things at once — that were essential in catalyzing what became known as the “conservative movement” in American politics.
Without Buckley and his National Review magazine, there would have been no Goldwater for President campaign in 1964. And the Goldwater campaign, of course, begat the political career of Buckley’s friend Ronald Reagan … and the Reagan administration, supported by millions of Buckleyites, begat the rebirth of freedom in well over a dozen nations once dominated by the Soviet empire.
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It was fitting, then, that one of his last public appearances came last summer at a dinner to celebrate the unveiling of the Victims of Communism Memorial here in Washington. In his brief remarks at that dinner, an obviously ailing Buckley made a point of urging, in his emphatic yet elegant way, that everybody go see the movie “The Lives of Others.” Indeed, he said the movie should be required viewing, every year, in every high school in America.
The movie recounted the struggle of writers and other intellectuals in East Germany in the 1980s to keep their art and thought alive amid the repression of the Communist state — and it showed the redemption of a Communist official given the task of spying on those intellectuals, but who came to appreciate deeply their human longing for freedom and self-expression. It was no wonder that Buckley loved that movie, because in a very real way he could identify with it. After all, it was through his own force of will that an entire intellectual counter-movement grew against what had been the reigning liberal orthodoxy of his times.
Intellectually active until the very end, Buckley died Wednesday, working in his study. At age 82, he had lived a remarkably full and momentous life, a life that graced his countrymen. Even so, if we could choose to number his days differently, we would demand a recount — so that he could continue to grace us with his mind and wit for many years to come.
