Thursday, September 10, 2009

Wills, Tanenhaus, WFB

Garry Wills and Sam Tanenhaus voice a theme of liberal WFBology in Wills's review of Tanenhaus's The Death of Conservatism in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books. Wills writes: "Tanenhaus thinks that Buckley began to be more realistic during his theatrical campaign for mayor of New York in 1965. . . . In an interview with Buckley in 2007, Tanenhaus found him dubious about the 'conservatism' of the Bush era — for instance, he was highly critical of the Iraq war."

There are some small points to make about this: Garry himself questions how much Bill moved to the center after 1965; there was plenty that all conservatives disliked about Bush II. But one of the main events of that era was the Iraq War, and Garry, Sam and other liberals honor Bill for turning against it.

Two points: 1)  Bill spent much of 2005 and 2006 writing that the Iraq War was lost, over, a bad job. I give instances on p. 232 of Right Time, Right Place, and I could easily have given more. The fact is indisputable. What do we make of it? What I make of it is that it was a major failure of Bill's judgment, as great as his support for segregation in the 1950s (see pp. 12, 33). I believe the two failures are linked by an indifference, inherited in the first instance, atavistic in the second, to the rights and well being of dark people. 1950s Bill did not care that white people oppressed black people, 2000s Bill did not care that brown people tormented brown people. Why liberals like Wills and Tanenhaus should share the second indifference is for them to ponder.

2) By the end of his life, Bill snapped out of it, supporting the surge and telling the last directors' meeting he attended that the struggle against jihadists was our world war (p. 241). Tanenhaus is a conscientious writer, and I expect his biography of WFB to note his last position, though as an anti-war liberal he must deplore it.

09/10 09:59 AMShare