March 11, 2008
Richard Posner Weighs In on William F. Buckley
The current issue of The Chronicle Review includes a sampling of the myriad remembrances of William F. Buckley Jr. triggered by his death last month at the age of 82. And as we note in the introduction, most of the assessments of Buckley's legacy have been generous -- if not reverential.
Judge Richard Posner offers a dissenting opinion. Buckley is widely credited with cobbling together the modern conservative movement by uniting free-market economists, libertarians, social conservatives, and anti-Soviet defense hawks under one broad tent. Posner, a wildly prolific law professor at the University of Chicago, finds this suggestion misleading. "Free-market economists have always been on a different track from the kind of political and social conservative that Buckley exemplified," Posner writes at his blog. "He was a friend of free markets, but on moral grounds rather than because he thought the market a more efficient method of allocating resources than the government, though he thought that also."
Posner is intent on not giving Buckley credit for the ascendance of the free-market movement beginning in the 1970s. "Most of the causes dearest to [Buckley's] heart were unrelated to economic policy, such as his belief about the proper strategies for defending against the Soviet Union, expelling Soviet agents from the federal government, or defeating our current enemies," Posner writes. Unlike Buckley, "economists might think that particular religious beliefs, such as Calvinism, with its emphasis on frugality and saving, promote social welfare, but they have no position on the truth of religion. They value markets because markets are efficient, not because people have a moral entitlement (as John Stuart Mill believed) to engage in any and all conduct that does not create a palpable harm to other people."
Evan Goldstein | Posted on Tuesday March 11, 2008 | PermalinkComments
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Alexander Cockburn (cf. Counterpunch.org) summed Buckley up without mincing words as “reptile.” There’s a poetic truth for you.
— david Mar 11, 12:51 PM #
Richard Posner – Insightful
[Free-market theory was really advanced by Milton and Rose Friedman]
[We need not advance Buckley in death beyond what he was in life. He would not have wanted it.]
Alexander Cockburn – superficial
david – ignorant (of truth)
— Ole Perfesser Mar 11, 04:28 PM #
Posner neglects to note that when he was a Yale undergrad, he was a fire-breathing leftist. In those days, he undoubtedly disparaged Buckley for very different reasons. At least Buckley had a soul. Maybe Posner had one in his lefty days.If Posner has one now, he hides it very well.
— luigi Mar 11, 05:03 PM #
While Posner and Buckley are/were both conservatives, they are diametrical opposites in the matter that really counts. Posner is a deep thinker and a heavy hitter; Buckley was a glib superficialist. Of course, political thought being what it is, Buckley had far greater influence than Posner ever will.
— Lawrence S. Lerner Mar 11, 05:03 PM #
Calling Posner “a wildly prolific law professor at the University of Chicago” is a bit of a stretch. He used to be a U of C prof, but he has been a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit for many years. He has been a part-time lecturer at Chicago since taking the bench.
— CU Alum Mar 11, 05:05 PM #
My cat did NOT like Buckley at all. He also hissed at Posner the one time Posner was on TV while he was eating.
— Richard Tabor Greene Mar 11, 11:01 PM #
Posner “wildly prolific”? Yes; see, e.g., http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/002-0103810-2275209?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Richard+Posner&x=14&y=19
— Steve Mar 12, 09:21 AM #
William F. Buckley’s “Conservative Movement” Still-Born, Dead-On-Arrival, Decades Ago, Because It Was Godless, Against Christ, Ignored God’s Word
“Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain who build it.” – Psalm 127:1.
By John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
The Lord Jesus Christ did not build the “conservative movement” house. Thus, it was a house built on sand, it fell and great has been the fall of it, a recent example of this fall being the “conservative movement’s” support for President of George W. Bush who has given us the most Godless, unconstitutional, debt-ridden, big spending Federal Government in our history.
Even though most of its “leaders” claimed to be Christians, the “conservative movement” was dead-on-arrival because, from the beginning, it’s political plan was Godless, against Christ, and ignored the Bible. This “movement” vainly imagined succeeding without honoring Christ, succeeding through bread-alone, flesh-and-blood-only-politics when God tells us the REAL battle is a spiritual war which must be fought in the full-armor of God (Ephesians 6:10ff).
An example of the Godlessness I allude to occurred when I was on Bill Buckley’s “Firing Line” program June 24, 1987. Referring to him having told Malcolm Muggeridge that he (Buckley) did not believe there was a Christian means of organizing society, I asked Bill: “Wouldn’t God’s Laws, wouldn’t the Laws of Christ be a means of organizing a society?” Buckley said: “No. Noƒ.The consent of the governed in societies ruled by the people is the ultimate source of authority.”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once asked how just a few Communists could take over his country when it had a thousand years of being Christian? He replied: “We forgot God.” The leaders of the “conservative movement,” politically-speaking, forgot God. They forgot that the Lord Jesus Christ is Lord over ALL, including politics. They forgot that He is King of kings, Lord of lords, with ALL power in Heaven and on earth. They forgot Psalm 2:12 commands: “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”
I know all of what I say here is true because, from the inside, I ran with this “conservative movement” from the mid-1960s to 1980 when God, by His grace alone, raptured me from among this Christless crowd Ð something for which, literally, I will be eternally grateful
To hear much more on this subject, please click here to hear the latest “The American View” radio show 145
If you’d like to interview John Lofton, you may reach him by calling: 301-873-4612; 410-760-8885; or by email: JLof@aol.com.
Press Release Sent to the Christian Newswire; for release March 3, 2008; 7 am EST.
— John Lofton, Recovering Republican Mar 15, 11:48 PM #