Looking For Mr. Right

With the retirement of William F. Buckley, the intellectual conservative movement he founded seems to be in danger of fading into the past. After all, as one prominent conservative thinker puts it, the movement was founded to “defeat Communism and roll back creeping socialism… The first was obviated by our success, the latter by our failure. So what is left of conservatism?” Does the current dominance of the Republican Party in national politics mean that conservatism has won out, or has it merely dumbed itself down to achieve short-term victory? It’s a problem that a new crop of young conservatives are already wrestling with, and there is a definite hope among the old guard that Mr. Buckley’s ideas will find a voice among the youth.