A gift to National Review Institute is an investment in young people.
In the second half of the 20th century, Bill Buckley and his friends forged a modern American conservatism. Among their ideals were limited government, the rule of law, free enterprise, individual rights — the American founding.
Sometimes these things are popular. Sometimes they are less so. But they are always right. And someone has to stand for them, and National Review is glad to do so, whatever the political or cultural weather.
Since our founding in 1955, we have passed the hat. We have been obliged to do so, owing to financial reality, and our readers and friends have sustained us.
Here at the end of the year, we are asking: Will you please consider making a tax-deductible contribution? Go here — and thank you very much.
Everyone wants to know what to do about young people. In every generation, people have asked, “What’re we going to do about young people?” We all become fogeys, sooner or later. Still, the question seems especially pertinent now. Our campuses are a mess — citadels of conformism and drivel.
And yet, you would be so pleased to meet the young people who work at National Review. Last summer, we had five interns: from Yale (WFB’s alma mater), the University of Florida, Harvard, Yeshiva, and Dartmouth. All five were different from one another, and all were wonderful.
One day, I asked them, “Who are your great influences, in political thought? Give me a list of three or four or five.” The first student said, “Lincoln.” The rest of us said, “No fair! That’s a mic drop! No one can go on from there.” He then said, “Tocqueville.” We said, “Double unfair!”
One of our offerings for young people is the William F. Buckley Jr. Communicators Program. There was a slogan: “Be like Mike” (meaning, Michael Jordan). “Write like Bill”? “Talk like Bill”? Well, he would say, “Write and talk like yourself — your natural, authentic self.” But we can certainly learn from his example. There was scarcely ever a better communicator, including the Great Communicator, his friend Reagan.
Working for us at present are three Buckley Fellows — three holders of the William F. Buckley Jr. Fellowship in Political Journalism (sponsored by our National Review Institute, like the communicators program).
One of these fellows is Zach Kessel, out of Northwestern University. For years, he did musical theater. But he always had an eye on political journalism. He is a man of parts. In recent weeks, he has been keeping a running tally — a sad, outrageous, and important tally: “Antisemitic Threats and Violence in the West.”
Another fellow is Haley Strack, a graduate of Hillsdale College. She grew up in California — blocks from Joan Didion, she tells us. (That famous author wrote for National Review early on.) Haley has written about a variety of issues, not excluding deep-sea mining.
We also have Kayla Bartsch, a Yalie. Among her distinctions is that she sings in the Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral. The other day, she cast an eye — a cold journalistic eye — on the Sunday crossword puzzle.
Dominic Pino is our Dusty Fellow. I had better explain. He is the Thomas L. Rhodes Journalism Fellow. “Dusty” Rhodes was a financial whiz — a partner at Goldman Sachs — who devoted his later years to helping out National Review, chiefly as its president. Dominic is a man after Dusty’s own heart: a sterling free-marketeer who has been celebrating Adam Smith — on the occasion of that great Scotsman’s tricentennial.
In our world, you can never rest on your laurels. You never win — for long. Or lose, for long. The fortunes of freedom wax and wane. You have to stay in the arena, making your case.
Several years ago, I talked with Radek Sikorski, the formidable Pole who once worked as a foreign correspondent for National Review. He was his country’s foreign minister from 2007 to 2014. He is in that role again.
The arguments for freedom and democracy ought to be obvious, he said. But, strangely, they’re not, to many. You have to make those arguments year in, year out. Even day after day. Young people, especially, need to hear them, and authoritarianism can be a seducer.
After the Cold War, a lot of people said, “We won!” Well, we did. But there is always tomorrow, which may have its own challenges, and horrors.
When Milton Friedman died in 2006, a lot of people said, “He won the argument. He put paid to socialism.” It always creeps back, though, socialism does — from left or right. Friedman and his friend Buckley were energetic, even restless. They virtually sprang out of bed to champion right ideas. That is the spirit their admirers and heirs must demonstrate as well.
Bill Buckley wanted National Review to be a blue-bordered package of sound thought, high culture, and fun. Thank you for helping us carry on. Again, to make a year-end tax-deductible contribution, go here. We would be most grateful.