Over at American Spectator, Professional Reaganite Jeffrey Lord hauls out an old quote from William F. Buckley and juxtaposes it the jeremiad against Trump from National Review: The video is old, grainy and in black-and-white. Yet there is no mistake.
There is a young William F. Buckley, Jr. citing the American columnist Franklin Adams, saying the following (hat tip: Legal Insurrection):
As Franklin Adams once said, I think the average American is a little bit above average. And under the circumstances I rejoice over the influence of the people over their elected leaders since by and large I think that they show more wisdom than their leaders or than their intellectuals. I’ve often been quoted as saying I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Boston telephone directory than by the 2000 people on the faculty of Harvard University.
Catch that line? That the American people “show more wisdom than their leaders or than their intellectuals.”
This Buckley thought, not anywhere near as famous as the line about the first 2000 people in the Boston telephone directory, came to mind as I read the assault on Donald Trump in Buckley’s legendary magazine, National Review.
Lord, who supports Trump and wrote a book to explain why Trump’s the man in 2016, dismantles Boaz and the gang handily by using their former allegiances and words from the past, as well as erroneous claims about Trump, against them.
Lord errs badly in one line. He assures that “every single one” of the “small army of intellectuals” at NR who oppose Trump “is a good, solid concerned conservative.”
Um, not really. David Boaz is a chieftain at the libertarian Cato Institute. Libertarians favor legalizing drugs, prostitution and every other “victimless” crime, as well as open borders and free trade that destroys American jobs. Libertarians believe man is solely an economic being. Bill Kristol is a well-known neocon. Glenn Beck greeted the “unaccompanied minors” at the border with gifts. I could go on…
