wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Peter from Sunset Park June 10, 2009 - 07:28AM

  Today’s conservative movement seems to parallel today’s liberal movement. Those on the far left and far right are dragging the conversation and parties. Please ask Mr. Brookshiser how the Republicans can break free of the far right stranglehold to win their party back. Thanks sugar.

  
  
• [2] JP from Garden State June 10, 2009 - 09:53AM

  Peter from Sunset Park,

  You could not possibly be absolutely more correct. Thanks Peter. I find it almost amusing how hardcore liberals claim to be open minded yet if the Republicans say its night, hardcore liberals will insist its day. Hard core republicans are no better. All they do is shoot down every democratic idea that comes down the pike but yet they refuse to offer any realistic solutions themselves, just hopping if they close their eyes and ears tight enough and do nothing, somehow all our problems will just magically disappear. I truly believe this behavior on both sides is the stumbling block for actually getting anything good done for the American people in this country. This unproductive behavior seems to apply just as well to local politics and state politics as much as it does to national politics.

  So what can realistically be done in the real world at the end of the day to actually pull us out of this stranglehold of party extremists on both sides?

  
  
• [3] Peter from Sunset Park June 10, 2009 - 10:49AM

  JP,

  You said that very well. It has gotten to the point where if you accept, or partially accept, any ideas from the other party you are committing an act of treason. I am for gay rights, abortion rights, etc, and my Republican friends call me a screaming liberal. I also support the war in Iraq, less restrictions on wiretapping and other security measures and my Democratic friends brand me a Christian right Republican (and I am Jewish!). Politics in America have gotten really silly and the Democrats share half the blame.

  
  
• [4] Steve (the other one) from Manhattan June 10, 2009 - 10:53AM

  I forget who said it, but the jist was that conservatism is merely an excuse for selfishness. Also - it is now conventional wisdom that the Vietnam war was a bad idea. Is Brookhiser really still arguing the contrary?

  
  
• [5] kbinps from park slope June 10, 2009 - 10:54AM

  Mr brookheiser seems to have edited Mr Buckley's attack on Gore Vidal. If I'm not mistaken Buckley called Vidal a queer or something of the sort. Fitting considering his iopposition to equal rights for blacks. A smug trust fund baby who never had to do an honest day's work and a rascist but with a clever knack for words. Nice role model.

  
  
• [6] KC from NYC June 10, 2009 - 10:54AM

  So when Buckley refused to let David Brooks take over the magazine because Brooks is Jewish, is that another charming example of Buckley's open-mindedness?

  
  
• [7] hjs from 11211 June 10, 2009 - 10:55AM

  please ask if he still supports medical marijuana

  
  
• [8] Karen from Westchester June 10, 2009 - 10:57AM

  Pls suggest to your guest that he read "Founding Brothers", also that with 35 to 50 years of hindsight, he should read with fresh eyes the academic history of the Viet Nam engagement - if fresh eyes is conceivable.

  
  
• [9] hjs from 11211 June 10, 2009 - 11:00AM

  making the world safe for capitalism!

  
  
• [10] kamal from Bronx June 10, 2009 - 11:00AM

  #6 - can you provide a source for that accusation?

  thanks

  
  
• [11] wladmir from new york city June 10, 2009 - 11:00AM

  oh great, just what we need on WYNC, another right-wing nut praising an even greater right-wing nut, William Buckley, who did more damage to American culture in the 20th century than any other intellectual.

  This is why I never give money to NPR -- too many right wingers, which you can hear anywhere across the radio dial.

  How about a show devoted to detailing all of Buckley's crimes? Now that would be worth listening to.

  
  
• [12] KC from NYC June 10, 2009 - 11:02AM

  And he signs off with a glowing shout-out to our Utopian catastrophe in Iraq. Perfect. I think I know why things are such a mess: idiots like this get airtime.

  
  
• [13] hjs from 11211 June 10, 2009 - 11:03AM

  kamal

  it's well known that brooks is jewish

  
  
• [14] Peter from Sunset Park June 10, 2009 - 11:05AM

  BLS,

  Is this a response to Chomsky? Kind of like when an umpire misses a strike and then calls the next pitch a strike no matter where it is.

  
  
• [15] hjs from 11211 June 10, 2009 - 11:12AM

  peter

  it's called balance. by the way i enjoy hearing from the right wing. it always affirms me

  
  
• [16] KC from NYC June 10, 2009 - 11:14AM

  kamal (10): I would not use the word "accusation"; Buckley said that was his reasoning, so I am not accusing him of anything that isn't public record. It was cited in many mayor papers' Buckley obituaries, albeit in a passing, "isn't this interesting" way (rather than, say, evidence that he had a deeply flawed value system). Here's one of many mentions, in Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2185301):

  "Christian piety and anti-communism were Buckley's twin pillars, the former to such an extent that Buckley ruled out David Brooks, his onetime protégé, as a possible editor of National Review on the grounds that Brooks was Jewish."

  So there you go.

  
  
• [17] Peter from Sunset Park June 10, 2009 - 11:20AM

  hjs,

  thanks for commenting sweety.

  
  
• [18] Karen from Westchester June 10, 2009 - 11:28AM

  Interesting to see how thoughtful New Yorkers see Viet Nam as "a bad idea". As a young student of history becoming an historian, I now see the effects of this history not having been learned. It needed to have been learned -even if most Americans don't participate in the democratic process. Leadership comes from the ranks of the people and if you could see the ignorance like I can see it, you'd moan too. I think it isn't a failure of the educational systems - it is political - what isn't. The ultra conservative rhetoric should have been silenced long ago - not by law or by noise from the left but through knowledge.

  
  
• [19] KC from NYC June 10, 2009 - 11:57AM

  kamal: Nothing? Even after I did all that cutting and pasting so you didn't have to google it yourself? Oh, internet...

  
  
• [20] hjs from 11211 June 10, 2009 - 12:00PM

  kc

  typical right!?

  
  
• [21] Peter from Sunset Park June 10, 2009 - 12:13PM

  hjs,

  thanks for sharing sugar.

  
  
• [22] eva June 10, 2009 - 01:41PM

  kbinps,

  Yeah, I personally preferred it when Norman Mailer threw his vodka tumbler at Vidal's head.

  Fortunately, Vidal's own trust-funded sense of entitlement and enormous ego made him immune to Buckley's verbal histrionics.

  Having said that, people shouldn't use that type of language (or throw drink tumblers) - while Vidal probably loved the attention, it would undoubtedly make other people feel badly.