Michael Jackson was a spectacular showman and entertainer and his death is untimely. He appears to have been a man who struggled his entire life with the cost of the celebrity lifestyle and his passing is unfortunate. May he rest in peace.
What does that have to do with William F. Buckley, Jr. and Balanced Budgets?
‘Only’ this: the news channels have been bombarding the nation and the world with every detail of Michael Jackson, his life and his music and video production, for the last several days. I suspect that all the weekly news magazines will feature his death as their lead article this coming week, and he will probably be featured on the cover of these magazines at least once or perhaps twice over the next several months.
William F. Buckley, Jr. died on February 27th, 2008. I’m not sure any major news channel gave his death more than a single line of coverage, with the exception of perhaps Fox News. Yet, he was the perhaps the key figure of the recovery of conservative thought in not simply the US but the west over the past 50 years. Beyond that, Buckley set the stage that led not simply to the Reagan revolution, he set the stage for a change in language and thinking in and around government world-wide. The Buckley-Reagan nexus was responsible for the overturning of the ‘common-knowledge’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s that ‘controlled,’ ever upward spiraling deficit spending was the only way to manage the government’s tax and spend policy
Despite what Reagan naysayers may insist, Reagan’s tax cuts caused a massive increase in overall tax revenues. Only because Congress continued to add to the largesse of the entitlement programs on top of the Reagan defense increases did the deficit grow despite the huge revenue increase of the Reagan presidency. Nevertheless, it was Reagan who brought about the change in dialogue and language, that resulted in Bill Clinton running for the Presidency with promises to balance the budget, and virtually every candidate since 1992, Democrat, Republican, Independent or Libertarian has made the same promise.
And, at its root, that is a direct fruit of the labor of William F. Buckley.
The point is that we – the whole planet – are unbalanced. Riots continue in Iran, but Jackson’s autopsy gets more press than the riots, the deliberations on cap-and-trade and the rest of the climate bill, and a wide range of other issues. The press is consumed with the lives, and deaths, of entertainers but mainly ignores the fundamentals. How many remember that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died almost a year ago? How much press did he receive? Precious little as I remember. Let’s bring a little balance back to our lives.
What does that have to do with William F. Buckley, Jr. and Balanced Budgets?
‘Only’ this: the news channels have been bombarding the nation and the world with every detail of Michael Jackson, his life and his music and video production, for the last several days. I suspect that all the weekly news magazines will feature his death as their lead article this coming week, and he will probably be featured on the cover of these magazines at least once or perhaps twice over the next several months.
William F. Buckley, Jr. died on February 27th, 2008. I’m not sure any major news channel gave his death more than a single line of coverage, with the exception of perhaps Fox News. Yet, he was the perhaps the key figure of the recovery of conservative thought in not simply the US but the west over the past 50 years. Beyond that, Buckley set the stage that led not simply to the Reagan revolution, he set the stage for a change in language and thinking in and around government world-wide. The Buckley-Reagan nexus was responsible for the overturning of the ‘common-knowledge’ of the 1960’s and 1970’s that ‘controlled,’ ever upward spiraling deficit spending was the only way to manage the government’s tax and spend policy
Despite what Reagan naysayers may insist, Reagan’s tax cuts caused a massive increase in overall tax revenues. Only because Congress continued to add to the largesse of the entitlement programs on top of the Reagan defense increases did the deficit grow despite the huge revenue increase of the Reagan presidency. Nevertheless, it was Reagan who brought about the change in dialogue and language, that resulted in Bill Clinton running for the Presidency with promises to balance the budget, and virtually every candidate since 1992, Democrat, Republican, Independent or Libertarian has made the same promise.
And, at its root, that is a direct fruit of the labor of William F. Buckley.
The point is that we – the whole planet – are unbalanced. Riots continue in Iran, but Jackson’s autopsy gets more press than the riots, the deliberations on cap-and-trade and the rest of the climate bill, and a wide range of other issues. The press is consumed with the lives, and deaths, of entertainers but mainly ignores the fundamentals. How many remember that Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn died almost a year ago? How much press did he receive? Precious little as I remember. Let’s bring a little balance back to our lives.
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