Those who contend that Willam F. Buckley would be appalled at the actions of his son Christopher apparently hadn’t been following the opinions of the father in his last days very closely. As his last breath drew near William became increasingly disenchanted with what had become of the contemporary consevative movement, to the point that ideologically committed wife Patricia wondered aloud if he was beginning to suffer pangs of senility.

William’s disaffectations weren’t entirely recent. This was his commentary about neoconservatives in 2004: "I think those I know, which is most of them, are bright, informed and idealistic, but that they simply overrate the reach of U.S. power and influence." He came to favor drug legalization, and in an article published December 3, 2007 he advocated banning tobacco use in America. About George W. Bush he said, "If you had a European prime minister who experienced what we’ve experienced it would be expected that he would retire or resign."

In a February 2006 Buckley wrote in the National Review Online, "One cannot doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed." The American Conservative observed that Buckley "saw it [Iraq] as a disaster and thought that the conservative movement he had created had in effect committed intellectual suicide by failing to maintain critical distance from the Bush administration...At the end of his life, Buckley believed the movement he made had destroyed itself by supporting the war in Iraq."

Conservatives are not leaving the Republican Party because it has gone too far right, but because it is no longer a conservative party. The party has turned into an anti-intellect, mean spirited, lowest-common-denominator, populist machine which favors anti-tax, pro-war, fundamentalist religion, and pro-life ideology over competence, intellect, experience, and good governance. C. Buckley has expressed his disgust, as did his father, over eight years of Republican rule that has resulted in the doubling of the national debt, an ill-conceived and ill-waged war, and political corruption via K-street and moral scandal. Don't postulate over what WFB might have thought... watch his last interviews. He consistently expressed a disdain for Bush,religious fundamentalists, and their movement and considered the Iraq war as a disaster. Conservatives are not leaving the Republican Party, the Republican Party has left them.

It seems that, when backed into a corner by the poll numbers, certain Republicans are becoming hateful even towards people who were once considered some of "their own".

Statements such as "many Republicans think Buckley is a communist and a traitor who should be disinherited from the grave" and referring to Buckley's endorsement as "intellectual patricide" are very worrying to many of us in this country. We hope that comments like these (and some of those being made at the rallies) don't convince others in this country and around the world that this is not just a minority viewpoint but in fact America is dominated by what McCain called the "fringe" people. Haven't we had enough hate and violence since 9-11? Can't we be respectful towards each other and turn our energy towards fixing the economy, creating jobs, and finding ways to work together in a multi-partisan fashion? This election should be focused on choosing a leader who can take us into the 21st century, rather than what we've had for the past 8 years. It's time for Americans to be able to feel proud of our country once again.

Green Party Member and former soldier

The National Review began life as a thinking-man's read (that is: non-partisan.) Now they are firing people for thinking.

Hmmm. The man's dead, but we know he once said he'd rather be ruled by the first 100 names in the Boston phonebook than the Harvard faculty. He was certainly opposed to Harriet Myers, but Supreme Court justice is a technical position, not an executive one that really doesn't require a lot of specialized knowledge. So I think your near certainty is certainly wrong.

Buckley pater certainly had his doubts about George W. Bush and the Iraq war, but I really don't see how evangelicals can be blamed for the wars there or in Afghanistan, other than their continued and inexplicable willingness to serve as cannon fodder. Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, even Dick Cheney are not known to be snake-handling bible thumpers.