I understand that when a person dies, a brief period of respectful remembrance is in order, but it's also important to remember his or her legacy honestly and truthfully. Collective failure to do this results in the canonization of figures like Ronald Regan, a man now referenced by the Right (and much of the "mainstream") with a devotion bordering on lunacy.

Most of the obituaries of William F. Buckley I have read have focused on his legendary vocabulary and wit. He did have a few good zingers. When asked what his first act as mayor would be if elected, he responded, "demand a recount." That's funny. I like that. You know what I don't like? His actual policies, and the fact that none of them are really being discussed right now.

He may have recanted on some of his more odious positions later in life, but it doesn't change the fact that the movement he is credited as being the father of has embraced them wholeheartedly. Though he denounced much of the conservatism of Bush and his cronies, the seeds Buckley planted have grown into poisonous plants for which he is at least partially responsible.

Buckley was an anti-desegregationist, writing in 1957,

The central question that emerges...is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes--the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.

That was in 1957. Two important Civil Rights events happened in 1957. The Governor of Arkansas tried to stop Black students from attending Central High School by bring out the National Guard, and President Eisenhower deployed Federal troops to allow the students' safe passage. At such a momentous point in our nation's history, Buckley wrote "the White community...is the advanced race." I don't care that he was charming. We should not be celebrating everything about this man.

Modern conservativism isn't as explicitly racist any more, but from long voting lines in poor Black communities, to the "war on drugs," which disproportionately prosecutes Blacks, to the very make up of the GOP, Buckley's pale legacy can be seen.

One can also see the origins of the contemporary "patriotism" of the Right in Buckley's defense of Joe McCarthy. Whereas now one can't question the Leader or the generals without one's patriotism being called into question, in the 1950s those who dissented--or were accused of dissenting--faced a similar, if more daunting, fate.

Buckley's support of the Vietnam War is now playing out again in Iraq, another conflict he has spoken out against, but can't completely free himself of.

None of this is meant to disrespect the recently departed, but we must remind ourselves that policies have consequences. Buckley's defense of awful positions for years and years created the grotesque monster that is modern conservatism. That Frankenstein didn't intend to create his monster is of little consequence. Buckley created his own monster, albeit with wit and charm, but he didn't strangle it when it became something he may not have always intended. That, it seems to me, is his important legacy.