Indeed it should, instead of ensnaring one's self in all of the Left's self-absorbed distractions that seek to tear down the Republic economically, socially, morally.
Levin read Buckley's 1955 mission statement for National Review magazine. "Among our convictions," Buckley wrote of the magazine's credenda, were these crucial components:
A. It is the job of centralized government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens’ lives, liberty and property. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of government (the dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side.
B. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order. We believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side.
C. The century’s most blatant force of satanic utopianism is communism. We consider “coexistence” with communism neither desirable nor possible, nor honorable; we find ourselves irrevocably at war with communism and shall oppose any substitute for victory.
D. The largest cultural menace in America is the conformity of the intellectual cliques which, in education as well as the arts, are out to impose upon the nation their modish fads and fallacies, and have nearly succeeded in doing so. In this cultural issue, we are, without reservations, on the side of excellence (rather than “newness”) and of honest intellectual combat (rather than conformity).
E. The most alarming single danger to the American political system lies in the fact that an identifiable team of Fabian operators is bent on controlling both our major political parties(under the sanction of such fatuous and unreasoned slogans as “national unity,” “middle-of-the-road,” “progressivism,” and “bipartisanship.”) Clever intriguers are reshaping both parties in the image of Babbitt, gone Social-Democrat. When and where this political issue arises, we are, without reservations, on the side of the traditional two-party system that fights its feuds in public and honestly; and we shall advocate the restoration of the two-party system at all costs.
Buckley also mentioned a few more: the need for competition, as opposed to unionized monopolies, including the necessity to tell the 'violated businessman's side of the story,' and the dangers of surrendering the nation's sovereignty to a world organization like the UN.
How far the Republican Party and too many who'd call themselves conservatives, including some who write for National Review today, have strayed from Buckley's conservative convictions...and how much we need to unite and return to those essential principles, so we might successfully fight back against the 'Fabian operators' of today.
