DREADPUBLISHING: John Heard In 'Policy Magazine' On William F. Buckley Jr., 'Fusionism', Bozell, Meyer, 'Liberaltarianism' & 'Virtue Or Freedom?'

[UPDATE] Buckley farewelled at a Requiem Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York City.

:: Update ::

DREADNOUGHT is writing an essay, for the Centre for Independent Studies Policy Magazine, on the late William F. Buckley Jr. and what has been called 'fusionism' in American conservative politics.

The C.I.S. is 'Australasia's leading independent policy think-tank'.

:: Unprecedented Success ::

Fusionism was, of course, the political mix of traditional (social / Judaeo-Christian) conservativism with libertarian* ideas and movements. It was (first) championed by William F. Buckley Jr and Frank Meyer at the National Review and gained high-level acceptance / notoriety during Barry Goldwater's candidacy in the 1964 Presidential election. By the time of Ronald Reagan's victory in the 1980 Presidential contest, it had become the pre-eminent political philosophy / movement of the post-War era and it was a driving force behind Reagan's unprecedented second term (1984) sweep of the electoral college.

:: An Empire of Ideas ::

The intellectual and organisational resources (think-tanks, lobby groups, student / intern energies) invested in and unleashed by leading fusionist thinkers and leaders helped to carry George H. W. Bush to victory in 1988 and laid the groundwork for the Republican Revolution in Congress; a conservative ascendancy that only started to look over-cooked in 2006, after voters had elected a new sort of 'compassionate conservative' (George W. Bush) to two fairly miserable (and fairly non-conservative) terms in the White House.

:: The Upshot ::

The essay will present the concept of fusionism, briefly investigate its peculiar political successes, and then interrogate the value of any ongoing alignment of properly conservative and more libertarian impulses in contemporary politics and political theory. Other potential coalitions and ideas will be (briefly) canvassed, including calls for a re-make of the Democratic Party (a movement called, by its advocates, 'liberaltarianism') and the early and ongoing concerns of some (Catholic) conservatives that in a world that offers freedom or virtue, men have no place pursuing the former to the detriment and / or eclipse, dismissal and jettisoning of the latter. Scholarly, political, etc. input most welcome.

:: Resources ::

- Liberaltarians?;

- L. Brent Bozell and 'Virtue or Freedom?';

- Prospects for an Hayekian Fusionism;

- Bozell’s Conversion;

- Foundation Essays in Freedom and Virtue by George Carey (Ed.);

- John Howard’s Australian 'Fusionism'; and

DREADNOUGHT's previous book reviews for Policy Magazine:

- Alan Dershowitz, Rights from Wrongs: A Secular Theory of the Origins of Rights;

- Kwame Anthony Appiah, The Ethics of Identity; and

- Andrew Sullivan, The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It and How to Get It Back.

* (The extent to which Meyer and Buckley could be said to have supported classical liberal-style libertarianism and / or a more natural law - natural rights inflected stance is open to debate. C.f. Murray Rothbard).