He was the beginning — the patriarch, the "pope" — of modern American conservatism. With the founding of the National Review in 1955, Buckley hoped to inject conservatism with a sense of urgency, literally to "stand athwart history yelling 'Stop!'" He succeeded, ultimately ushering in the era of Reagan and Bush squared. And whether it was in the Review or on his long-running television show Firing Line, Buckley reveled in the verbal spar. Of course he did. Even when he was wrong, he was right.
—Gilbert Cruz