Republicans and Evangelicals I William F. Buckley v. Ayn Rand and the John Birch Society

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William F. Buckley Jr. helped change the face of conservatism in the US because he gave it intellectual backing. But that doesn't mean that his ideas were accepted completely. He had several nemesis within his own movement that tried to derail him.

One opponent was the John Birch Society. Buckley's whole modus operandi was to make conservatism respectable. But Robert Welch and other members of the JBS were using their movement to spread bogus conspiracy theories. They were actively discrediting the movement that Buckley tried to build. So Buckley, National Review, and Barry Goldwater tried to bring it down.

Another enemy was Ayn Rand. Buckley and Rand were libertarians, but they disagreed on something important: religion. Rand was an ardent atheist, while Buckley believed Christianity and conservatism were inseparable. When Buckley started Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) he discovered that his young followers were incorporating many other ideas into their ideology. Rand's writings were impacting the students. So Buckley had to work to expel those ideas from YAF.

Libertarian economist Murray Rothbard was another enemy. Rothbard actively encouraged his followers to split YAF and leave the organization.

Extremism leads to extremism. Extremism lends itself to ideological purity, which means that groups like YAF were destined to split and split and split again. Buckley has his work cut out for him.

Sources

• Buckley: William F Buckley Jr. and the Rise of American Conservatism by Carl T. Bogus.
• The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism by David Farber
• Burning Down the House by Andrew Koppelman
• Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus by Rick Perlstein
• God and Man at Yale by William F. Buckley Jr
• Heather Cox Richardson's YouTube series on the history of the GOP
• Hoover Institution article on the impact of Buckley and Firing Line
• Reaganland by Rick Perlstein
• The Incomparable Mr. Buckley documentary
• The Sharon Statement

Discussion Questions:

• Extremism leads to extremism. Do you agree?
• The desire to keep a movement ideologically pure is not unique to Buckley. Discuss that desire. When is it important and when does it lead to issues?
• Rand and Buckley disagreed on the role of religion. Why did that put them at odds?
• Why would Murray Rothbard want to split YAF?
• Why are youth movements so important to politics? To religion?

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