One of William F. Buckley’s most famous statements is sometimes misunderstood these days. His promise in 1955 that National Review would “stand athwart history, yelling Stop” was not a mere commitment to preserving the status quo. It was, rather, a refutation of leftists, of the standard domestic variety and of the radical communist variety alike, who believed that the triumph of their worldview was somehow inevitable. Buckley and NR have spent the past 70 years disproving that pretentious assumption.
There is considerable merit in the notion Buckley articulated, even in its most basic sense. Take Donald Trump’s impending executive order on the Department of Education. Its practical essence would be to stand athwart the relatively new department’s remit, yelling stop — that is, calling for it to cease activities that go beyond the powers granted to it by congressional statute and for Congress, ideally, to abolish it. The order and the mindset behind it are a possible source of consensus on the right.
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