Simi Valley, Calif. — Thursday night, a number of us were present at the Reagan Library for the National Review Institute’s Buckley Prize dinner. Larry Kudlow — along with the Young America’s Foundation — was one of the honorees. Larry goes back with many of us. He goes back with National Review. He talked beautifully about how he experienced some of the hardest struggles of his life when he was on staff at NR — ultimately beating an alcohol and drug addiction. He talked about how Bill and Pat Buckley “would look out for us.” Pat, Bill’s wife, would “mainline me Diet Coke” at editorial meetings to keep him from his worst habits as others drank. He talked about how, as he hit bottom, Bill and he became closer friends.
He told the audience:
I cherish those memories. I miss Bill Buckley. I miss him for his brilliance. I miss him for his conservative principles. I miss him for how he taught us . . . how to be civil in discussions and arguments with the other team, with our team. You have a conversation. You disagree politely with something called civility. And something called humor. And something called self-deprecating humor. And get by without trashing, killing, slaughtering, the other person. That’s a lost art. That is a lost art. And it is an art that needs to be brought back.
There is only one Bill Buckley. I am not Bill Buckley . . . but I learned a lot from him. And I have tried to practice those principles. . . . Sometimes one or two gets away when you are on live TV. . . . But on the whole, it’s worked out pretty well.
Bill Buckley was a friend. . . . I miss him. And the country misses him.
Larry talked about his conversion to Catholicism a little over 25 years ago. “Bill Buckley was a religious man, “he remembered. He joked about Bill’s “high-church” Catholicism. He shared that “some of my Catechism lessons actually occurred in the old National Review offices,” but that he never got into Bill’s beloved Latin Mass. “I love the Church, I love the Mass, but I like it in English.”
More seriously, Larry said:
Bill believed that religion should be a part of our society and our life. And that the Judeo-Christian heritage is part of what we sometimes call the American idea. And that the Left today, the progressives, the radicals, want to take religion out of our lives. They do not believe in God. They hate God. And in doing so they want to take the family out of our lives. And if we ever allow that to happen, it will be the end of us. It will be the end of us. I don’t believe it will happen. I’m an optimist. But Bill Buckley talked about it and warned about it. And I just want to raise that tonight, in the spirit of receiving this honor. Because it is one of the things I’ve learned from him.
That, by far, was my favorite part of the evening. It cut to who we are and who we need to be. On his best days, Bill Buckley saw everyone and everything through the lens of Christianity. I also believe that it is only the most radical elements of the Left who are so hostile to God and family, but they often use religion as a cover for that agenda. People of good will need to reclaim the best of who America is and needs to be.
Earlier, Larry made it clear that Bill was a supply-sider and a vehement anti-Communist. But what was the core? A creation grateful to his Creator, seeking to be a good and humble steward.
It was a critical reminder from someone who has — and very recently — been in the heat of political battle and yet has not forgotten what is most important.
For those of us who had the honor of knowing Bill, even a little, it was balm to the soul during troubling times that often divide more than unite.
Let’s unite on what’s most important. That’s what Bill Buckley tended to do.