William F. Buckley, Jr., “The Debater,” Up From Liberalism (Bantam,

1968):

A second marked characteristic of the
liberal-in-debate-with-the-conservative is the tacit premise that debate is
ridiculous because there is nothing whatever to debate about. … Many
liberals accept their opinions ideas and evaluations as others accept
revealed truths, and the facts are presumed to conform to the doctrines, as
any dutiful fact will; so why discuss the fact?