Changing the face of conservatism in the U.S.
New book by professor Heather Hendershot explores impact of William F. Buckley’s “Firing Line.”
Peter Dizikes | MIT News Office
“We are in a moment when the loudest voices seem to be the most extreme,” Hendershot says.
And as strongly as Buckley held to his conservative views, Hendershot thinks, he promoted on “Firing Line” a very different ethos of public debate than the one we have today.
“You could come to it as a conservative and become a better, smarter conservative, or come to it as a liberal and become a better, smarter liberal,” Hendershot says. “He was willing to accept that people might listen to a liberal and think, ‘That’s a good idea.’ But he thought he would win. That is a kind of model that we can take a lot from.”
Read the article here: http://news.mit.edu/2016/book-changing-face-conservatism-us-firing-line-1004